Bogota, Colombia- Gustavo Petro, the new Colombian President has promised a new story for the South American country.
This comes after Petro, defeated Rodolfo Hernandez, in yesterday’s Presidential election runoff making him the first left-wing leader in the history of Colombia.
“Today is a day of celebration for the people. Let them celebrate the first popular victory. This story that we are writing today is a new story for Colombia, Latin America, for the world. We are not going to betray this electorate. We want Colombia, in the midst of its diversity, to be one Colombia, not two Colombias,” said the newly-elected President who will assume office on the 1st of August, 2022.
The victory also means that Francia Márquez, an environmental activist who rose from poverty to become a prominent advocate for social justice, will become the country’s first Black Vice-President.
Just over 58 percent of Colombia’s 39 million voters turned out to cast the ballot, whereas Petro won 50.4 percent of the votes to Hernandez’s 47.3 percent.
The election was held amid a backdrop of rising inequality, inflation and violence, factors that led voters in the first round last month to punish long-governing centrist and right-leaning politicians and pick two outsiders for the run-off contest.
Moreso, Petro comes to the helm of the Presidency as the country is dealing with a 10 percent annual inflation, a 20 percent youth unemployment rate and a 40 percent poverty rate.
However, Petro believes the economic system is broken, overly reliant on oil export amidst a flourishing and illegal cocaine business that he said has made the rich richer and poor poorer, and is calling for a halt to all new oil exploration, and a shift to developing other industries.
He has also said he will introduce guaranteed work with a basic income, move the country to a publicly controlled health system and increase access to higher education, in part by raising taxes on the rich.
