After a campaign marked by dirty tricks, alleged death threats and even rumblings that the result might be contested, Colombia’s presidential election was a model of civic comity.
Gustavo Petro won a narrow but clear victory in Sunday’s final round, meaning he will become his country’s first leftist president when sworn in on August 7th. His maverick populist rival Rodolfo Hernández quickly conceded defeat.
In a victory speech which marked the culmination of a bitterly polarised contest Petro spoke of “dialogue” and “national accord”. He also said the fact that he – a former Marxist guerrilla – could be elected president was an endorsement of the country’s peace process and called for an end to ongoing hostilities in the decades-old civil war.
The National Liberation Army, the largest of the remaining insurgent groups, responded by saying it is willing to hold talks with the president-elect. With the arrival of the left in power via the ballot box, one of the arguments insurgents made to justify armed resistance has been removed. Two centuries after independence from Spain Colombia’s elite is ceding power peacefully.
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Those guerrilla groups still fighting should seize the opportunity to dump arms. Doing so could help re-energise the troubled implementation of 2016′s peace accords and strengthen Petro’s hand as he tackles myriad other security challenges, exacerbated by the war’s long tail. Cocaine production is booming, leading to the consolidation of a new generation of criminal organisations.
As well as corruption and violence these are also increasingly engaged in environmental pillage. The remaining guerrilla groups are deeply enmeshed in the drugs trade and their continued existence provides the justification for the operations of paramilitary groups that violently target peaceful left-wing activists, often at the behest of regional elites.
For decades the guerrillas’ armed campaign proved a drag on the democratic left’s electoral chances. It would be an historic error if it now continues against Colombia’s first government to be headed by a leftist.