Countercurrents | June 20, 2022
Gustavo Petro, a former rebel, has been elected Colombia’s first leftist president on Sunday. Petro’s triumph, in one of the most historically conservative countries on the continent, is a stunning example of widespread discontent that is shaking the status quo. It is a powerful rejection of the political establishment that has ruled the South American nation for two centuries.
Voters on Sunday also made history in electing the country’s first Black female vice president, Francia Márquez, an environmental activist, lawyer and former housekeeper who energized a large Afro-Colombian community that long felt forgotten by those in power.
“Today is a party for the people,” Petro said in a tweet Sunday night. “Let us celebrate the first popular victory. May the sufferings of many now be cushioned in the joy that today floods the hearts of the Homeland.”
Petro’s competitor Rodolfo Hernández swiftly accepted the results on Twitter.
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Journal of People 