Via the Miami Herald: Colombia sees peaceful vote, former rebel new Bogotá mayor
Gustavo Petro, a former leftist rebel and socialist legislator, is the new mayor of Bogotá after corruption-weary Colombians took to the polls on Sunday.
With 84 percent of the vote counted, Petro, 51, had a comfortable lead in the hotly contested race, beating out former Mayor Enrique Peñalosa and former legislator Gina Parody.
Campaigning on a platform of rooting out graft and taking basic services to the poor, including providing subsidized water, Petro won 33 percent of the vote versus Peñalosa’s 25 percent and Parody’s 17 percent.
Amongst Petro’s challenges include governing after winning only a third of the vote. He does fit the general (although not perfect) pattern of electing center-left candidates to this office.
It is worth noting that the mayor of Bogota is the arguably the second most important politicians in Colombia after the president.
On a personal note: I interviewed Petro when I was doing my dissertation research back in the 1990s.
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