Historic elections in Colombia, the first left-wing president wins

Gustavo Petro is the first left-wing president in Colombia .

The senator, leader of the Pacto Histórico coalition, defeated the independent outsider Rodolfo Hernández . Petro got 11,260,105 votes, over 700,000 more than his opponent, equivalent to 50.48% of the total .

A “day of celebration for the people - his first words -. Which celebrates the first popular victory. May so many sufferings be muffled by the joy that today floods the heart of the homeland. This victory is for God and for the People and their history. Today is the day of the streets and squares ".

The first to congratulate him, and the Afro-descendant Vice-President-elect France Márquez, was the outgoing president, Iván Duque : "I called Gustavo Petro to congratulate him as Colombian president-elect. We have decided to meet in the coming days to start a transition. harmonious, institutional and transparent ".

Joined the M-19 guerrillas in his youth (with the nickname Aureliano, inspired by the protagonist of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude") without ever entering military operations, Petro has over 20 years of political activity behind him . He is 62 years old, and was on his third attempt to conquer the presidential Casa de Nariño, having lost in 2010 to Juan Manuel Santos, Nobel laureate for signing peace with the Farc, and then in 2018 to Duque.

With this victory , the conservative-liberal “imperfect bipartisanship” that has ruled Colombia for 200 years ends .

(Unioneonline / D)