Left-wing leader Gustavo Petro won Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday by defeating real estate mogul Rodolfo Hernandez by a wide margin of 797,973 votes. 

Who is Gustavo Petro?

Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego is an economist, politician, and the first leftist to become the president of Colombia.

Early life

Petro was born on April 19, 1960, in the town of Ciénaga de Oro. Petro, who was born in a family of farmers, was raised as a Catholic. 

A decade later, his family decided to relocate to Zipaquirá, where he studied at the Colegio de Hermanos de La Salle and became the founder of the school’s student newspaper.

Years later, Petro graduated from the Universidad Externado de Colombia with a degree in economics. He then earned a master’s degree in the subject from the Universidad Javeriana.

He also briefly moved to Belgium to pursue graduate studies in Economy and Human Rights at the Université Catholique de Louvain. However, he did not complete the course. 

Career

At the age of 17, Petro joined the 19th of April Movement, a guerilla group that later became M-19 Democratic Alliance, a political party. Petro was elected as a member of the Chamber of Representatives in the 1991 election.

He was also elected to the Senate as a member of the Alternative Democratic Pole party after the 2006 parliamentary election. 

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Three years later, he resigned from the post to run for president in the 2010 presidential election in which he came fourth.

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After disagreeing with leaders of the Alternative Democratic Pole over ideologies, Petro founded Humane Colombia to join Bogotá’s mayor race.

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On 30 October 2011, he won the local election and became the mayor. 

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Years later, he contested the presidential election of 2018 and came second with 25% votes.