The bloom appears to be off the rose for Colombia’s first socialist president. Less than a year after the South American country celebrated President Gustavo Petro’s inauguration, thousands protested his administration in recent weeks as tensions mount over unmet expectations, attempted political reforms, and a corruption scandal.
Throwing gas on the fire, pressure from Washington underscored Mr. Petro’s inability to control migrants entering the Darien Gap amid cooperation with Venezuela on energy. The latter stands in sharp contrast to his previous stance on environmental commitment.
Meanwhile, poverty afflicts more than a third of the country as economic growth this year has slowed. Mr. Petro’s 2022 pledge to broker a lasting peace agreement with Colombia’s notorious crime syndicates Clan del Golfo, and the Marxist guerilla group ELN is also facing complications.
Mr. Petro suspended the peace agreement with Clan del Golfo after cartel members attacked police in March.
“We will not allow them to continue sowing anxiety and terror in the communities,” Mr. Petro said regarding the attack on his Twitter account.
In June, the head of state announced a six-month cease-fire had finally been reached with the ELN and would come into force on Aug. 3.
Yet this minor win proved to be too little, too late for Colombians. Mr. Petro’s popularity already bottomed out the first week of June after a public scandal involving two key members of his cabinet came to light. Allegations of unauthorized wiretaps, stolen funds, and campaign finance violations prompted the Colombian attorney general to open a formal investigation.
Buyer’s Remorse
On June 20, thousands of demonstrators across the nation flooded the streets in opposition to Mr. Petro’s proposed social reforms, which include the national health care, labor, and pension systems.During the demonstrations in Bogota, locals carried signs declaring “No more Petro” and “Petro out.”
But for some analysts and U.S. officials, the mayhem in Colombia arrived right on schedule. Many have said Mr. Petro’s old-school approach to socialism and rosy leftist rhetoric is out of touch with the reality of a post-COVID economy, mounting environmental concerns, and current geopolitical tensions.
And there’s data to support this. Mr. Petro’s approval rating plummeted from 50 percent in November 2022 to 33.8 percent in May. Concurrently, his disapproval rating soared to 59.4 percent from 43 percent, according to an Inmaver poll.
“I’m actually worried about some of his bad decisions for Colombia,” Evan Ellis, a Latin America research professor at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, told The Epoch Times.
Mr. Ellis noted the instability surrounding Mr. Petro’s rocky first year in office has “scared off” new investment. Some of this stems from his attempts at aggressive policy changes, leaving venture capitalists uneasy.
So far, Congress has blocked Mr. Petro’s pension, health care, and labor market overhauls. Many Colombians have hailed this as a blessing, according to Mr. Ellis. “The Colombians I’ve talked to are just apoplectic.”
Alongside stagnating economic growth, this adds to the political sticky trap Mr. Petro has fallen into. In 2022 he vowed to make great strides against poverty and income inequality during his campaign.
Dirty Deals
Washington officials have also called out Mr. Petro’s presidency for duplicity on environmental issues and cooperation with the largest human trafficker of migrants through the Darien Gap: Clan del Golfo.During a July 27 House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing, Chairwoman Rep. María Salazar (R-Fla.) noted that in addition to reopening Colombia’s border with Venezuela, Mr. Petro has aligned himself with Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro in the energy sector, particularly when it comes to purchasing Venezuelan oil.
“President [Joe] Biden is aligned with Petro on a very dirty climate agenda, and the question is: Where are the environmentalists?” Ms. Salazar asked. “The United States and Colombia produce some of the world’s cleanest energy, but both counties have halted domestic production.”
She noted Venezuela’s oil production has historically broken every environmental regulation in the books, resulting in what she called the “dirtiest oil produced on earth.”
Further, Ms. Salazar believes Mr. Petro isn’t doing enough to stop Clan del Golfo’s profitable trafficking of thousands of migrants through the Darien Gap. She also pointed to Petro being soft on cartels and making “deals” in favor of criminals.
One of these was an incentive proposed by the embattled head of state in April, which offered members of drug trafficking groups willing to turn themselves in, in exchange for a maximum of eight years in prison and the right to retain 6 percent of their ill-gotten fortunes.
During the same July 27 hearing, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) stressed the need for Colombia’s cooperation with the United States to address the ongoing hemorrhage of migration heading north through the Darien jungle.
Mr. Castro called the migration crisis a “hemispheric problem.”
Despite Mr. Petro’s frosty rhetoric toward the United States, Mr. Ellis believes his administration won’t stray far in security cooperation.
“He’s not embracing us, but he also isn’t moving too far away,” he said.
Mr. Petro’s administration acknowledged the need to fight trafficking in the Darien Gap in February.
“We have to face the criminality of the Clan del Golfo. Strengthening intelligence and being able to identify large organizations that could be in league with the Clan del Golfo or independently carrying out criminal activities is a fundamental issue,” Colombia’s Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez told reporters.
