Ex-rebel set to defy odds in Colombia presidential race
TWO-MAN RACE BETWEEN PETRO AND DUQUE HAS TIGHTENED IN THE FINAL STRETCH
Gustavo Petro began his long ascent to the cusp of Colombia’s presidency in this self-built barrio named after South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.
In 1983, equipped with little more than a shovel and a surplus of revolutionary ideals, the then-clandestine militant led some 400 squatter families in a months-long, pitched battle with local authorities to secure a plot of land to build their ramshackle homes here in Zipaquira, a city north of Bogota. Their rallying cry was simple: “A roof and a dignified life.”
Thirty five years later, the founders of the “Bolivar 83” barrio still living in the slum celebrate Petro’s rise as their own. The leftist candidate was facing off against conservative Ivan Duque yesterday in Colombia’s presidential runoff election.
“He taught us to call each other comrades, not neighbours,” remembers Ana Miriam Chitiva, proudly pointing to photos hung on her modest home’s wall of the barrio’s early days, when the bespectacled, introverted Petro would help her lug concrete pipes and carve out dirt roads from the rocky, forested hillside.
Lofty aspirations
The same revolutionary spirit has accompanied Petro throughout his four-decade political ascent. He’s gone from fearless lawmaker who tormented Colombia’s political class, to the renegade mayor of Bogota who took on powerful private interests and now a surprise, surging finalist in the country’s first presidential election since the signing of a historic peace accord.
The two-man race between Petro and Duque had tightened in the final stretch, with one poll indicating Petro having climbed to within 6 points of his conservative rival. In the first round of voting three weeks ago, Duque topped Petro by more than 14 points.
Petro has vowed to fulfil the 310-page accord’s lofty aspirations to tackle poverty and unequal land distribution. Duque meanwhile wants to roll back some of the accord’s benefits for top commanders until they confess their war crimes and compensate victims.