Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 26 May 2018
Colombia's presidential election spawns fear, division

By CHRISTINE ARMARIO almost every single issue:
Associated Press Whereas Duque has pro-
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — posed reviving Colombia's
In a ramshackle house with aerial eradication program
smog-stained walls in Co- to squash a boom in coca
lombia's capital, the fears production, Petro is against
and divisions arising from it and instead promotes
the country's first presiden- crop substitution. Duque
tial election since the sign- has discussed the need to
ing of a historic peace ac- "correct" Colombia's divi-
cord are palpable. sive 2016 peace accord
On one side of the tene- with now demobilized
ment's open patio, Ivan FARC rebels. Petro supports
Martinez has plastered the accord.
images of bespectacled Despite his rise in the polls,
leftist candidate Gustavo many analysts call Petro's
Petro on walls. Just feet proposals impractical and
away, Dan Marin has hung still consider his campaign
up posters of gray-haired a longshot. A close friend of
front-runner Ivan Duque, a Petro who asked not to be
conservative lawyer and identified to protect their
protégé of Alvaro Uribe, relationship said that while
the influential former presi- his proposals might spark in-
dent who was the main This combination of two file photos shows Colombian presidential candidates Gustavo Petro on terest, he doubts he could
opponent of the pact that April 23, 2014, left, and Ivan Duque on May 20, 2018, both in Bogota, Colombia. win because he generates
ended decades of conflict Associated Press too much fear.
between the government And yet, fear lurks over the
and Revolutionary Armed gota mayor is promising to groups have tried to make Becera, one of a contin- right of Colombia's political
Forces of Colombia rebels. overhaul Colombia's eco- that a rallying point at vari- gent of ex-combatants spectrum, too.
One man thinks Petro is nomic model, galvanizing ous moments in the nation's now working as a volunteer Duque's close affiliation
the best hope for Colom- the youth vote to place history. on Petro's campaign. with Uribe makes some
bia to finally root out long- second in most polls. Three Populist firebrand Jorge Petro describes himself as a think that a Duque presi-
entrenched corruption and more candidates trail close Eliecer Gaitan was assassi- "strong adversary" of Ven- dency would in fact be
inequality. The other fears behind and warn a vote nated in 1948 as he ran for ezuelan President Nicolas another Uribe presidency.
his election could transform for Petro could tilt Colom- president, sparking a po- Maduro, whose name and Though widely credited
Colombia into another cri- bia dangerously toward litical bloodletting known socialist policies spark fear with improving Colombia's
sis-ridden Venezuela. the left and rattle markets as "La Violencia" or "The in the minds of Colombians security and weakening il-
"One says, 'I can resolve in one of Latin America's Violence" in which tens of who have seen almost 1 legal armed groups, Uribe
everything with an avoca- most-conservative nations. thousands died and peas- million Venezuelans arrive also presided over a period
do,'" says Marin, a 34-year- The race will head into what ants took up arms, paving in their country since 2017. of grave human rights vio-
old artist, mocking Petro's is likely to be a contentious the way toward decades of On repeated occasions, lations by the military.
pledge to grow more avo- June runoff if no single can- conflict between the army, he's also criticized Venezu- When asked recently if he'd
cados and free Colombia didate garners more than leftist rebels and paramili- ela's economic model for be Uribe's puppet, Duque
from dependence on fos- 50 percent of the vote. tary groups. Later in the its reliance on commodi- told a local newspaper that
sil fuel exports. "The other Petro's populist platform 1980s, scores of politicians ties to fund extensive social the former president would
says, 'No, with oil.'" comes at a time when can- affiliated with the Patriotic programs. remain a senator leading
Colombian voters head didates with anti-establish- Union, a party aligned with "They've shown that's not their party's bloc in con-
to the polls Sunday after a ment messages are finding the now disbanded FARC sustainable," he said re- gress but added that "work-
campaign that has stoked success across Latin Amer- rebels, were gunned down. cently in a soft-spoken ing together as a team is
fears on the left and right ica. Mexican leftist Andres "They used to tell people the voice that contrasted with good for Colombia."
and once again polarized Manuel Lopez Obrador is political left was somehow his fiery speeches in plazas Meanwhile, Marin and
the nation. Rather than casting his third run for the linked to the illegal armed around the nation. Martinez continue their im-
war, for the first time in Co- presidency as a historic left," Borda said. "Now that He presents his candidacy passioned dialogue over
lombia's recent history vot- battle against entrenched argument doesn't work as a departure from previ- the campaign at their ten-
ers are focused on issues elites. anymore." ous generations of Latin ement.
like corruption, the econo- In Brazil, candidate Jair Bol- Petro himself has roots in American leftists and says Marin, a former police of-
my and their weariness with sonaro is at the opposite Colombia's armed strug- he wants to create a knowl- ficer, keeps a bullet proof
establishment politicians. end of the political spec- gle, joining the M-19 guerril- edge-based economy in vest on hand and says he
"We're talking about a lot trum but likewise is attack- la movement when he was Colombia and boost ag- fears traveling around Co-
of things that were usu- ing the traditional political still a teen. His campaign ricultural production with lombia. He thinks Duque
ally part of bipartisan con- class. has taken pains to inform land reform. will be tough with criminal
sensus in Colombia," said "These are change elec- Colombians that he was an Still, controversy over his groups that still dominate
Sandra Borda, dean of so- tions in Latin America," said urban militant devoted to past support for Venezue- much of the nation's re-
cial sciences at the Jorge Michael Shifter, president spreading the group's ideo- la's revolution has hounded mote, coca-filled country-
Tadeo Lozano University in of the Washington-based logical message of social him. In 1994, shortly after side.
Bogota. "Now it's different." Inter-American Dialogue. justice. At the time of M-19's Hugo Chavez was released He said he has relatives in
Duque is considered the Colombia has one of the notorious attack on Co- from jail after staging a mili- Venezuela and that Petro's
candidate to beat, but in region's highest levels of lombia's Palace of Justice, tary coup in Venezuela, it rhetoric concerns him. Mi-
an unexpected turn, Pet- income inequality, rank- Petro was behind bars for il- was Petro who brought the grants arriving in Bogota
ro has been chasing his ing second only to Haiti legal possession of firearms. leftist firebrand to Colom- tell him that "the same
coattails. The 58-year-old according to one study, "He didn't fire a single shot," bia. words Chavez used, Petro
former guerrilla and ex-Bo- and politicians and armed said former rebel Alberto He and Duque differ on is using."q