A former leftist guerrilla wins Colombia’s election

a new history for Colombia, Latin America and the world,” declared Gustavo Petro, the winner of Colombia’s presidential election, in Bogotá on June 19th. “Change”, he said, “will open opportunity and hope for all Colombians in every corner of the national territory.” The portentous tone was understandable. When he takes office on August 7th Mr Petro will become the country’s first left-wing president. He offers a radical departure from two decades of right-wing and centre-right rule.

Nevertheless, many Colombians remain deeply distrustful of their president-elect. Polls taken before the election found that he was less popular among older voters who lived through the 1980s and 1990s, a particularly violent period of the country’s long-running civil war. For many such voters Mr Petro’s membership of19 is difficult to swallow.

It is not clear what Mr Petro will do if he cannot build an effective coalition. He has a reputation for authoritarianism, derived in part from his time as mayor of Bogotá and his closeness—often exaggerated by his opponents—to the regime of Nicolás Maduro, the autocratic leader of Venezuela, a country with which Mr Petro plans to normalise ties. Many fear that Mr Petro’s plans to “democratise” Colombia’s institutions means stuffing them with his followers.

The economist prefers Rodolfo 'the Hitler lover'. What a surprise!

Vous arrive-t-il de publier des opinions sans méchanceté ?

Petro 'will have to seek aliances in Colombia's congress'? Not necessarily, the socialist party of his friend Maduro in Venezuela lost parliamentary elections but is still running the country which is now a communist dictatorship (and, of course, an economic disaster).

A socialist authoritarian. Very strange concept. They only appear every single time socialism appears.

Once a guerrilla, always a guerrilla

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