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Gustavo Petro Wins Historic Elections In Colombia

June 20, 2022 People's Dispatch. , ,
Preliminary results from Colombia’s second round presidential race indicate the victory of the left-wing Historic Pact coalition led by Gustavo Petro and Francia Marquez. The duo had received 40% of the votes cast in the first round, 10 points shy of a first round victory. The progressive duo was facing off against political outsider Rodolfo Hernández of the League of Anti-Corruption Governors movement who received just under 47% of the vote in the precount. The period leading up to these elections have been marked by irregularities, violence, and strong media campaigns demonizing the progressive candidates. Days before the polls, the prominent Colombian news magazine Semana, published a cover with Petro and Hernández’s faces and underneath wrote “ex-guerrillero or engineer”.

Colombia’s New Dawn?

June 19, 2022 Alborada. , , ,
Colombians head to the polls this Sunday for a presidential election that will determine the country’s political trajectory for the next four years – and far beyond. With the two candidates offering vastly contrasting visions of the country, the tightly-poised contest carries ramifications likely to be felt long after the 2022-2026 electoral term ends. At the head of the progressive Historic Pact coalition, Gustavo Petro has campaigned on a platform of strengthening human rights and environmental protections, increased social investment and implementation of the 2016 peace agreement between the then-government of Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Petro and the Pact’s vice-presidential candidate, the African-Colombian social activist and feminist organizer Francia Márquez, have drawn strong support from social groups long marginalized under Colombia’s exclusionary political system.

Political Prisoner Simón Trinidad Settles First Amendment Lawsuit

June 18, 2022 Law Office of Mark Burton, Popular Resistance. , , ,
On January 24, 2022, Simón Trinidad filed a complaint in Federal District Court in Denver, Colorado against U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and the Bureau of Prisons. The complaint (22-cr-00193) asserted that the denial of access to a Colombian attorney violated his right to freedom of speech and freedom of association guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. He further asserted that his access to an attorney was critical, as he has numerous cases in the Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP), or Special Peace Jurisdiction, a specialized court in Colombia created to resolve issues related to Colombia’s 50-year armed conflict between the Colombian government and the FARC. In 2017 Simón Trinidad requested access to a Colombian lawyer and his request was denied.

Are There Veterans For Peace In Colombia?

June 15, 2022 James Patrick Jordan, Alliance For Global Justice. , ,
I once asked a prominent social movement leader and former Colombian Senator if there was any organization or movement in her country similar to the US groups Veterans for Peace or Iraqi Veterans Against the War (now About Face). It was in 2011, and I was there with a delegation sponsored by the Alliance for Global Justice and the National Lawyers Guild. She looked at me a moment and then said, “We have veterans, but they are not for peace.” Her answer confirmed my own limited experience. Of course, this was Colombia in 2011, a country that had recently learned about the “false positive” scandal, with details still being revealed. That scandal refers to the ongoing practice of members of the Colombian Armed Forces to lure poor and unemployed youth to remote areas with promises of jobs, killing them, and dressing their bodies in uniforms of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) and claiming them as enemy combatants.

Colombia: World Power Of Life Or Neo-Fascist Pillar?

June 12, 2022 Agustín Laó-Montes, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
We live at a historical crossroads, an era of civilizational crisis where life and death are at stake worldwide, a situation in which Colombia faces a deep dilemma. On May 29, 2022, around 21 million citizens voted in Colombia's national elections to elect its executive branch. The victory of the Historical Pact “Colombia Can” comes to the fore, an alignment of the new left with Gustavo Petro as president and Francia Márquez as vice-presidential formula. It is the first time that a left-wing coalition has triumphed in a presidential election in Colombia, adding 8.5 million votes, the largest number obtained in the first electoral round by any political group in the country's history. On June 19, a second round will be held to decide the two main executive positions, since no one obtained more than 50% of the vote.

On Observing The 2022 Presidential Elections In Colombia

June 2, 2022 Jemima Pierre, Black Agenda Report. , ,
On May 26th, in my capacity as the co-coordinator of the Haiti/Americas Team for the Black Alliance for Peace, I traveled with a delegation to Colombia to serve as an official observer of its presidential elections. The elections were historic: not only was a leftist presidential ticket leading in the polls, but the vice presidential candidate on that ticket was Francia Márquez, a popular and well known Afro-Colombian feminist activist. As observers, our roles were to bear witness to history by ensuring there was no impropriety or fraud at the voting booth or in the democratic process. The impetus for the delegation came after the results of the March 13, 2022 primary elections in Colombia clearly indicated that the two leading candidates of the leftist “Pacto Historico” party were Gustavo Petro (a former guerilla activist turned mayor of Bogota) and Francia Márquez.

Colombian Left May Be On The Verge Of Winning Power

May 31, 2022 Andrew Willis Garcés, Andrea Parra, and Nikki Marín Baena, Convergence. , , ,
The Colombian Left has seen its greatest electoral successes ever in 2022. In March, during the combined congressional general election and presidential primary (yes, they do both on the same day), for the first time ever, the Left party alliance won the most congressional seats of any party, and the two Left presidential candidates came in first and third, respectively, in votes received across all parties. The governing right-wing party has almost totally collapsed, winning only 12% of the vote. Those elected to Congress in March included a few leaders of an historic general strike last May, including a college student who went viral conducting an outdoor protest orchestra. Most U.S. news coverage of Colombia references gang violence and drug cartels, masking the vibrant web of Afro-Colombian, indigenous, feminist, student, campesino and worker movements that have shaken the country with mobilizations and now electoral wins over the last year.

Gustavo Petro Wins Today In Colombia

May 30, 2022 Ana Perdigón, Orinoco Tribune. , ,
Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernández are the candidates for the presidency of Colombia that will be measured in a second round, after not reaching the necessary number of votes defined by the Colombian rule of 50% plus 1. Colombia’s National Registry, the electoral authority, reported with 99.16% of the pre-counted votes that the candidates who will contest the second round on June 19 are Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernández. Gustavo Petro, candidate for the Historical Pact, obtained 8,479,095 votes, equivalent to 40.31% of the votes, while Hernández obtained 5,931,722 votes, representing 28.20%. Although Petro’s result was expected, since he was the favorite in the polls, Hernández’s results on the contrary was a surprise given that he managed to consolidate himself during the last stretch of the campaign, when, in the polls, he began to approach the candidate of the right Federico Gutierrez.

National Lawyers Guild Calls For Solidarity With Colombia

May 28, 2022 National Lawyers Guild. , , ,
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) joins statements concerning the upcoming presidential elections in Colombia. We implore the current government and its functionaries to abide by the will of the people and ensure the safety of members of El Pacto Histórico regardless of the election outcome. We also reaffirm our solidarity with progressive organizations and individuals doing accompaniment and electoral observation work in Colombia. This historic election will take place on May 29, 2022 and is part of a highly contested race in which el Pacto Histórico presidential candidate Senator Gustavo Petro, and his vice-presidential running mate, Afro-Colombian Goldman Prize winner Francia Márquez Mina, have emerged as the front-runner in the polls.

Colombia: Groups Launch Electoral Mission To Monitor Human Rights

May 27, 2022 Afro Resistance. , , ,
Cali, Colombia - AfroResistance and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance have launched an international electoral expert mission to monitor human rights processes during the upcoming Colombian presidential election. The delegation consists of human rights experts, racial and gender justice activists, grassroots organizers, cultural workers, attorneys, and journalists, gathered to assess and monitor the safety, fairness and human rights protection in the upcoming Colombia primary elections taking place Sunday, May 29th, 2022. AfroResistance, an advocacy and solidarity building organization focused on the human rights of Black Women and Girls throughout the Americas and Grassroots Global Justice, **a multi-racial, multi-sectoral alliance building a grassroots movement for peace, democracy and a sustainable world, has assembled a team of experts that have all been accredited by the Colombian electoral authorities.

Human Rights Activist Deported From Colombia In Runup To Election

May 25, 2022 Task Force on the Americas, Popular Resistance. , , ,
While enroute to observe the presidential elections in Colombia, Teri Mattson was denied entry by Colombian authorities and had her passport seized. After arriving at 6:55 am on May 22, she was forced to spend the day and the night at the Bogotá Airport before being deported the following morning and flown out of the country. Although Mattson resides in Mexico and first flown there, her tribulations did not end there. She was then held in Mexico without passport or phone while immigration waited for the first available flight to the US, because she is a US citizen. Only when Mattson exited the plane in the US were her phone and passport returned to her. Colombian authorities falsely claimed that Mattson “represents a risk to the security of the State.”

Colombia Deports Outstanding Communicator Teri Mattson

May 24, 2022 Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA). , , ,
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) denounces the detention and deportation of COHA Board Member and CODEPINK Latin America organizer and media host Teri Mattson, who traveled to Bogota to serve as an accredited international observer for the historic May 29th election in Colombia. She had been invited by Colombia’s Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CPDH). Ms. Mattson, having arrived in Bogota on May 22, was refused entry by Colombian authorities, forced to stay in the airport overnight and deported on May 23 on the absurd grounds that she “represents a risk to the security of the State.” Ms. Mattson is a person of impeccable integrity and has served on a number of electoral missions to Latin America.

Petro Bulletproofs Campaign Amid Assassination Fears

May 23, 2022 Kawsachun News,  Resumen English. , , ,
With just two weeks until the election, Colombia’s leading presidential slate is making an international appeal after receiving death threats on the campaign trail. The Pacto Historico ticket penned a letter to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in which they ask for guarantees, after receiving death threats and intimidating which have been dismissed by Colombian officials. On May 2, Gustavo Petro suspended scheduled visits to the coffee going region for security reasons, citing information he received on a possible assassination attempt from the criminal organization ‘La Cordillera’. The letter also states that his VP pick received three death threats in early April.

Why Are Colombian Election Candidates Auditioning In Washington?

May 20, 2022 Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Staging a vice-presidential candidates debate in the runup to Colombia’s May 29 national elections was entirely appropriate.  Nevertheless, the location of the event in Washington and its promotion by US-state functionaries requires some explanation. Because of its venue and sponsors, the affair had elements of an audition or a vetting process overseen by the US government. Along with the Washington consensus crowd, members of the Colombian diaspora attended the May 13th event, especially supporters of popular vice-presidential candidate Francia Márquez. Afro-descendent environmentalist Márquez is running with presidential candidate Gustavo Petro. Their frontrunning ticket could be the first administration on the left in Colombian history.

US Meddling In Colombia’s Election, Warns Francia Márquez

May 20, 2022 Ben Norton, Multipolarista. , , ,
The vice presidential candidate for the leading ticket in Colombia’s May elections has accused the US government of meddling in her country’s internal politics to hurt the left wing. Francia Márquez is an activist from the grassroots social movements of the Afro-Colombian community. She is the vice presidential candidate for the left-wing Pacto Histórico (“Historic Pact”) coalition, whose presidential candidate Gustavo Petro is leading by double digits in major polls in the weeks before the May 29 vote. Márquez criticized the US ambassador to Colombia for publicly claiming that Russia, Venezuela, and Cuba are trying to sabotage her country’s election. “Although [the US ambassador] did not mention the Pacto Histórico, although he did not mention Gustavo Petro, it is obvious that he was referring to our candidacy and our political campaign,” Márquez said.
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