Last week’s election in Colombia saw the best result for the Left in decades and confirmed Gustavo Petro as favorite to become the country’s first socialist president. It’s a major shift in a country that has long been dominated by US-backed right-wing leaders.
Former guerrilla fighter Gustavo Petro may soon be Colombia’s first left-wing president. His candidacy has been met not only with smears, but credible threats of assassination from the Right.
Colombian politics have long been dominated by strongmen insisting on the need for “tough security measures.” But right now, with strikes and demonstrations gripping the country, it’s Colombia's hard-right government overseeing atrocities — not the guerrilla insurgents.
With its recent general strike and continued mobilizations, Colombia has joined the global wave of unrest. If the movement can resist right-wing president Iván Duque’s attempts at co-optation, it could lay the groundwork for the transformation of a society long characterized by inequality and militarized brutality.
This week, Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president, severed diplomatic ties with Israel over Gaza. It’s a long time coming: Israeli mercenaries aided in the wholesale slaughter of Colombia’s insurgent leftist party, Patriotic Union, in the ’80s.
Proponents of Colombia's peace deal underestimated their opponents' strength and failed to mobilize their own base.
Recently, Colombia discovered mass graves in a cemetery over 150 years old in the city of Cúcuta. The bodies, many of which were smuggled into the graveyard this century, reveal unpleasant connections between right-wing militias, business, and the state.
More than five million Colombians — 10 percent of the country’s total population — have taken to the streets over the past two weeks to protest neoliberal policies, government corruption, police brutality, and the systematic murder of activists.
After a hopeful start in 2022, Gustavo Petro’s leftist Colombian government has run into major obstacles from economic elites. But the powerful mobilizations that brought him to power, paired with parliamentary negotiating, may be able to turn that around.
Colombia’s left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, is fighting for a comprehensive labor reform package that will protect workers and restore unions after decades of violence and suppression. Conservative forces are intent on stopping the reform in its tracks.
In Colombia, coastal erosion caused by a combination of climate change and environmentally destructive industrial agriculture is displacing the country’s poorest citizens. But the scale of the disaster means that it has no easy solutions.
The biggest opponents of Colombia's peace process are the most removed from the reality of war.
Colombians have elected a left-wing president for the very first time in the country’s history. Now Gustavo Petro and his vice president, Francia Márquez, face the challenge of carrying out their reform agenda against fierce conservative opposition.
Colombia’s riot police, the ESMAD, have a sordid record of abuse and extrajudicial executions of protesters. President Gustavo Petro is trying to reform the force — but he faces an uphill battle.
Say "Colombian peace talks," and you'll likely think of the FARC. But another guerrilla group is key to securing a transformative peace.
Álvaro Uribe came to power in Colombia shortly after 9/11 and declared his own war on terrorism with US support.
President Gustavo Petro has pledged to transform Colombia’s energy industry in a greener direction. But the country’s heavy economic dependence on hydrocarbons, illustrated by the legacy of its massive refinery in Barrancabermeja, poses steep challenges.
Two years after taking office as Colombia’s first left-wing president, Gustavo Petro still faces tenacious resistance to his agenda. His opponents in Congress have united to block labor and health care reforms that are vital for working-class Colombians.
In Colombia, Internet personalities and religious leaders mobilize opposition to the peace process by drumming-up fears of sexual diversity and “gender ideology.”