Gustavo Petro’s policies are unlikely to be cost-neutral. Wealthy Colombians already appear to be moving their money out of the country to hedge against his victory
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskMs Gómez plans to vote for Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla hoping to become Colombia’s first leftist leader. Her exhaustion is typical. Voters want to break with a political class they see as corrupt and ineffective. Mr Petro leads the race, but is unlikely to win the 50% of votes needed to avoid a run-off on June 19th. The election is the most important in Colombia’s recent history.
Mr Petro has topped the polls all year. More than 40% of voters say that they will cast their ballot for him. He rejects the label of socialist firebrand. As a member of theThe Economist Yet many of his proposals remain radical. He wants tariffs on agricultural imports, but has not said at what level, just that their goal will be “domestic job creation”. He guarantees work for Colombia’s 3m unemployed people. New exploration for oil and gas, products which make up half of Colombia’s exports, would be banned. University education will be made free. Trade deals are to be renegotiated, most importantly with the United States.
Mr Petro has a reputation for being hard to work with. Some 60 officials resigned or were sacked during his four years as mayor of Bogotá. One wrote an open letter warning that “a left-wing despot does not stop being a despot just because he is from the left”. In that light one of Mr Petro’s commitments, to “democratise institutions”, sounds concerning.
But his rise has stalled. For many, Mr Gutiérrez is a candidate of continuity. All of Colombia’s traditional parties back him. Some of his policies are moderate. Although he voted for the peace deal of 2016, the support he enjoys from landholding elites and right-wing parties that opposed it may limit his ability to carry out its land-reform mandates.
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