Left wingers

Colombian Greens and Progresistas merge to unite the left?

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Colombia`s Green Party signs a agreement to join forces with Gutavo Petro`s Progresistas. An alliance of the left? Christian Ortiz wonders how it might work.

Can you imagine the Progressives, the Green Party, and Compromiso Ciudadano together in one party? For many, it would be like mixing oil and water! However, recently the three political movements approved a general consensus to begin negotiations to form a coalition.

Despite obvious ideological differences among the three groups, it seems they are all set on joining forces to go up against an eventual Santos reelection bid. Conditions couldn’t be better; President Santos and ex president Uribe are more divided than ever; Santos’ popularity rating has plunged to an all time low; and a very unstable and questionable economic model has left the country virtually paralyzed. Such is the context in which Antonio Navarro Wolff has set out to build an alternative political option for Colombia.

Early negotiations between the three movements have faced skepticism from all sides of the political spectrum, questioning the viability of placing leaders such as Gustavo Petro (Progresistas), Sergio Fajardo (Compromiso Ciudadano), and Enrique Peñalosa (PartidoVerde) under one single banner.

Political coalitions have been extremely successful in South America, however, and it may be a headache worth enduring. Progressives, Green Party and Compromiso Ciudadano joining together could be the start of something much more solid. Picture a Frente Amplio criollo – if you will – dedicated to the Constitution of 1991, but willing to enhance democracy by empowering the people. But also picture a broad coalition that could stand to defend diversity in order to collectively develop a more humane future for Colombia.

We have seen in Uruguay, its Frente Amplio win the last two presidential elections, and as Jose Pepe Mujica is winding down his current term, the coalition is already working together to secure a third presidential mandate. Frente Amplio of Uruguay has been able to unite diverse sectors like the Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, Socialists, Communists, and even some Liberals. We have also seen center-left coalitions succeed recently in Ecuador and Venezuela.

Although Navarro Wolff seems to have set out to seduce the center parties first, he has revealed that ideally a next stepwill permit an accord with the parties and diverse social movements of the left. For the former M-19 Commandant, and ex Governor of Nariño, one thing is clear; “If we want to be a competitive option, we have to construct a diverse coalition, if not, Santos will easily defeat us, like a knife going through butter.”

Bogota Mayor Petro on ropes as impeachment vote nears

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Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro faces the fight of his life to avoid being removed from office in November.

Colombia’s top legal official, Inspector General Alejandro Ordóñez  this week opened proceedings against Petro for illegal and irresponsible use of taxpayers’ resources in the ill fated nationalization of Bogota’s garbage collection last December.

At the same time, the unpopular mayor will face a public vote to kick him out after the registry confirmed receipt of nearly 400,000 signatures asking for a referendum to put an end to the former guerrilla’s administration.

Petro is appealing the registry’s decision, claiming many of the signatures are false. Should he lose this battle though, he will have to hope polling figures which over 70 per cent of Bogotanos support his impeachment are wrong. Petro has failed to over turn polls which show overwhelming opposition in almost all policy areas.

To secure Petro’s denouement, campaigners for the referendum, led by Miguel Gomez, grandson of Conservative caudillo former president Laureano Gomez, must mobilize over a million voters. Bogota has over 5 million registered voters; on paper success appears more than a distinct possibility.

The capital’s voters are notoriously unenthused by elections, however, and Gomez, if he his to win, must do so without the support of the major political parties who have refused to throw their weight behind the campaign. Without the party “machinery” it is hard to see that over a fifth of Bogotanos will head to the polls on a Sunday (when elections are called), traditionally a family day, when many head out of the city. Nevertheless, the opposition to the Petro government is fierce, and the mayor is conscious of the humiliation he would face if he were to become the first to be disposed of in this way. Not even the allegedly hideously corrupt Samuel Moreno suffered this fate.

Colombia Politics view

Petro’s defence has predictably argued this is a campaign perpetrated by ring wingers appalled at the sight of a former guerrilla in power. He points to Gomez’s heritage, and to the involvement of Conservative ideologue Ordóñez in the process.

But the majority of Petro’s detractors are not motivated by ideology or hatred for the left. Bogotanos have grown weary of their mayor’s aggressive and confrontational style of governing and many appear to agree with a recent advert that argued, “Petro has a speech for every situation but never a solution”.

Bogota is one of Latin America’s most important cities. For Colombia it is the economic engine, the political and cultural heart of the nation. But Petro stands accused of failing to address the major problems the city faces. His transport policies have arguably led to greater chaos, and his decision to hand garbage collection to the publicly run Bogota water company was disastrously executed. This, coupled with the resignation – at a rate of almost one a month – of top officials in his administration give the appearance of a government struggling not to sink in its own quick sand of incompetence.

The vote to get rid of the mayor will, however, be difficult to win unless Petro takes another misguided policy decision in the coming weeks. When asked, most want Petro out of office, or at least do not support his government. But will this passive dislike turn into votes?

The undesirable reality is that while the campaign is on-going, Petro’s government is grinding to a halt as it diverts resources to a rearguard action. The general in his trapped in his labyrinth.

The last thing Bogota needs is continued inertia and an absent government. If Petro has to go, may he do so quickly and quietly. The city is too important to be reduced to an unpopularity contest.

Colombia: On the path to social transformation?

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Guest piece by Christian Ortiz in response to a Colombia Politics editorial critical of Bogotá Mayor, Gustavo Petro

Over the past decade, we have become accustomed to hearing daring stories of struggle for political, social, and economic reform throughout Latin America. Recently, the renowned Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón stated in recognition that, “The world’s future is being constructed in Latin America.”

In contrast, Colombia has always been viewed as a Conservative stronghold, and a staunch U.S. ally, for which it became known by its neighbors as the “Cain of the Americas.” Nonetheless, over the past year, Colombia’s capital city, Bogotá has become the scenario of an audacious progressive spring.

Elected city Mayor back in November of 2011, Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter of the 19th of April Movement (M-19) and Founder of the independent political Progressive Movement (Progresistas), has set out to demonstrate that Colombia too can jump on the social justice bandwagon that we have seen travel throughout Latin America in recent years. Is Colombia on the path to a democratic social transformation?  Could Colombia be the next country to become part of the Latin American Pink Tide?

Even though Petro recently completed his first year in office, he has been able to bring about substantial change for the city. His administration has made a historic dent in homicide rates, reducing it from a whopping 22.1cases per 100,000 habitants in 2011, to 14.4 in 2013, their lowest in over 34 years. Along with homicide rates, suicide rates have fallen by 12.6%, while bank, house and other commercial robberies have also dropped by almost 30%. Furthermore, the locality of Antonio Nariño, located in the south of Bogotá has gone 200 days without one single homicide in their community. According to the local mayor of that community, Giovanni Monroy Pardo, this milestone wouldn’t have been possible without Petro’s citywide ban on carrying weapons. For Jairo Libreros, a well known security expert analyst, and skeptic of Petro’s administration, “policies like these allow firearms to have less and less influence in times of conflict resolution.”

Petro’s administration, also known as Bogotá Humana, has additionally set out to bring an end to widespread animal violence, by banning all bull fights from the capital city. At the historic bullfighting ring located in the heart of Bogotá, Plaza Santamaría, blood baths and animal cruelty are a thing of the past. Now, an arena full of life, art and culture, this plaza has hosted more than 30,000 people for more family friendly venues such as free ice skating, an opera festival and a massive youth chess tournament. Bogotá’s progressive government has also initiated efforts to eliminate torturous animal-drawn vehicles from transiting its streets. By kick starting an alternative vehicle substitution program, Petro hopes to take in around 3,000 horses, and in exchange, offer the former buggy drivers incentives to acquire small modern motorized cargo vehicles. So far, some 450 horses have been turned in to authorities, where they’ve received medical treatment, a temporary home, and a renewed hope to be lined up with a new family through an animal adoption agency.

But for the 53 year old mayor who originates from a small coastal town called Ciénaga de Oro, it’s the fight against social inequality and discrimination that occupies the very top of his agenda. Already, Petro has created the first ever Sub Secretary for LGBT affairs, along with doubling the district’s education budget. Petro then boldly slashed water bills for Bogotá’s most underserved families’ by granting discounts of up to almost 30%.

Whereas costs for transportation are going up everywhere else in the world, Petro, by decree, lowered the cost for public transportation users in the city. Petro argues that by lowering the cost of living for most of Bogota’s underserved communities, they will have more flexibility to allocate funds to bettering their living conditions, thus tightening the gap between the most rich and poor. Back in 2002, the GINI index for Bogotá was at 0.58, making it one of the most unequal cities in the world. Last year that ratio found itself at 0.49, meaning it fell ten points over the past decade. During Petro’s first year alone, the city’s GINI index has dropped three points. According to the Mayor, Bogotá has been able to reduce its inequality “not because the wealthy have become less wealthy, but because the poor have increased their own wealth” (Petro, 2013).

But like any other struggle for social justice, Bogotá Humana has met a fierce resistance. Petro has not only set out to transform the capital city of Colombia, but he has also set out to rebuild a city recently hit by a tornado of corruption that led to the ousting and incarceration of his predecessor. Petro’s unorthodox and progressive style of leadership has earned himself a very staunch and powerful conservative opposition in the city council, private sector, and different State institutions. His opponents, including much of the private media seem unified to smother Petro’s image, and Bogotá’s progressive spring along with it. Conservative opposition groups recently collected 600,000 plus signatures in efforts to revoke Petro’s democratic mandate as Mayor. If national authorities approve the signatures, Bogotá would undergo a referendum vote to decide Petro’s future at the Liévano Palace. Only time will tell how this story ends.

Bogotá under Petro is beginning to revive itself, because of the achievements mentioned above, and for the many more that were left out of this article. For now, let it be known that one of the most significant, daring, and poetic attempts to democratically transform society is at stake in the city, turned battleground, of Bogotá. With Presidential elections just around the corner, the success, or failure of Petro’s Progressive movement may very well determine the future path of Colombia.

Christian Ortiz, is a graduate student of International Affairs at Universidad Externado de Colombia

Photo: Agustin Fagua

Petro showing “mental confusion”: Polo Democrats´ Suarez

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A key member the Polo Democratic Alternative Party (PDA) moved to further distance the party from Bogota’s controversial mayor Gustavo Petro and his administration on Sunday in an interview with El Espectador.

Aurelio Suarez, a former Bogotá mayoral candidate for the party who stood against Petro in 2011, said a prominent reason for the setbacks the Petro administration has suffered in its first year in office are due to the “mental confusion” of the mayor. He claimed that Petro “doesn’t know what he wants and what he can do in the existing institutional framework to advance programmes”.

Suarez emphasised that the Petro administration had an “incredible capacity to do unreasonable things” and that fundamental elements of the administration “cannot be categorised as of the left”. He cited the administration’s support for public-private partnerships as evidence of this, as well as criticising the introduction of a number of new taxes in the city since Petro came to power in 2011.

Suarez’s comments reveal a fear of the PDA that as a party of the Left they risk being associated with the incompetence and controversy that surrounds the Petro regime. Indeed, they point to a broader problem that the Left faces in Colombia in that parties pitching for a more moderate position are often associated in with the array of extreme elements that exist in the country. Petro himself used to belong to the PDA but left under a cloud when the party decided – in certain measure – to stick by the then disgraced Bogotá mayor, Samuel Moreno. Petro has since set up his own party, the Progressives, but as Suarez admitted in the interview, sections of the society still link Petro back to the PDA.

The PDA face a fight for survival at the congressional elections next year. Although their senate list leader is the popular Jorge Enrique Robledo, there is a real possibility that the party will not reach the appropriate percentage of the national vote to secure seats in the parliament. Clara López, recently confirmed as the party´s presidential candidate in 2014, has a job to do to position the PDA in a packed field, and to present a reasonable and voting winning face of the left. Any association with the hugely unpopular Petro must be avoided at all costs.

With old friends like these….

Colombia´s third way? How the left can save itself

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Colombia´s favourite ex-guerrilla Antonio Navarro Wolff hopes to upset the applecart by taking on Colombia´s two political heavyweights, Ex-President Uribe and current President Juan Manuel Santos in next year´s elections.

Navarro Wolff is the name behind a new political movement – Pidimos la Palabra – that hopes to bring together the voices of the “centre” “centre-left” and “left” to present an alternative to the hyped polarization between the Uribe and Santos camps.

The former M19 leader has grown tired of the media´s obsession with the fight between the ex-president and his old defence minister, and believes, for the health of Colombian democracy, the voters need an non right, centre-right option on the ballot paper come 2014.

Señor Navarro Wolff has been quick to point out that he himself is not seeking election, either to congress or to the presidency (he is a failed presidential candidate), but instead has been working with sectors within the Green, and Progresistas parties. He wants to draw on those who supported Antanas Mockus – the surprise package in the 2010 Presidential Elections – as well as though on the left, drawn to the politics of Gustavo Petro. Navarro Wolff was Petro´s second in command early last year, before he left the Mayor of Bogotá´s ailing administration (if not under a cloud, then under less than happy circumstances).

The official opposition party in congress, the left-wing Polo Democratic Alternative have committed themselves to running their own presidential candidate, in the shape of Clara López. Many believe that Polo could end up with no parliamentary representation following the elections, and Wolff´s move to try to bring together the different strands of those on the left is seen as a way of preserving a non right, centre-right presence within the congress.

Word of the Pidimos la Palabra project was first heard in August last year, and following an initial meeting of leaders held in Medellín, all had gone relatively quiet. But in an interview with El Espectador newspaper on Sunday, Navarro Wolff hinted at an imminent announcement, suggesting the movement was ready to put forward names of key supporters and possible candidates.

Whether the ex M19 commander will be able to bring together enough of the left to make the movement viable remains to be seen.

Colombia Politics welcomes the prospect of a united centre / centre-left grouping.

The Polo appears to be on its last legs, and should it disappear in 2014 it is important voters have an option before them. Should Navarro Wolff´s “party” present a more centrist platform – more aligned to the Mockus project, rather than the Petro model –  that too would be a significant step in the right direction. Colombia needs a sensible, mature, social democratic left, not a romantic revolutionary left.

Will the softly spoken and popular former Nariño governer – himself an old firebrand – be able to drag the left kicking and screaming to the centre?

Colombia opposition party choose presidential candidate to fight Santos

López, the best choice? Photo, Nuevo Siglo

Colombian opposition party Polo Democratic Alternative (PDA) will this weekend choose its candidate to fight the 2014 presidential elections against an almost certain to run for re-election President Juan Manuel Santos.

The PDA´s national congress, the third of its kind, begins tomorrow and under discussion is not only party policy, but also who will lead the group into the forthcoming elections. Two big names are expected to go forward as possible candidates, Jorge Enrique Robledo, and Clara López.

Robledo has the star appeal; his polemic and permanent campaigning style make him a hero for many on the left. Colombia Politics profiled this senator last month and has long tipped him has a potential presidential candidate.

In 2010, Robledo became the second most voted for senator, behind the U Party´s Juan Lozano. He is one of the most visible senators and has been a fierce critic of the neo-liberalism of the Uribe and Santos regimes. In a poll of influential thought leaders released today, Robledo was labelled the best performing senator.

Whether you agree with his politics or not, Robledo is the undisputed opposition heavy weight in Congress. His campaigns have been as diverse as they have been full-bloodedly fought. Last year he became the darling of the student movement, attacking the Santos administration´s education reform bill (which was eventually ditched because of the level and organization of opposition). This year he has taken on the implementation of the land restitution law, stood as the loudest voice against the free trade agreement with the USA, and has lampooning the government´s tax reform legislation currently before lawmakers.

Clara López is less polemic and less obviously a campaigning figure. The current director of the PDA party, López won credit for her work as the caretaker Mayor of Bogotá last year. López stepped in following the deposition of Samuel Moreno (who faced corruption charges) and was widely recognized as a successful administrator, in stark contrast to current Mayor and former Polo presidential candidate, Gustavo Petro.

This website has previously argued that Clara López represents the PDA´s best electoral hope.  For us, López´s measured style and her greater appeal to those closer to the political centre, means she has a higher chance of gathering in votes from a wider cross-section of society. It is difficult to see how Robledo would appeal (electorally speaking) to anyone other than a committed socialist. Fine if the PDA are content to languish in the polls.

López is without doubt a left-winger, but she scares away fewer voters than does Robledo. Colombia is not a left-wing country, but some 30% of the electorate is said to be prepared to vote for a candidate of this colour. Were López able to present a more centrist platform then this figure could well move north.

The problem for the Colombian left is that it has become fractured and disparate. Petro´s Progressives party and Piedad Córdoba´s far left Marcha Patriotica movement could well split the vote, leaving the PDA with precious little representation in Congress. It has even been predicted that unless the PDA run a successful election campaign they could struggle to return any politicians to the Capitolio in 2014.

The Santos administration controls over 90% of Colombia´s Congress leaving the PDA as the only real and organized opposition to the government. A PDA presence in Congress is important for the health of the nation´s democracy.

Despite disastrous regional elections last year, and a series of high-profile departures and splits since the last congressional elections in 2010, the PDA, with the right candidate will try to position itself as only viable alternative to the centre centre-right politics of the status quo.

Will the PDA choose wisely?

 

Lopez evicts Communists from Polo Democracts

Communists march in Bogotá

Communist FARC sympathisers were this week kicked out of Colombia’s main opposition party, the  Democratic Pole (PDA) by leader Clara López.

Using the news that the Communist Party are to join forces with Piedad Córdoba’s controversial Marcha Patriótica which is accused of being the political front for the guerrilla group, López has acted swiftly to purge extremists and to halt the Polo’s drift to the far-left.

Communist Party Leader, Carlos Lozano has of course reacted with indignation, labelling López’s moves ‘illegal’. But after a disastrous month for the left in which it has lost the support of large sections of society following its public support for Hugo Chávez’s re-election in Venezuela, and for appearing to side with indigenous groups over the army during the attacks in Cauca, López might just have saved her party from obliteration.

Polo – a party in perpetual revolution?

The PDA was formed in 2005 as a left-wing alternative to the centre and right-wing politics that predominate in Colombia. As a conglomeration of groups and movements from across the left, the party has always appeared pluralist and has tended to splits and vacillation on policy decisions. Electorally, success has been evident if not overwhelming.

The highlights have been the election of Samuel Moreno as Mayor of Bogota in 2007, and also in the capture of the department of Nariño from where governor Antonio Navarro Wolf has become one of the country’s most recognisable opposition politicians. In congress there are eight senators and five representatives in the second chamber, and in the presidential elections of 2010, the Polo’s candidate, Gustavo Petro came a very respectable fourth.

But the PDA is in perpetual crisis. Unable to stick together after the elections of 2010, the party lost its main star performer, Petro, who, in protest at the lack of will to tackle the corruption within the group, set up his own party, the Progressives with whom he won the Bogota mayoral election last year. Support for the left has been split and natural Polo voters have been leaving in droves to support Petro’s Progressives – crucially  three senators made the same journey last month.

In January, Clara López returned to lead the party following a successful stint as the caretaker mayor of Bogota. Her job is to prepare PDA for the elections in 2014, to establish a credible policy platform and to strengthen the unity and party machine ahead of the campaign.

The left’s opportunity

This website has argued that the PDA need to unite and move towards the centre, to gain a level of elect-ability. López herself has performed well, but her party appears determined to implode.

Last month this website reported on the study commissioned by the left-wing think tank, Nuevo Arco Iris which revealed that around a third of the Colombian electorate is prepared to vote for a presidential candidate from the left. In theory – found the report – with a likeable, centrist figure capable of uniting the entire movement there is an outside chance of victory. For me victory is out of reach, but a respectable second and a place in the run-off is a possibility.

The PDA ought to use this once-in-a-generation-opportunity to pull together. The imperative is to establish a narrative based on a series of attractive policies that can be sold to the majority of Colombians who are not attracted by the far-left statism that typifies Latin American socialism. The problem for the party is that it is doing precisely the opposite.

Pushing the self-destruction button?

Last month the PDA came out publicly in support of Hugo Chávez’s re-election campaign. Chávez is loathed in Colombia for his support for the FARC and his resulting complicity in the murder of thousands of Colombians. For a political party that wants to win an election, lending support to ‘enemy number one’ for millions of compatriots is naive and self-indulgent.

López is not naive, though. She understood that the seriousness of PDA was beginning to be questioned – that arresting this decline in support as become a political necessity.

The announcement from the Communist group within the PDA that it was join the Marcha Patriótica is therefore manna from heaven. By expelling the group, López shows the doubters that she will not tolerate hardliners in her ranks. The Communists departure was explained to be a legal decision (in Colombia politicians can’t represent two parties) rather than a once taken on ideological grounds. Most people will, however, read between the lines.

Make no mistake, any link with the Marcha Patriótica would have been electorally fatal for the PDA. The movement is headed by Piedad Córdoba the famous face of the far-left who was thrown out of the parliament in 2010 for her alleged links with the FARC. Córdoba is for many in Colombia a figure of hate – a mouthpiece for the guerrillas.

Last month videos emerged of the ex-senator inciting indigenous communities to rise up against the government and throw out the army. Days after Córdoba’s speech, indigenous groups attacked and threatened the army who were engaged in combat with the FARC in the department of Cauca. Colombians doubted this was coincidental.

For many in the country, including the Defence Minister, Pinzón, the Marcha Patriótica is the political wing of the guerrilla group. In Cartagena last week, Pinzón confirmed that the Marcha is ‘financed in good part by the terrorist organisation the FARC’.

There is much work that must be done if the Democratic Pole is to regain political credibility. López has saved it – for now – from destruction, but she must continue to fight to marginalise those with a socialist vision for Colombia. The PDA’s eventual programme for government must be moderate and based on change rather than revolution.

The question is whether the left care about winning or whether they want to remain on the fringes of power – the smart money appears to be on the latter.

Left-wing López capable of a Colombian presidential ‘coup’?

Resounding electoral success is not a phrase often used to describe the Colombian left; unsurprising in a country that has endured 50 years of war against Communist insurgents.

If recent polls are right, however, the presidential elections of 2014 are a once in a generation opportunity to redraw the political map. A third of voters appear set to vote left-wing while the right will be split between a Uribe-backed-horse and President Santos.

If a candidate can be found to unite the left, and appeal to those in the centre, then victory is a (very distant) possibility – well that´s what they´d like you to believe, of course. There are many names in the frame but only one that appeals – Clara López, President of the Polo Democratic Alternative party. The grandstanding polemicists must now give way and let López, a serious politician with real experience, have a shot at the Casa de Nariño.

A divided left?

Gustavo Petro, the Mayor of Bogota, is the left-winger with the most power in Colombia. His position is the second most important in the country, and despite his militancy with the old guerrilla group M-19 he was able to win over a sufficient number of middle and upper income voters to take control of the city in November. His mandate began in January and has been – so far – underwhelming.

In an earlier article published on this website Petro’s approach to winning the election – against the establishment candidate, Enrique Peñalosa – was examined and proposed as a blueprint for the left in future elections. Petro, originally seen as a firebrand who scared away any voter not ideologically tied to his brand of socialism, moderated his style and shifted the focus of his speeches on to the centre ground.

Unfortunately for Bogota this strategy was forgotten as soon as he entered power; his regression to the left has alienated and polarised voters.

Petro is a lesson for the left – both in how to win elections and how (not) to remain in power once there.

Petro is also a warning to left-wingers to avoid the temptation towards internal warfare. The Polo Democratic Alternative party who supported Petro’s presidential campaign in 2010 were unable to unite around his candidature for the mayoralty of Bogota. Petro, in protest at the party’s refusal to condemn corrupt members, left the party to form his own movement, the Progresives.

The Progresives split the Polo vote. The movement, bruised by Petro’s denunciations and internal splits, went on to record catastrophic local election results in November last year. Had the party acted to clean up the corruption and used Petro as a figurehead nationally and in the capital, the results would no doubt have been quite different.

Petro is by no means the only important politician to have left the Polo. Luis Eduardo (“Lucho”) Garzón – a former Bogota Mayor – ditched the party to form the Greens, essentially a left-leaning party (despite being officially part of the Santos coalition government). The Greens have been electorally successful, most significantly gaining the governorship of Antioquia with Sergio Farjardo.

Another figure of the left is Piedad Córdoba, a controversial former senator who is accused of suspiciously close relationships with the FARC and with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Córdoba, an excellent orator and former member of the Liberal Party, this year established her own movement, the far left, Marcha Patriotica.

The left in Colombia is riddled with factions – it must repair them to select a candidate capable of winning the presidency.

Alongside the personalisation of its politics there is another reason why the left in Colombia has failed to make electoral inroads. As Oscar Fernando Sevillano, writing for the Bogota think tank Corporación Arcoiris argues, the left have been ‘frustrated by the extreme right, the political elites in the regions, and parts of the military and the police have participated in their extermination’.

Remembering Gaitán, Galán, and Lara Bonilla, not to mention the hundreds of council candidates that over the years have been silenced, it is difficult to argue with Sevillano’s assessment. Sad then that news emerged this week of a planned attempt on Petro’s life.

The opportunity:

While the threats to the left of either internal annihilation or external assassination are not insignificant, the opportunity to make history is there. Leon Valencia, director of Nuevo Arcoiris in a comment piece for Semana heralded the results of the poll commissioned by his organisation in which it was revealed that 28% of voters would vote for a left-wing candidate.

According to Valencia, the poll is ‘a message of great hope’ for the leaders of the Colombian left. Should they ‘choose a single candidate who looks to the centre’ he ventures, ‘they have a chance of reaching the Palace of Nariño’.

Valencia went on to argue that with the split in the votes of those on the right – as a result of the fight between Uribe and Santos – there is every possibility that the candidate of the left could win through to the second round – the head-to-head. Valencia drew analogy to Petro’s victory in Bogotá, showing how a surprise candidate – in a crowded field – can sneak through the middle.

Choosing the candidate – Colombia’s ´Iron Lady´

The left have been successful in Bogota, it has been a long-held bastion of progressive thought. Many capital cities in the world are more left-wing than the rest of their nation. To win in 2014, the left needs to choose a candidate that can appeal not only to the liberal metropolitan elite, but also to the rural voters.Clara López – despite her Bogota credentials – is this person; a serious and respected voice of the moderate left. She has appeal across all sectors of Colombian society, and will not alienate or repel votes.

In January Clara López returned to the presidency of Polo following a highly successful period as the caretaker Mayor of Bogota. Having taken over from Samuel Moreno – who had been suspended on corruption charges – López succeeded in uniting the capital, governing from the centre, and vanquishing the ghosts of her predecessor’s regime. López’s reputation as safe pair of hands had been cemented – and she remains one of the few left-wing Colombians with real and tangible governing experience.

The appeal of Doctora López is based not only in her experience but also her character. Her image is not that of the prototype politician of the Latin American left. Cadenced rhetoric and polemical speeches about imperialist Yankees are not her style; she is a rolled-up-shirt-sleeve, no-nonsense politician. The tone of her discourse is serious and modest, the content realistic, not idealistic.

‘Colombia’s Iron Lady’  (as a Brit who grew up in the time of the real Iron Lady, I know one when I see one) often wears thick rimmed glasses, pins tightly back her hair and dresses seriously. She is more akin to head mistress of a posh British school than a gun-toting revolutionary.

Although aristocratic and formidable, although schooled overseas and an impeccable member of the governing class, López has never let the common touch evade her. The aloofness of oligarchical arrogance that Santos is accused (unfairly) of is not in evidence here.

Examining her closely, there is almost something Churchillian in her stare and in her determination to do what she believes is right. If the left wants a presidential candidate that will deliver blood sweat and tears, it should look no further.

Also published on redescolombia