Some smile, like these peasants who received land, and others cry, like Yaneth, widow of a policeman killed in violence: two sides of a country still as polarized, one year after the coming to power of Gustavo Petro, the first leftist president in the political history of Colombia.
Elected on a promise of “change”, Mr. Petro ends a first year marked by corruption scandals, heavy insecurity and declining popularity (34% in June), but with the persistent support of the working classes who continue to believe in its ability to transform one of the most unequal societies in Latin America.
In Villapinzon, 80 km north of Bogota, Crisanto Heredia and Maria Romero, a peasant couple, lived through the clashes in the early 2000s between the army and the now defunct Marxist FARC guerrillas. Due to the conflict, they had to leave their smallholding.
In 2005, when the army regained control of the area, they began proceedings to obtain the rights to their land. But it was only at the end of June that they were recognized. “We are very happy to hold this title in our hands,” Crisanto Heredia told AFP.
For Petro, the state has a historic debt to these peasants. The inequitable distribution of land is at the heart of a conflict which, after six decades, is still raging in several provinces, involving dissidents from the ex-FARC and many other armed groups often linked to drug trafficking.
The Head of State prides himself on having already granted titles for more than a million hectares to modest peasants and indigenous people, against 1.4 million hectares by his conservative predecessor Ivan Duque during the four years of his mandate (2018-2022).
Yaneth Calvo, for her part, cannot stop crying for her husband, killed on March 2 during a demonstration of indigenous people and peasants against an oil company in San Vicente del Caguán (south).
Demonstrators, accused by the government of being manipulated by ex-FARC dissidents, took nearly 70 members of the security forces hostage, including Ricardo Arley Monroy, who was stabbed.
Shortly before his death, he had expressed his concern to the mother of his two children. “Since the start of this government, (he) felt that the security forces were abandoned and deprived of the means to defend themselves,” his widow told AFP.
The Colombian president has launched an ambitious plan for negotiations with armed groups, dubbed “Total Peace”, aimed at ending the conflict. Within a year, his government had reached ceasefires or negotiated with several guerrillas, paramilitary groups, various gangs and drug cartels.
The right-wing opposition accuses him of having delivered the country to crime. “They gave too much to illegal groups,” criticizes Yaneth Calvo, his eyes filled with tears.
In the department of Meta (south), Governor Juan Guillermo Zuluaga is alarmed by the growing influence of armed groups in territories hitherto spared. “We are allies of the government in the search for peace, but total peace, without total security, does not exist”, he notes.
Petro promised a profound transformation of a Colombia historically ruled by liberal and conservative elites. But his will comes up against fierce opposition from those same elites, poor planning and a hostile political environment.
The presidential coalition in Congress with the centrists and liberals has fallen apart and the scandals are piling up: the latest concerns the president’s eldest son, Nicolas, who has just confessed to justice that dirty money had been used to finance the presidential campaign.
“The arrival of Petro generated very high expectations, people imagined that everything was going to change and the disillusion is deep,” explains Eugénie Richard, analyst at Externado University.
For some, however, the promised “change” has materialized. Laura Ramirez, 25, participated in April 2022 in Medellin (northwest) in the wave of massive and strongly repressed demonstrations against President Duque. Accused of criminal association and terrorism, she spent nearly eight months in prison.
But Petro chose the side of the protesters and several of the imprisoned leaders have since been released, such as Laura Ramirez, now employed by the new administration. “You can’t say that everything is perfect, but Gustavo (Petro) has given young people hope”, she underlines.
08/08/2023 05:40:41 – Villapinzón (Colombia) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
