In an historic shift for Colombia and a win that will have reverberations across the Americas, leftist candidate Gustavo Petro of the Pacto Histórico por Colombia (PHxC) has won the presidency.
A former guerrilla fighter Petro took over 50% of the vote against business tycoon Rodolfo Hernández.
The win will almost certainly signal a dramatic shift in the foreign policy of Colombia, which has been a stalwart US ally, as well as hopefully a step towards ending the killings of Indigenous, environmental, leftist and labour activists in the country.
Petro ran a campaign focused on state intervention in the economy, tackling poverty and heavily taxing the rich.
In the first round of voting Colombian voters massively repudiated the candidate of the incumbent right wing President Iván Duque’s party with Federico Gutiérrez getting only 23.95% of the vote.
Petro's win is the first win for a leftist in a presidential election in Colombia ever and his Vice-President Francia Márquez becomes the first Black woman to ever hold the post.
“Today is a party for the people" Petro said on Twitter after the victory.
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