CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Peace and Justice at Stake as Colombian Election Approaches and US Watches

Image by Element5 Digital.

Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first and only left-leaning president, leaves office soon. First round voting takes place on May 31. Iván Cepeda, standard bearer of Petro’s Historic Pact party, leads in opinion polls. Cepeda and his vice-presidential running mate are waging a vigorous campaign. She is Aída Quilcuée, of NASA heritage and a leader of CRIC, Latin America’s oldest indigenous organization.

An opinion poll taken in late March suggests Cepeda might even win a first-round victory. He was first choice for 37.5% of those surveyed. Right wing candidates Abelardo de la Espriella and Paloma Valencia, Cepeda’s closet competitors, polled at 20.2 % and 19.9 %, respectively. However, two other polls indicate voting will go to a second round, and Cepeda may be defeated.

Cepeda’s campaign gains strength from Petro’s 50% approval rating and victories of Historic Pact candidates in legislative elections held on March 8. Candidates of dozens of parties competed. The Historic Pact won 25 seats in Colombia’s Senate, with its 102 seats. The second-place Democratic Center party accounted for 17 seats. In voting for the Chamber of Representatives, with 183 seats, Petro’s party took 36 seats and the second-place Democratic Center, 25 seats.

Interest in Cepeda’s crucially important campaign extends into the darkest corners. Assassination plots against Cepeda are coming to light, maybe with CIA involvement. There’s electoral fraud on the way, says Petro.

Beginning in 2010, Iván Cepeda, born in 1962, served in Colombia’s Congress as a representative and then as senator. In 2003 he and others founded the National Movement for Victims of State Crimes, a coalition of groups seeking justice for victims of armed conflict. As congressperson, Cepeda investigated former President Alvaro Uribe for his ties with paramilitaries, and took him to court.

Manuel Cepeda, Iván Cepeda’s father, was a Communist Party leader, editor of the Party’s newspaper, and senator. Paramilitaries killed him in 1994. Violence and threats caused Iván Cepeda, alone or with his family, to seek exile abroad intermittently between 1964 and 2003, mostly in Soviet Bloc nations.

Cepeda’s government experience and exposure to Colombia’s way of violence well qualify him to bring the people’s........

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