Gustavo Petro: First Leftist President Faces Tough Challenge In Colombia
Gabriel Garcia spent 12 years of his youth in an urban guerrilla unit, earning for 100 years of solitude the nickname of a revolutionary general. He would later become a progressive mayor and senator in the Colombian capital Bogota. Failing to overcome the conservative wall erected around the Colombian presidency almost two centuries ago, he ran for president twice. But on Sunday, Gustavo Petro, 62, finally broke through the wall and was elected president, making history as South America's first left-wing head of state. “We will not betray the voters who screamed in history,” Petro said in a victory speech in Bogotá on Sunday evening. "Colombia is changing today." Some members of the M-19 guerrilla movement were arrested for carrying weapons as children even before Peter arrived at the presidential palace in Bogotá. He also said that he survived the ordeal. The M-19 was decommissioned in 1990 and some members signed the current Colombian constitution. Other members we...