Gustavo Petro

Early life

Petro was born in rural Ciénaga de Oro, in the department of Córdoba, in 1960. His parents were farmers. Seeking a better future, Petro’s family decided to migrate to the more prosperous Colombian inland town of Zipaquirá – just north of Bogotá during the 1970s.

Petro studied at the Colegio de Hermanos de La Salle, where he founded the student newspaper Carta al Pueblo ("Letter to the People"). At the age of 18 he became a member of the 19th of April Movement, and was involved in military and political activities. During his time in 19 April Petro became a leader, and was elected ombudsman of Zipaquirá in 1981 and councilman from 1984 to 1986.

M-19 militancy

At a young age (around 17) Petro became a member of the 19th of April Movement, a guerrilla group that emerged in 1974 in opposition to the National Front coalition after allegations of fraud in the 1970 presidential elections.

During Petro's militancy in the M-19 guerrilla, the following human rights' violations were among the most memorable committed by this armed group, although there is no evidence that Petro was involved directly in any of these actions: the siege of the Palace of Justice at Bolivar Plaza in Bogota on November 6, 1985. At least 53 civilian casualties were registered, including several members of Colombia's Supreme Court of Justice. The siege has been catalogued as a holocaust and massacre by the Interamerican Human Rights' Court. Other crimes include the siege of the Dominican Republic Embassy, the kidnapping and murder of the Afro-Colombian union leader José Raquel Mercado, of businessman Hugo Ferreira Neira, of the CEO of a petroleum company Nicolás Escobar Soto, who was buried alive in a "people's prison", a cave where his skin got completely covered with fungi before being assassinated. Perhaps the best remembered kidnapping was that of Álvaro Gómez Hurtado: leader of the Colombian conservative party, presidential candidate and director of the newspaper El Siglo.

In 1985, Petro was arrested by the army for the crime of illegal possession of arms. He was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Following the M-19's infamous Palace of Justice Siege (Toma al Palacio de Justicia) Petro used his influence within M-19 to promote peace talks with the government, helping to bring about the eventual dismantling of M-19 in 1990, and the subsequent amnesty for its members. He recently has refused to admit his responsibility for the crimes committed during his participation in the M-19, claiming that the guerrilla group was rather a victim of the government.

Education

After M-19 disbanded, Petro graduated with a degree in economics from the Universidad Externado de Colombia and began graduate studies at the Escuela Superior de Administración Pública (ESAP). Later, he earned a master's degree in economics from the Universidad Javeriana. He then traveled to Belgium, enrolling in graduate studies in Economy and Human Rights in Leuven. He also has a doctoral degree in public administration from the University of Salamanca.

Political career

After the demobilization of the M-19 guerrilla movement, former members of the group (including Petro) formed a political party called Alianza Democrática M-19 which won a significant number of seats in the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia in 1991, representing the Cundinamarca Department.

In 2002 Petro was elected to the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia representing Bogotá, this time as a member of the Vía Alterna political movement he founded with former guerrilla colleague Antonio Navarro Wolff and other former M-19 guerrilla members. During this period he was named "Best Congressman", both by his own Congress colleagues and the press.

As a member of Vía Alterna, Petro created an electoral coalition with the Frente Social y Político to form the Independent Democratic Pole, which in 2005 fused with the Alternativa Democrática to form the Alternative Democratic Pole, joining a large number of leftist political figures.

In 2006 Petro was reelected Senator of Colombia, mobilizing the second highest voter turnout in the country. During this year he also exposed the Parapolitics scandal, accusing members and followers of the government of mingling with paramilitary groups in order to "reclaim" Colombia.

Opposition to the Uribe Government

Senator Petro has vehemently opposed the government of Álvaro Uribe. In 2005, while a member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia, Petro denounced the lottery businesswoman Enilse López (also known as "La Gata" (the cat). As of May 2009, she is imprisoned and under investigation for ties to the (now disbanded) paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Senator Petro alleged that the AUC financially contributed to the presidential campaign of Álvaro Uribe in 2002. Uribe refuted these statements by Petro but, during his presidential reelection campaign in 2006, admitted to having received financial support from Enilse López.

During Álvaro Uribe's second term as president, Petro encouraged debate on the Parapolitics scandal. In February 2007 Petro began a public verbal dispute with President Uribe when Petro suggested that the president should have recused himself from negotiating the demobilization process of paramilitaries in Colombia; this followed accusations that Uribe's brother, Santiago Uribe, was a former member of the Twelve Apostles paramilitary group in the mid-1990s. President Uribe responded by accusing Petro of being a "terrorist in civilian clothing" and by summoning the opposition to an open debate.

On April 17, 2007, Senator Petro began a debate in Congress about CONVIVIR and the development of paramilitarism in Antioquia Department. During a two-hour speech he revealed a variety of documents demonstrating the relationship between members of the Colombian military, the current political leadership, narcotraffickers and paramilitary groups. Petro also criticized the actions of Álvaro Uribe as Governor of Antioquia Department during the CONVIVIR years, and presented an old photograph of Álvaro Uribe's brother, Santiago, alongside Colombian drug trafficker Fabio Ochoa Vázquez.

The Minister of Interior and Justice, Carlos Holguín Sardi and the Minister of Transport, Andrés Uriel Gallego were asked to defend the president and his government. Both of them questioned Petro's past as a guerrilla member and accused him of "not condemning the warfare of violent people". Most of Petro's arguments were condemned as mud-slinging. The day after this debate the president said "I would have been a great guerrilla, because I wouldn't have been a guerrilla of mud, but a guerrilla of rifles. I would have been a military success, not a fake protagonist".

President Uribe's brother, Santiago Uribe, affirmed that his father and the Ochoa brothers had grown up together and were in the Paso Fino horse business together. He then mentioned that he also had many photographs, taken with many people.

On April 18, 2007 the Vigilance and Security Superintendency released a communique rejecting Petro's accusations concerning the CONVIVIR groups. The Superintendency said that many of the groups mentioned were authorized by the Departments of Sucre and Córdoba, but not by the Antioquia government; it also added that Álvaro Uribe, then Antioquia's governor, had eliminated the legal liability of eight CONVIVIR groups in 1997. It was also mentioned that the paramilitary leader known as "Julian Bolívar" had not yet been identified as such and was not associated with any CONVIVIR during the authorization of these groups.

Criticism of FARC

Senator Gustavo Petro has publicly criticized the FARC guerrilla group.

In a September 5, 2007 interview for the Colombian newsweekly magazine Revista Cambio, Petro argued that "the FARC are insensitive to the calls of both the international community and Colombian society, because they have lost contact with the world after the assassinations of UP members. And since they don't need social and popular support any longer (because they make their living from the drug trade), that increases their insensitivity". During that same interview, Petro compared the FARC to Pol Pot and stated that "FARC aren't revolutionaries, they aren't left– but right-wing and they are criminals".

Petro was among those who participated in a 4 February 2008 worldwide demonstration against the FARC. His political party's leaders officially decided not to do so, voting 18 to 3 against an initial proposal made by Petro. The senator had previously met with the organizers of the march, asking them why the event was only against FARC and not the paramilitary forces or the ELN. After he decided to participate, according to Petro, the "traditional left" labeled him as an "Uribist". Senator Petro later stated that "this is a demonstration against kidnappings and against the FARC, and it is clear that the democratic expression of the citizenry cannot be stopped".

Death threats

Petro has frequently reported threats against his life and the lives of his family, as well as persecution by government-run security organizations. On May 7, 2007 the Colombian army captured two Colombian Army intelligence non-commissioned officers that had been spying on Petro and his family in the municipality of Tenjo, Cundinamarca. These members had first identified themselves as members of the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS) the Colombian Intelligence Agency but their claims were later denied by Andrés Peñate, director of the agency.

2010 Presidential campaign

In 2008, Petro announced his interest in a presidential candidacy for 2010. He distanced himself from government policies and, along with Lucho Garzón and Maria Emma Mejia, led a dissenting faction within the Polo Democrático Alternativo. Following Garzón's resignation from the party, Petro proposed a "great national accord to end Colombia's war," based on removing organized crime from power, cleaning up the judicial system, land reform, democratic socialism and a security policy differing considerably from the policies of President Alvaro Uribe. On 27 September 2009, Gustavo Petro defeated Carlos Gaviria in a primary election as the Alternative Democratic Pole candidate for the 2010 presidential election.

In the presidential election held May 30, 2010, Petro did better than polls had predicted. He obtained a total of 1,331,267 votes, 9.1% of the total, finishing as the fourth candidate in the vote total, behind Germán Vargas Lleras and ahead of Noemí Sanín.

Mayor of Bogotá

In 2011 Gustavo Petro was elected Mayor of Bogotá. During his term his reputation has been seriously damaged and his popularity has been low, ranging between 29% and 50%. The Economist criticized his authoritarian style and described Mayor Petro as an arrogant person, who alienated some of his closest supporters as well as many citizens. He has, however, received strong support from the Animal Rights and LGBTI rights sectors, as many of his policies were focused on the protection of animals, improving discrimination against minorities.

His administration has been plagued by multiple scandals and his popularity has dropped sharply. The citizens of Bogotá, led by Representative Miguel Gómez Martínez, have started a process to recall his mandate. 630.623 signatures has been collected and presented to responsible authority (national civil registry), which validated 357.250 of them, much more than the legally required to start the recall process. Petro's party, Progresistas, tried to undermine the process and refused to recognize the decision taken by the National Civil Registry. On December 19, 2013, The National Registrator, Carlos Ariel Sánchez validated the signatures and the Recall Poll must be called in a two months term after a formal notification. Petro in his Twitter account claimed that he and his legal team will not delay the process. The team surrounding him, however, managed to get access to the database of the persons that signed supporting the derogatory referendum. Later the signs and names of those citizens were published in internet using a site called cuidomifirma.net. Using multiple strategies and legal actions, his supporters managed to delay the process so that the democratic referendum never took place.

In spite of the warnings of multiple associations, scholars and regulatory agencies, on August the 26th Gustavo Petro signed a decree to set a new zoning plan for the city of Bogota. The new zoning plan was rejected early in 2013 by the city´s council, which is the entitled entity to modify or set a new zoning plan. Therefore, the legality of this decision has been questioned by the control entities, some of which already submitted lawsuits against the new plan.

His attempt to create a single public operator for Bogota waste collection failed partially and forced him to renegotiate the former contracts with private operators. For the implementation of the new model, Mayor Petro was forced to rent and import at the last moment, used waste collections vehicles from the United States, whose mechanical and sanitary conditions were evidently poor. His administration ordered 278 waste collection trucks, but due to miscalculations 60 trucks are not being used. Additionally he signed a decree that allowed the collection of waste in dump trucks, a practice explicitly forbidden by Colombian law. One operator died while collecting waste in a dump truck. The public operator has been declared illegal by several regulatory agencies and an investigation was opened.

The Office of the Inspector General of Colombia on December 9, 2013, who considered the new waste collection system as improvised and hazardous to Bogota's population and an attack on free market competition, and therefore decided to strip Petro from his position and ban him from public posts for 15 years. Polling showed that most Colombians opposed his dismissal by General Inspector Ordonez. The decision was appealed by Petro's legal defense team (including a lawsuit filed against Inspector Ordóñez in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights), and was initially upheld. After being informally notified of his dismissal, Petro invited his supporters to join him in the Bolívar Square to publicly denounce Inspector Ordóñez ruling as part of a massive conspiracy to stop left-wing political parties from holding power, an attempt to damage the ongoing Havana's Peace talks with the FARC and to perpetuate corrupt structures who would benefit from Petro's departure. Ordóñez was identified as a 'rightist' by the New York Times, and his ideological hostility to Petro was well known. He hired buses to bring 15,000 supporters to the Square in protest. Petro was reinstated as Mayor after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ruled in Petro's favour.