Vote counting begins in Colombia, with the left tested amid wave of violence
Petro was the great protagonist of the campaign after a disruptive government. The former guerrilla, who signed peace in 1990, faced Congress, the courts, the prosecutor's office, and the central bank.
Colombia finished voting in the first round of presidential elections on Sunday and began counting the votes to define the next ruler of a country mired in violence and divided between extending the era of the left or turning to the far right.
The world's largest cocaine producer faces a resurgence of armed conflict at the end of Gustavo Petro's government, the country's first leftist president. Although very popular among the lower classes for his social programs, he could not seek reelection by law.
The candidate of his party, 63-year-old senator Iván Cepeda, leads in voting intention according to pre-election polls, but would not have enough support to avoid a runoff on June 21.
His possible opponents are the millionaire lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, 47, or opposition senator Paloma Valencia, 50, sponsored by influential former president Álvaro Uribe.
Both far-right candidates promote a hard line against crime and reject the peace negotiations promoted by Petro without extinguishing the worst wave of violence in the last decade.
"It is very worrying because of the drug trafficking issue, there are no longer guerrillas, it is practically only drug trafficking," said AFP's Payan Santiago Calambaz, a 22-year-old Misak indigenous man who voted in a conflictive area in the southwest of the country.
"Let's hope" that with the new government "this improves," he added.
The polling stations closed after a calm day, amid ceasefires by the main guerrilla groups. The government deployed 408,000 uniformed personnel to guarantee security.
"Uncertainty"
Cepeda, son of a communist politician assassinated by state agents and paramilitaries, voted in a working-class neighborhood of Bogotá where he grew up before going into exile in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Cuba.
"We will celebrate the second progressive government in Colombia," said the philosopher and human rights defender.
At the opposite pole is Abelardo de la Espriella, an eccentric millionaire lawyer, 47, who calls himself 'El Tigre', whose symbol is the military salute and who promises death or prison for mobsters.
"We are going to win in the first round to defeat the tyranny," he said surrounded by bodyguards while voting in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla.
The campaign took place in a climate of polarization and fear, with deadly attacks by guerrillas, the murder of a presidential candidate, and refusals by the main candidates to participate in debates.
"For me, the most complex issue is security, the expansion of our armed groups that block everywhere," said Jhon Jairo Aristizábal, a 55-year-old doctor in the department of Antioquia, a right-wing stronghold.
"Very dark"
Petro was the great protagonist of the campaign after a disruptive government. The former guerrilla, who signed peace in 1990, faced Congress, the courts, the prosecutor's office, and the central bank.
At the opening of election day, he showed the press his vote for Cepeda.
"The vote must be free and without pressure," he declared.
Cepeda proposes to continue Petro's policies and bets on the "excluded," amid a fiscal crisis.
The opposition criticizes him for being one of the architects of "Total Peace," the policy with which Petro tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with organizations that remained armed after the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC guerrilla.
"It is a moment of great uncertainty, because there is a lot of hope, but also the outlook can be very dark," Colombian Natalia Valencia, a 46-year-old public official, told AFP.
"They suffer" from the guerrilla
De la Espriella stands out with an anti-system proposal. He promises bombings, strengthening of public forces, and elimination of the court that emerged from the peace agreement.
"People in the territory suffer, they are the ones who suffer from the guerrilla, from displacement," said Laura López, a 27-year-old lawyer.
An admirer of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, as well as El Salvador's Nayib Bukele and Argentina's Javier Milei, he proposes building 10 mega-prisons and reducing the state by 40%.
His campaign events included fireworks shows and videos with artificial intelligence. He displayed singing skills and gave belligerent speeches enclosed in a bulletproof capsule.
The United States closely watches the elections, after constant clashes between Petro and Trump that threatened the relationship between two historically allied countries in the fight against drug trafficking.
