{"id":11536,"date":"2022-06-29T16:01:40","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T16:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/2022\/06\/columbia-ele\/"},"modified":"2024-11-20T22:14:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T19:14:39","slug":"colombia-voted-for-change-basar-baysal-e-nur-sezek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/2022\/06\/colombia-voted-for-change-basar-baysal-e-nur-sezek\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombia Voted For Change: Ba\u015far Baysal- E. Nur Sezek"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Source of the Picture<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The election process in Colombia\nended on June 19, which had been going on for about three months. The second round\nof the elections, which is of undeniable importance for the country, resulted in\nthe victory of Gustavo Petro (president) and Francia Marquez (vice-president),\nthe candidates of a leftist coalition called Pacto Historico (Historical Pact).\nThis victory of Petro and Marquez, who stand out with the motto of change, is a\ncrucial turning point for the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2022\nElections in Colombia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2022 has been a year of election\nfor Colombia. The first elections, the Senate and House, were held in March. In\nboth the House and Senate elections, Pacto Historico, led by Gustavo Petro and\nFrancia Marquez, was the group with the highest votes, winning 20 chairs in the\nSenate and 28 chairs in the House.1<\/a>\nAfter\nthe Senate and House elections, the first round of the presidential elections\nwas held on May 29. In the first round, Petro ranked first with approximately 8\nmillion votes, with a rate of 40%. On the other hand, 77-year-old businessman Rodolfo\nHernandez, who surprisingly ranked second, got around 5 million votes (28%).2<\/a> Thus, these two\ncandidates competed in the second round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petro continued his campaign which\nhe started before the elections in March, after the first round, and used different\nchannels, for instance social media, discussion programs such as political\ndebates, and regional visits to reach the voters. Nevertheless, surprisingly,\nRodolfo Hernandez, who came second in the first round, did not come together\nwith the voters except for his social media posts and avoided participating in\npolitical discussions. Especially when he turned down requests to participate\nin the political debates with Petro, he was presented as a cowardly hiding\n“leader.”3<\/a> Despite this, he\nachieved very close results with Petro in the surveys conducted after the first\nround. In such a mixed political environment, the country went to the polls on\nthe 19th<\/sup> of June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historic\nVictory of the Colombian Left <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The June 19 elections, which had\nthe highest participation rate in recent years, with a rate of approximately\n58%, resulted in the victory of Pacto Historico led by Gustavo Petro and\nFrancia Marquez.4<\/a> Thus, a left-wing\ngovernment came to power for the first time in the country’s nearly 200-year\nrepublican history. In addition, Marquez as a social activist who advocates for\nminority groups, victims of violence, feminism, and human rights, will be the\nfirst African-American woman to become the vice president in Colombia. Considering\nthe diversity in the country, the fact that many different minority groups gain\nrepresentation with the vice presidency of Marquez signifies the beginning of a\nhistorical transformation for Colombia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background\nof the Victory <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gustavo Petro will be Colombia’s\nfirst left-wing president in the country’s history. Colombia has never fully solved\nthe problem of social and economic inequality since its independence. The\ncountry could not implement a comprehensive rural reform. There had always been\na massive gap between the rich and the poor. The illegal economies like cocaine\ntrafficking and illegal mining even worsened this situation and have been\nfeeding the armed groups in Colombia. In addition to these general problems,\nUribism, named after the former right-wing president Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010),\neven tipped the balance in favour of the rich.\nIt also deepened corrupt relations in the country, which included politicians,\nbureaucracy, the private sector, and the mafia. After Uribe, Juan Manuel Santos,\nwho was the defence minister during the Uribe administration, was elected as\nthe president from the Union Party for the People of which Alvaro Uribe was\nalso a member until 2012. However, the Santos government did not follow\na strictly Uribist line and initiated a peace process with the FARC. On the\nother hand, there was no radical difference in the general political structure\nof the country during the Santos era as well. After Santos, the government of\nIvan Duque came to power in 2018 from Alvaro Uribe\u2019s political party,\nDemocratic Centre, and completely returned to the Uribist line. During Duque\u2019s\npresidency, many people criticized him for being a puppet of Uribe and argued whether\nthe absolute ruler of Colombia was Uribe himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Duque’s rule, the country’s\neconomy worsened, inequality and poverty increased, and violence and conflict,\nwhich were relatively suppressed during the Santos period, intensified.5<\/a> These factors increased\nthe frustration in Colombian people. Moreover, because of the problems\nmentioned above and corrupt relations, there started to emerge an opposition\nagainst Uribism in the country. This triggered the desire for change in\nColombia. In essence, both candidates, Petro and Hernandez, who competed in the\nsecond round of presidential elections, promised to change the Uribist system.\nHowever, the Colombian society showed the strength of its desire for change by\nelecting Gustavo Petro, a former M-19 guerrilla, as the country\u2019s first leftist\npresident. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What to expect?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government, which will assume\npower officially on August 7, has economic and social transformation goals in\naddition to its policies for almost every segment of society.6<\/a> Likewise, the public\nhas many expectations from the new government. Colombia has proven that it\nwants a change with these election results, so the government must work hard to\nmeet the expectations. As they promised, they will strive to become the\ngovernment of the citizens by closing the gap between the rich and the poor while\nworking on a new robust and productive economy. In this regard, we may expect social\nand economic reforms, including restorations in education and health systems. A\nmore sensitive and active approach in the struggle against climate change is also\nvery likely in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another expectation is related to implementing\nthe peace deal with the FARC. Since 2018 there have been many problems in the execution\nof the 2016 peace deal, mostly because of the reluctance of the Duque government.\nThere emerged many issues related to the security of former FARC members,\nimplementation of Territorially Focused Development Plans (PDET) program, the fight\nagainst illegal drugs, and land reform. In addition to implementing the 2016\npeace deal, there is also an expectation that the Petro administration will\nmake peace with other armed groups like the ELN. These steps will be very\ncrucial in ending the violence in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a final remark, we should argue\nthat the job of President Gustavo Petro will not be easy. First of all,\nalthough Petro became the president, the Colombian left is still the minority\nin both houses of the Colombian Parliament. Moreover, it will not be easy for\nPetro to break the aforementioned corrupt relations that have been formed over\nmany decades and ossified under Uribism. Petro will have to put a spoke in wheel\nof the beneficiaries of the existing corrupt system. There is no question that\nthere will be resistance from some interest groups. We believe this term will\nalso determine the fate of the left in Colombia. People voted for ideals with\nhigh expectations. In the next four years, the performance of Petro will be\ndecisive in addition to these ideals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n

Dr. Ba\u015far Baysal, Ankara Science University<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/strong>Basar Baysal is working as an Assistant Prof. Dr. in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Ankara Science University. Previously he worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Universidad del Rosario in Colombia and conducted research on the Colombian peace process in 2020 and 2021. He holds an MA degree from the International Relations department at Marmara University and gained his Ph.D. degree from the International Relations Department at Bilkent University in 2017. His research interests include Critical Security Studies, Securitization Theory, Environmental Security, Peace Research and DDR Processes, Organized Crime, and Latin America. Dr. Baysal is the author of the book titled Securitization and Desecuritization of FARC in Colombia: A Dual Perspective Analysis<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n

E. Nur Sezek, Universidad Externado de Colombia <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

E. Nur Sezek continues her Ph.D. studies in Political Studies at the Universidad Externado de Colombia. She holds a MA degree in International Relations from Akdeniz University. She has been continuing her research on Latin America in Colombia since 2020. Her research interests include Latin American studies, Conflict Studies-Peace Research and Turkey\u2019s relations with Latin America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

To cite this work :<\/strong> Ba\u015far Baysal & E. Nur Sezek \u201c Colombia Voted For Change:The Australian Federal Election result will have an impact on the health of democracy \u201d, Panorama<\/em>, Online , 29 June 2022, https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/blog\/2022\/06\/29\/columbia-ele\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Copyright@UIKPanorama. All on-line and print rights reserved. Opinions expressed in works published by the Panorama<\/em> belongs to the authors alone unless otherwise stated, and do not imply endorsement by the IRCT, Global Academy, or the Editors\/Editorial Board of Panorama. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The election process in Colombia ended on June 19, which had been going on for about three months. The second round of the elections, which is of undeniable importance for the country, resulted in the victory of Gustavo Petro (president) and Francia Marquez (vice-president), the candidates of a leftist coalition called Pacto Historico (Historical Pact). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":9151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[497,498,505],"tags":[548,560,656],"class_list":["post-11536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-regions","category-world","tag-colombia","tag-election","tag-english"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}