Former guerrilla leader Petro gets elected as Colombia’s first leftist president

• The first progressive to hold office in Colombian history, leftist Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter with the M-19 movement, 
• With an unexpectedly large majority of more than 700,000 votes, Petro defeated construction magnate Rodolfo Hernandez 
• Former mayor of Bogota and current senator Petro has vowed to combat inequality by providing free higher education, 

The first progressive to hold the office in Colombian history, leftist Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter with the M-19 movement, won the presidential election on Sunday.

With an unexpectedly large majority of more than 700,000 votes, Petro defeated construction magnate Rodolfo Hernandez in what analysts thought was a sign of Colombians’ enthusiasm for initiatives to fight extreme inequality.

Former mayor of Bogota and current senator Petro has vowed to combat inequality by providing free higher education, reforming the pension system, and imposing heavy taxes on unproductive land. In contrast to Hernandez’s 47.3 percent, he won 50.5 percent.

Though he has pledged to uphold existing contracts, Petro’s ideas, particularly one that would prohibit new oil ventures, have alarmed some investors. Until his cabinet is revealed, his triumph would probably create market trembling, analysts told Reuters on Sunday.

Petro told the enthusiastic crowd in the musical arena in Bogota, “From now Colombia transforms; Colombia is different. “Leaving sectarianism behind is precisely what constitutes change.”

This government, which will take office on August 7, is a government of life, he added, so this is not the time for hatred.

As the results came in, wheelchair-bound 40-year-old Alejandro Forero sobbed.

“And lastly, praise God. I am confident that he will serve as a decent president and assist those of us who are less fortunate. Things will improve in the future, “said Forero, a jobless individual.

Thousands of people in Bogota flocked to the streets to celebrate, with some of them dancing close to the city’s largest polling centre in the sporadic rain. The Andean nation is now included in the list of Latin American nations that have recently chosen progressives. This was Petro’s third presidential campaign.

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