2024-02-13 21:53:42
The last presidential elections in the region have seen left-wing candidates win, first in Peru, then in Chile and Honduras, and now in Colombia. The commitment to combat poverty and corruption in the most unequal region in the world and give prominence to historically marginalized sectors is bringing left-wing leaders to power in Latin America who, with different profiles and results, promise democratic deepening and egalitarian economic growth. . The victory this Sunday of Gustavo Petro, former militant of the M-19 guerrilla and former mayor of Bogotá, marked a milestone in the history of Colombia, the oldest democracy in Latin America, where the left has never governed, and opens the door to a new era in a country plagued by social injustice, armed violence, drug trafficking and high levels of corruption. Petro’s victory, who will have the African-American environmentalist and feminist activist Francia Márquez as vice president, occurs in an environment of strong polarization, which has left Colombian society divided into two sectors with antagonistic political sensitivities and country models, and has dissolved the model of alternation in power that historically divided liberal and conservative rulers. A phenomenon very similar to that of Gabriel Boric, a young politician from the ranks of the student movement who came to power after defeating the far-right José Antonio Kast last December in an electoral contest from which the parties that for three decades led the struggle were absent. political life of Chile. The social outbreak, the result of citizens’ fatigue with the economic model and the established system, confined the traditional political forces to a corner of public activity, both in Colombia and Chile. The triumphs in the region The advance of the left With the only exception of Costa Rica, where the victory went to the populist candidate Rodrigo Chaves, the last presidential elections in the region have seen left-wing candidates win, first in Peru, with Pedro Castle; later in Chile, with Boric, and in Honduras, with Xiomara Castro, and now in Colombia. And if in the next October elections in Brazil the predictions that give Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a 10-point advantage over the current president, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, come true, the largest economies in the region will be governed by the left. , thus culminating a political process that began a couple of years ago.