Gustavo Petro
Gustavo Petro | |
|---|---|
| File:Gustavo petro alcalde.png | |
| Mayor of Bogotá | |
| Assumed office 1 January 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Clara López Obregón |
| Senator of Colombia | |
| In office 20 July 2006 – 20 July 2010 | |
| Member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia | |
| In office 20 July 1998 – 20 July 2006 | |
| Constituency | Capital District |
| In office 1 December 1991 – 20 July 1994 | |
| Constituency | Cundinamarca Department |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 April 1960 Ciénaga de Oro, Córdoba, Colombia |
| Political party | Progressivists Movement (2011–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Alternative Democratic Pole (2004–2010) Regional Integration Movement (2002–2004) Alternative Way (1998–2002) |
| Spouse(s) | Mari Luz Herrán Cardenas Verónica Alcocer García |
| Alma mater | Universidad Externado de Colombia (BA) |
| Profession | Economist |
| Website | www |
Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego (born 19 April 1960) is a Colombian politician of the Political Independent movement Progresistas (Progressivists) and the current Mayor of Bogotá. As a young man he fought with the 19th of April Movement, which later evolved into the Alianza Democrática M-19. He then became active in newly-established Alianza Democrática M-19 political movement. He was also a candidate of the Alternative Democratic Pole in the 2010 presidencial election, but lost at ranking fourth after the now President Juan Manuel Santos, Antanas Mockus and German Vargas Lleras respectively. After departing of the Pole in 2010, Petro was elected mayor of Bogota.
Early life
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 popular leader, and was elected ombudsman of Zipaquirá in 1981 and councilman from 1984 to 1986.
M-19 militancy
After the presidential elections of 19 April 1970, the National Popular Alliance accused the National Front of electoral fraud. Four years later, in 1974, the 19th of April Movement emerged in opposition to the National Front coalition. In 1978 M-19 stole the sword of "El Libertador", Simón Bolívar, and about 5,000 weapons from a military garrison, El Canton Norte. Petro (who was eighteen at the time) may have demonstrated his militancy to the group by, after his election as councilman of Zipaquirá, helping to hide the weapons in the city.
While Petro was an active militant of the M-19 guerrilla, the following human rights' violations were among the most memorable committed by this armed group: the siege of the Palace of Justice at Bolivar Plaza in Bogota on November 6, 1985. At least 53 civilian casualties were registred, 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 [1]. Other crimes include the siege of the Dominican Republic Embassy, the kidnapping and murder of the newsreporter José Raquel Mercado[2], of businessman Hugo Ferreira Neira[3], 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 assasinated.[4] 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 (The Century).[5]
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 Lovaina. He earned a doctorate in Modern Business Administration at the Universidad de Salamanca in Spain.[6]
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.[7]
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.[8] 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.[9]
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.[10]
On 17 April 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.[11]
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".[12]
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.[13]
On 18 April 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.[14]
Criticism of FARC
Senator Gustavo Petro has publicly criticized the FARC guerrilla group.
In a 5 September 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".[15] 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".[15]
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".[16]
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 7 May 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.[17]
2010 Presidential campaign
In 2008, Petro announced his interest in a presidential candidacy for 2010.[18] 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 30 May 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.
References
- ^ Comision de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos: Caso 10738: Holocausto del Palacio de Justicia
- ^ "Víctimas del Comunismo. Memoria Histórica 2". Marzo 27 de 2011.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help); Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ RESTREPO, Laura y GONZÁLEZ, Camilo. Colombia, Historia de una Traición. 1986, p. 124.
- ^ "EL OSCURO PASADO DE UN CALUMNIADOR". Centro de Análisis Sociopolitico.
- ^ CARDONA, Jorge. Dias de Memoria, Editorial Aguilar, 2009. p. 199
- ^ "Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego". Terra.com.co. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
- ^ Caracol Radio, El Congreso eligió a los mejores y peores de esta legislatura Template:Es icon
- ^ es.Wikinews, Resultados elecciones legislativas de 2006, march 2006
- ^ "Hay Gata encerrada". Semana.com. Retrieved 6 December 2010.Template:Es icon
- ^ El Tiempo, ¿Que se olviden del debate con Uribe? Dos ex miembros del M-19 hicieron reflexionar al PresidenteTemplate:Es icon
- ^ Las acusasiones de Petro (video)Template:Es icon
- ^ Presidente Álvaro Uribe responde a acusaciones de paramilitarismo del senador Gustavo Petro[dead link]
- ^ Una foto de Santiago Uribe, hermano del presidente, con Jorge Luis Ochoa, fue mostrada por Petro[dead link]
- ^ Superintendencia de Vigilancia salió en defensa del Presidente frente al debate de Gustavo Petro[dead link]
- ^ a b Revista Cambio. "La lucha del Polo no debe ser contra Uribe" 5 September 2007. Available online. Retrieved 26 February 2008.Template:Es icon
- ^ El Tiempo. 3 February 2008. "Marchar o no marchar, esa fue la cuestión del Polo". Retrieved 11 February 2008.Template:Es icon
- ^ Investigan a dos militares por espionaje a familia de Petro[dead link]
- ^ "Gustavo Petro lanzó su candidatura en el Polo Democrático". Caracol Radio. 27 February 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2009.