Ex-rebel fighter Gustavo Petro wins Colombia’s presidency
Gustavo Petro, a former rebel fighter who has promised profound social and economic change, has won Colombia’s presidency. Petro’s win in Sunday’s presidential runoff election will make him the country’s first left-wing president. He won 50.4 percent of the vote, while his rival Rodolfo Hernandez, a construction magnate, had 47.3 percent. “As of today, Colombia is changing, a real change that guides us to one of our aims: the politics of love … of understanding and dialogue,” a jubilant Petro told his supporters in the Colombian capital, Bogota. A senator and a former mayor of Bogota, Petro’s victory underlined a drastic change in presidential politics for a country that has long marginalised the left for its perceived association with the armed conflict. Petro himself was once a rebel with the now-defunct M-19 movement and was granted amnesty after being jailed for his involvement with the group. In his victory speech, Petro, 62, issued a call for unity and extended an...