Ex-rebel looks to defy odds in Colombia presidential race

[Judi Lynn]

Ex-rebel looks to defy odds in Colombia presidential race
Joshua Goodman, Associated Press
Updated 7:16 pm, Saturday, June 16, 2018

ZIPAQUIRA, Colombia (AP) — Gustavo Petro began his long ascent to the cusp of Colombia's presidency in this self-built barrio named after South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.

In 1983, equipped with little more than a shovel and a surplus of revolutionary ideals, the then-clandestine militant led some 400 squatter families in a months-long battle with local authorities to secure a plot of land to build their ramshackle homes here in Zipaquira, a city north of Bogota. Their rallying cry was: "A roof and a dignified life."

Thirty five years later, the founders of the "Bolivar 83" barrio still living in the slum celebrate Petro's rise as their own. The leftist candidate will face off against conservative Ivan Duque on Sunday in Colombia's presidential runoff election.

. . .

"Those who seek to brand Gustavo a guerrilla and a killer don't realize he didn't carry a weapon in his hands," said Gonzalo Suarez, a fellow M-19 militant.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Ex-rebel-looks-to-defy-odds-in-Colombia-13000807.php

LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142086406#post2

[Judi Lynn]

1. 'DC Colombian' squares off against former guerrilla as Colombians vote

'DC Colombian' squares off against former guerrilla as Colombians vote
By Anthony Faiola
18 June 2018 — 5:47am

Bogota: Colombians have voted in a highly divisive election pitting a US-educated conservative against a former leftist guerrilla, with the result set to change the course of the drug war and potentially upend the peace accord that ended Latin America's longest insurgency.

. . .

"Colombia has never really had a democracy, but an oligarchy of the same upper-class families," said Fabrizio Guevara, a 26-year old graphic designer who voted in central Bogota on Sunday. "Petro offers a different way."

. . .

Duque, meanwhile, has pledged to redouble efforts to combat a record surge of coca - the building bloc of cocaine. Educated at Washington, DC.'s American and Georgetown universities, Duque spent years living in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and working for the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank. American officials see him as a reliable partner who may bring back the controversial practice of forced coca eradication with aerial spraying, which has been banned since 2015 because of its health risks.

"You could call him a 'DC Colombian,' " said Juan Felipe Celia, a Colombia expert at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think-tank.

Washington Post

More:
https://www.smh.com.au/world/south-america/dc-colombian-squares-off-against-former-guerrilla-as-colombians-vote-20180618-p4zm2d.html