Gustavo Petro, leader of a leftist antiimperialist coalition (which includes the Colombian Communist Party) and former fighter in the communist guerilla group M 19, just won the presidential elections in Colombia! He is the first left wing president in the countrys history! He defeated Rodolfo Hernandez, a Trump style alt right billionaire who was quoted in a radio interview a few years ago saying “I love Adolf Hitler and his philosophy, he was a murderer but i still love him”. YESSS this is great news! A spectre haunts Latin America.
Edit: Among several things, Petro made it clear he would reestablish diplomatic relations with Venezuela and recognize Maduro as the legitimate president (Colombia had until now recognized Guaidó). Rip bozo for Guaidó the loser.
Edit 2: Petro also promised to enact land reform. In Colombia there was never any land reform done, so peasants live in almost feudal conditions, with landlords, oligarchs and corporations using far right death squads to enforce their will on the peasantry. In fact, the new vicepresident, a black woman, is of peasant background, having herself lived under such conditions.
Edit 3: Btw, this is Colombias first black vicepresident ever. Will the libs still simp for her if she doesnt suck up to the US? 🤔🤔🤔
God please dont let this be another Allende, please dont let the US get away with whatever devlish intention it has…
Lets hope man. Colombia is a fucked up country. I just watched Ben Nortons take on this, and he is very worried. Apparently before the election the head of the colombian military threatened Petro on Twitter. The colombian oligarchy regularly uses drug cartels and far right death squads to kill opponents. Just in 2021 i think like 150 labor activists were killed by far right paramilitaries. These militias have extensive ties to the military, the CIA, the oligarchs, the police and drug cartels. Lets hope God protects him like he did with Fidel.
Oh god it generally doesn’t turn out great when the leader of the country doesn’t have their military supporting them or under their control
What can he do? Can he play hardball?
China and Russia need to step up their game and start establishing military partnerships with anti-US countries.
Not to downplay the danger, but the US isn’t as good at that kind of thing as it once was. Since 2019, they’ve mounted color revolutions in China, Belarus, Bolivia, and Venezuela, and not a single one of them ended up being successful; Bolivia came the closest, but Morales was right back in power a year later.
This is huge news. The dominoes are falling in latin america, the monroe doctrine is finally getting overturned.
Indeed, Colombia is the most loyal US ally in the region. Frankly i thought nazi Jr would win. Prepare to soon see reports of a “terrible genocide” happening in Colombia.
“Nazi Jr” 💀
My proletariat heart beats with each victory! Hopefully Brazil will follow suit!
the marshall plan
The Monroe Doctrine, no?
oops lol, my bad.
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I am 99% sure that he will do just that. The country is just too right wing to do anything else. He would get immediately couped or assassinated if he tried anything too radical. The army has already made threats against him, and like Castillo in Peru he doesn’t have a majority in parliament, and the entire oligarchical elite and traditional political establishment are against him.
And correct me if i’m wrong but hasn’t he already criticized Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua for being “undemocratic” during his campaign? Imo it sounds like he could be a Colombian Boric.
Still infinitely better than the alternative. This is a historic step for the country.
I think hes better than Boric. His vicepresident is a black woman from a poor peasant background. Also even if he just ends the cartel violence it will be extremely good. How are colombian communists supposed to organize if they are getting killed by CIA funded cartels and fascist death squads every day? Petro also said he will do land reform, set up free healthcare and education and recognize Maduro as president of Venezuela. Sure hes a socdem, but for Colombia its great.
That’s true. Maybe he won’t be so much like Gabriel Boric but more like Pedro Castillo.
Your point about his VP choice is good, so far i am very positively impressed by her. Remains to be seen how much real influence she will have though.
If he can deliver on even half of his promises it would already be a huge step forward. Let’s just hope that he gets something done, enough to keep the leftward momentum going, because if he gets completely obstructed his entire term, that may put people off from voting leftist again and the country will backslide.
I believe so, too. When current president Ivan Duque said they would make a “harmonious, institutional and transparent transition” it was very apparent to me that the Petro government wouldn’t present any rupture from the bourgeois order.
Who is pencilman? I hope so too man.
Suerte camarada!
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Ahhh, i see. Thanks
Pencilman? Who’s that and why is he bad?
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Oh, what’s wrong with him now?
He hasnt been able to do much. He is the minority in Parliament, they tried impeaching him like 4 times. Not his fault, the system is rigged against him.
That’s really unfortunate.
Hey folks i think you are missing a few things, and spreading some misinformation: Petro wasn’t a top member of the M19; he was in jail for minor things far away when the take of the Supreme Court was happening. His criticism against Venezuela its mostly it dependence on oil, he wants peace and wants to help Venezuela after the embargoes, but saying this directly is not a good idea taking in account how much the red scary propaganda is living and breathing in Latam. Another AES doesn’t has that much attention in the country because the ruling class here are warmongers and feudal lords this is not a surprise if you know how much cocaine is seeded (154.000 hectares) or how much land some politicians have. When you talk about appealing to reactionaries is not only not know that Colombia has been one the most violent countries in the world, the second on organized crime, a hotspot for hunger and so on…
And when you talk about how much the people on the country are right wing you are partly correct but its still misinformation, he has run for president twice and he always score more that 40% in the elections, even this time he has 20+ senators in his favor in contrast with the 3 last time. And you might think about the votes in his favor “well that isn’t higher than the actual right president” yes but you are missing that the “democratic” system in colombia is extremely rigged, why? because one the most richer person in the world and a bankist is against him, who owns some mainstream national media and colombia has an history of stealing and buying elections. Please don’t downplay how much of a victory this is, one in decades; millions of people have put their hope on this man and his party.
All right if any of you have any questions ask me or contradict me (if you have proves of course). Here is another comment about Colombia situation, Petro and left wing history party in Colombia. Love you all
Thank you for your insights! I wasnt downplaying his victory, i think it will be great for Colombia. Suerte hermano!
i wasn’t referring to you especially i was referring to you as several people. I’m sorry i made you feel that way.
Its ok lol you didnt make me feel bad
𝔑𝔦𝔠𝔢.
Even if Petro has said some dumb things about socialist countries (although I don’t know if he believes them), at least Márquez (vice president) seems to be very radical
Yeah im not too sure he believes that stuff either. Like Petro used to be a communist guerrilla fighter, he was a top member of M 19, the group that assaulted the Supreme Court of Colombia in the 1980s.
Hopefully he was just saying it before being elected to seem less radical. Considering they need people with bulletproof shields when they speak, security concerns may also be part of the reason
Yeah exactly
wow that is awesome. i sure hope he will stay in power for long and not getting buttfucked by totally not fascist ‘rebels’ or right-wing puppet that is being supported by a certain North Amerikkkan country! /s
If he’s able to follow through with his policies it’s likely they’ll need a coup to get him out. Too many people are in desperate near feudal conditions, I could see them trying to prevent him from doing much so he can’t get support. The US is too tied in with their military to push serious sanctions imo.
God protect this man, he will need it
Is it just me or are a lot of nyt articles annoying as fuck to read? The amount of fluff interspersed with reporting, and the aimless, meandering flow made me angry.
Blinken in shambles.
“have you considered liberalism?” - Anthony blinken in tears, shidding his pants
Damn. Last I heard people didn’t think he’d actually win. Good news! Cautiously optimistic.
Based, let’s hope they establish good relations with Cuba and Venezuela, maybe China and other AES too
Lets hope. Petro has a hard task ahead, the entire political establishment, cartels, oligarchs, far right death squads and the military, are against him. You can bet the CIA is already planning a coup or an assassination. Lets hope he outmanouvers them.
Yeah man when I look at how the top military command hates his guts and military people have even threatened him in the past… Couple that with the heating up cold war, if he takes some solid foreign policy moves he is likely looking at an attempted coup within a year of taking office.
O7
Sadly waiting it’s suicide by 2 shots behind head
This unfortunately has a high chance of happening, given how much power the druglords and right wingers have there.
So, seeing how socialist theory says in no uncertain terms that you cannot vote a capitalist country into a socialist one, and that the Western style of representative “democracy” will always favour the bourgeoise, what’s his endgame here and how does his election actually help the socialist movement in Columbia? There would still need to be a revolution and ditching of their current governmental structure at some point, right?
If he removes the death squads, drug cartels, cia assets in the army, etc, it will already be worth it, one less yankee puppet countrie filled with military bases in the world.
Petro is a socdem/demsoc now, he isnt a communist anymore, hes reformist. However his government will still be great. He will try getting Colombia out of US influence. Lets hope he suceeds.
ELI5 how significant is this?
Extremely, not because he will be some super ally of AES but because he try will break Columbia free of US iron clad grip. Of course keep in mind the military is very powerful and hates him and has even threaten him with violence in the past. That said Columbia is often referred to as the Israel of latinAmerica, so if he can make use of power to enact popular reforms and maintain power it could be a huge huge deal and slap in the face to the US and CIA especially, as Columbia is where most cocaine comes from and that’s maintained by the US narco dictator regime .
