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The first round of the presidential elections in Colombia is just a few weeks away, and the political atmosphere is quickly becoming tense. Yesterday, the terrorist group FARC carried out an attack south of Bogotá that left two children dead. The same organization, FARC, through its political branch called Comunes, expressed its support for the presidential candidacy of the extreme leftist Gustavo Petro.
Petro, this same week, attacked the critical press, calling it neo-Nazi. Properly, he referred to Jewish journalist David Ghitis, who in a column in the RCN media said that Petro “threatens private property.” “Neo-Nazis in RCN,” Petro said, about a Jewish columnist and the media outlet that gave him the platform.
This attack on the freedom of the press—which in this case is also an anti-Semitic one—sets off alarms about what could happen if Gustavo Petro, who today leads the polls and is emerging as the favorite in the race, becomes president of Colombia. To resort to the expression “neo-Nazi” automatically opens the way for violence, censorship and burning, because, under their logic, there is no other way to deal with Nazism. What is striking is that there is nothing more Nazi, or fascist, than to go around calling anyone who dissents from you a Nazi. For example, Antifa in the United States.
In any case, if we review Gustavo Petro’s record, I could resort, but with more confidence, to the same reductionism and affirm that he is a true neo-Nazi. First, look at what just happened. There is nothing more fascist than to attack freedom of the press and label it as the enemy to be destroyed. The press, in spite of its vices, is the last retaining wall against tyrannies, as Tocqueville rightly pointed out some time ago.
Then there are Petro’s proposals. Expropriate, impose tariffs, subsidies, increase taxes and public spending, ban mining, reform the police and education in order to ideologize them. Enlarging the state and stealing, in short. It does not sound very liberal at all, and would provoke an unprecedented flight of Colombian capital, which would also generate a considerable increase in poverty and crime.
Finally, the past: Gustavo Petro comes from being a member of the terrorist guerrilla organization M-19, responsible for one of the biggest attacks in the history of Colombia (the seizure of the Palace of Justice, when the terrorist organization killed 11 soldiers and 43 civilians in November 1985). While in the organization, his alias was Aureliano and he embraced a marked anti-Americanism. We could imagine what his eventual government’s relations with the United States would be like.
And his relationships also come from the past: admiration for Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, both tyrants that starved and murdered their people. Friendship with Pablo Iglesias, the leader of the Spanish far-left group Podemos, and with figures from the São Paulo Forum, the criminal organization that spreads chaos throughout the region.
Then, we have the contempt for freedom of the press, his willingness to rob Colombians, expand the State and public spending; the support of the FARC; his experience in a terrorist group that kidnapped and killed; and his friendships, with other criminals in the world, who have also killed, kidnapped and trafficked. If we are going to talk about Nazis, Gustavo Petro’s profile fits perfectly. That man is today approaching the presidency of Colombia. Needless to say how frightening a future looks under that possibility.
Orlando Avendaño is the co-editor-in-chief of El American. He is a Venezuelan journalist and has studies in the History of Venezuela. He is the author of the book Days of submission // Orlando Avendaño es el co-editor en Jefe de El American. Es periodista venezolano y cuenta con estudios en Historia de Venezuela. Es autor del libro Días de sumisión.