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As Colombia’s presidential elections approach, fears of a potential victory of far-left candidate Gustavo Petro spread, as it would pose a threat to domestic and international security.
A new survey indicates that the voting intention, two weeks before the elections, favors Petro with 36.6%; while his main opponent, Federico Gutierrez, has 21.40% of support, and 14.39 % corresponds to the undecided.
Gustavo Petro is a highly controversial figure linked to terrorism, drug trafficking, and fraud; a bad omen for the future of that country that will also affect the region.
Serious signs for Colombia
Gustavo Petro is the former mayor of Bogotá. His administration was marked by a non-fulfillment of proposals, low popularity, and recurrent political scandals.
Of an approved development plan worth $52 trillion pesos, only $30 trillion pesos, 57%, were executed. The District Comptroller’s Office highlighted 30 unfulfilled promises in most sectors: public services and environment, health, education, and security. In addition, Bogotá ended up with 45 unfinished works for a value exceeding one trillion pesos.
During his administration, he implemented a model very similar to the one established by tyrants in the region, where he decided to execute by force and by decree what he was unable to do with popular support.
It should be remembered that when he failed to reach a democratic consensus on the approval of the Bogotá Zoning Plan, he decided to take it out through a decree, which resulted in the Council of State overthrowing Petro’s plan on May 17, 2019, for considering it illegal.
Another major indicator of Petro’s intention in Colombia is his affinity for expropriation as an economic model. Petro has already proposed that the state should forcibly purchase what he considers ” just as Hugo Chavez did in Venezuela.
Petro announced that, if elected, he would stop oil exploration in Colombia; a situation that would affect already established companies and that would threaten the country’s economy, implying an increase in food prices, a rise in inflation, and a potential drop in GDP.
Serious signs for global security
A report published by the Foro de Madrid summarizes Petro’s career in three words: “terrorism, inefficiency, and corruption.”
At the age of 17, Petro joined the M-1903, his alias was “Comandante Aureliano.” The Movimiento 19 de Abril, better known as M-19, was an urban guerrilla organization that emerged in 1973 and was part of the armed conflict until its demobilization in 1990.
In October 1985, Petro was captured by the National Army for illegal possession of weapons and was later convicted for conspiracy.
In addition to his links with the guerrilla, Petro has been described by the former president of Colombia, Andrés Pastrana, as the “Trojan Horse of drug trafficking” because in various situations he has been linked to criminal actions.
Petro was one of the main organizers of the vandalism demonstrations of 2021, whose protagonists were the members of the “Primera Línea” (First Line). Colombian authorities revealed that these protests were financed by the National Liberation Army (ELN), an organization that has become another drug trafficking cartel.
The presidential candidate has shown himself to be in favor of pardoning drug traffickers; in fact, in February of this year he proposed “legal processes of collective submission to justice, which implies legal benefits in exchange for non-repetition of drug trafficking activity.”
In addition to all this, there is the professed support given to him by organizations such as the FARC for this presidential campaign.
Gustavo Petro is stained by corruption
In 2021, Hugo Carvajal, former intelligence chief of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, presented to the Spanish National Court a document in which he assured that the Venezuelan government had financed different political parties all over the world. Among them are the Podemos party in Spain, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Lula da Silva in Brazil, and Gustavo Petro in Colombia.
Diosdado Cabello, the second in command of the Venezuelan regime and the subject of a $10 million reward from the Department of Justice, also stated in 2018 that Petro asked them for financing for his political campaign.
In addition to such assertions linking Petro to the Venezuelan regime, there are also two advisors of the candidate who say a lot about his “bad influences.” They are Vinicio Alvarado and Amauri Chamorro, an Ecuadorian fugitive, who would be his political marketing architects.
Both Alvarado and Chamorro are behind the communication strategies of the left in Colombia, despite being involved in cases of corruption and management of cyber-armies.
Alvarado is a fugitive from justice in Ecuador, where he was convicted for bribes between 2012 and 2017. Like him, his brother Fernando Alvarado, and other officials are in other countries fleeing justice.
Chamorro, for his part, came to light recently for having signed three contracts totaling $300 million to advise the Medellín Mayor’s Office, which was headed by Mayor Daniel Quintero, who was recently suspended.
Everything indicates that if Petro wins the presidency, he will resume relations with the regime of Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela has already become a bunker for criminals where guerrillas and drug traffickers can operate freely; one must imagine what will happen in the event that both join forces to counteract the fight against international crime that has been promoted by the United States in alliance with the Colombian government.
Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo