The third time was the charm for Gustavo Petro, the leftist firebrand, former guerrilla and newly elected Colombian president who credits his political awakening to seeing his father weep over the death of revolutionary Che Guevara.
The 62-year-old senator and former mayor of capital Bogota, jailed for his youthful role in the M-19 guerrilla group, won 50.4% of votes in a close vote on Sunday, beating the populist business magnate Rodolfo Hernandez, who got 47.3%. He had also run for the presidency in 2010 and 2018.
Still, while left-wing parties won some 50 seats in Congress in March legislative elections, Petro will likely be unable to pass reforms without support from centrist parties.Petro's victory marks a turning point in Colombia, a traditionally conservative country where successive governments have pledged to tackle insecurity and violence linked to a nearly six decade-long armed conflict.
He wants to hike taxes on owners of large tracts of unproductive land and start weaning Colombia off income from oil and coal, which he has described as poisons comparable to cocaine - perhaps the country's top illegal export. The new president has scoffed at comparisons to Venezuelan leaders and made efforts to assuage fears among the business community.
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