The Atlantic

The President Who Did Everything Right and Got No Thanks

The perplexing part of Colombia’s electoral choice of a former leftist guerrilla over a right-wing populist is how unheralded the success of the outgoing moderate was.
Source: Sebastian Barros / NurPhoto / Getty

Which would you prefer? An elderly TikTok star who compares himself to Donald Trump? Or a former Marxist guerrilla who attended the funeral of Hugo Chávez? A candidate notorious for his radical flip-flops on public policy? Or a candidate notorious for his intolerance of any kind of disagreement or dissent? One who explained his praise for the Hitler dictatorship by claiming he had confused Adolf Hitler with Albert Einstein? Or one whose attempt to renationalize garbage collection in his city left mountains of trash piled in the streets?

Welcome to the Colombian presidential a victory for candidate No. 2, the former guerrilla Gustavo Petro, over No. 1, Rodolfo Hernández. Obviously, either choice would have inscribed huge question marks over the future of one of the more successful democracies in Latin America.

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