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Soriek  6mo ago (text post)   967 thread views

Transnational Thursdays 24

This is a weekly thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or IR history. I usually start off with coverage of some current events from a mix of countries I follow personally and countries I think the forum lives in or might be interested in. Feel free to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Colombia

“Colombia regional elections: The political wave of change comes to a halt”

Gustavo Petro was the first ever leftist president elected in Colombia, and came to power buoyed on a wave of progressive political energy. Since then his agenda has floundered, whether you blame opposition obstruction (certainly true) or personal corruption (also possibly true), that’s the way it is. Colombia isn’t doing too badly, the economy has recovered steadily, the cartels are increasing in power but Petro has been successively establishing peace with the radical guerilla groups, and there’s still a significant demand for some of the poverty alleviation measures he’s championing, such as land reform. But in the regional elections this week voters signaled they may be done with the experiment:

In 2019, alternative candidates won in several major cities such as Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena and Cúcuta, and in smaller ones such as Buenaventura, Manizales and Palmira. In 2022 the traditional parties — Liberal, Conservative, Democratic Center, Radical Change, Social Party of National Unity — did not even have candidates for the presidency. These results contrast with the outcome of Sunday’s vote.

The choice was clear: Sunday’s regional and local elections in Colombia could either strengthen or weaken the wave of political transformation that has been building in the country in recent years. And the result was also clear: the wave has lost steam. The main mayoralties and governorships were won by politicians from different sides of the political spectrum, but they had one thing in common: they came from traditional political parties or had the majority support of them. The elections marked the return of the status quo…

[Gustavo Petro’s] party, the Historical Pact, was defeated in the mayoral race of Bogotá, where Petro himself had been mayor. “The survival of the Historical Pact is at stake in the Bogotá mayor’s office,” the party’s candidate, Gustavo Bolívar, told EL PAÍS at the beginning of the campaign. On Sunday, Bolívar came in third place.

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