Regardless of belonging to the M-19 guerrilla, Gustavo PetroColombia’s new president after defeating populist Rodolfo Hernández in a vote he prefers to be known as revolutionary quite than guerrilla, as a result of main revolutions is the way in which he has at all times felt snug and main the center-left within the presidency is what he arrange on this election.
It is the third time making an attempt and the second to succeed in the poll, having obtained the most important variety of votes for a candidate within the first spherical.
Born in 1960 in Ciénaga de Oro, within the Caribbean division of C Krdoba, he grew up and studied inland, in Zipaquirá, a metropolis within the Andes close to Bogota. He’s the eldest of three brothersfrom a middle-class household, with father from the coast and mom from the inside.
That blend survives nicely in his character: shy, quiet and proud personally, as described, however a fantastic and cozy orator when he enters the stage of crowded squares, the place he amazes the listeners with bombastic phrases and charming speeches.
Gustavo Petro and his deputy, Francia Marquez. Picture of VET
Guerrilla
“One life, many lives”the autobiography he revealed a couple of months earlier than the marketing campaign exhibits that he has at all times felt overseas, lonely, neglected, and even considerably conceited with which he has overcome many conditions in his life.
At La Salle de Zipaquirá, the identical college the place Gabriel García Márquez handed, he responded arrogantly to the monks and there started his militancy, studying Marxist intellectuals, till in 1978, on the age of 18, he joined M – 19, the place he carried out primarily city liaison duties and never a lot from the armed conflict, till its disarmament in 1990.
From these twelve years he lived within the ranks of “me” with the identify of “Aureliani”Just like the character in “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” he spent thrice in hiding and two extra in jail. They captured him in 1985 on Bolívar 83, the favored Zipaquirá neighborhood he helped discover, and tortured him like many members of the guerrillas on the time.
“I didn’t really feel the ache of torture till I bought to jail. “Throughout the darkish days of the beatings, I by no means felt bodily bent over, though it was psychologically troublesome as a result of I felt that my life had modified considerably,” he describes in his autobiography.
With completely different wives, Gustavo Petro has six youngsters. Bloomberg Picture
The seizure of the Palace of Justice, one of many darkest episodes of M-19, caught Petron in jail; Little did he learn about that tried invasion that resulted in being invaded by the military and virtually 100 useless.
congressman sensible
Petro, who in 2022 desires to be “his president”, as he says, is way from these years and absolutely his stage as a parliamentarian weighs him down much more. He was by no means snug with weapons, however with phrases, with which he defended himself within the Home of Representatives and within the Senate.
There he grew to become “one of the sensible congressmen he has ever had Colombiaas he’s generally known as, and gained reputation within the early 2000s for his denunciations of hyperlinks between politicians and paramilitaries, additionally changing into a headache for his enemy, former President varlvaro Uribe, and the prosecution of a number of individuals.
The primary risk Petro obtained, from the numerous who would come later and who had it with one of many strongest safety instruments within the nation, was in 1994 and he was compelled into exile in Belgium.
Petro sadly recounts his time in Brussels, away from everybody and the depressive episodes he overcame. learning a specialization in Atmosphere on the College of Leuvenwhich he added to his diploma in Economics at Columbia Externado College when he was a member of the M-19.
the workplace of the mayor
In 2011 he was elected mayor of Bogota by the Progressive formation. “I’m the candidate of progressivism”repeat usually, to exit the “left” field.
That is what those that labored with him within the Mayor say it’s not simple to face, who isn’t very keen on group work and who makes selections alone. This precipitated quite a few resignations and the change of greater than fifty senior executives within the 4 years of his tenure.
His character of not being afraid of confrontation gave him a dismissal from the Lawyer Common, who for his selections in managing town’s rubbish assortment demanded his political annihilation and that. The Inter-American Court docket of Human Rights revoked it.
Petro, married and father of six youngsters with completely different wivesachieved his third try on the Presidency away from a few of his nice journey companions and noticed a lot of his “revolutionary” concepts.
He did it now with some extra pragmatic marketing campaign companions and controversial and fewer idealistic, like Senators Roy Barreras and Armando Benedetti, who’ve gone via completely different events.
To save lots of supporters bored with Petros’s personalism, he selected the lawyer and African-American activist France Marqueza girl who has gathered discontent from the streets and who attracts girls, younger folks and many citizens from the Pacific, the place she comes from.
In 2010, in his first try with Polo Democrático, Petro obtained 1.three million votes and in 2018, with greater than eight million, was one step away from reaching Casa Nariño. Now that he has left behind among the most radical concepts of the left and with extra conventional forces – those he has at all times criticized for his or her corruption and patronage – he already is aware of that the third time was attraction.
Supply: EFE and AP
BP
