the historic election of Gustavo Petro, the country’s first left-wing president

For the first time in its history, Colombia marks the alternation after 200 years of governance by the conservative and liberal elites. At the age of 62, Gustavo Petro, a former member of a converted far-left guerrilla, won the election, with nearly 50% of the vote. “My name is Gustavo Petro and I am your president!”he chants, victorious on the stage. The new president promises profound changes in Colombia with peace, social justice and environmental justice as priorities.

The other revelation of this presidential election Colombian, it is the running mate Francia Marquez who becomes the first Afro descendant elected vice-president. “We got a government of the people, a popular government. The government of the people with calloused hands, the government of the ordinary people, the government of the sans-culottes of Colombia”says the one who won the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for the environment.

The main challenge of the new presidency will be to implement work the social justice program in one of the most unequal countries in Latin America where 52% of the population lives on less than three dollars a day.