Gustavo Petro president is different from Gustavo Petro senator or mayor: the prominent politician during 30 years due to his vehemence and confrontation with the traditional powers, he is obsessively betting on dialogue and consensus.
“I want a strong, fair and united Colombia,” he said at his inauguration. “The challenges that we face as a nation require a stage of unity and basic consensus”.
Among those challenges is, of course, violence. And to put an end to it, Petro has approached, against all odds, the most extreme right.
The Petro candidate knew how to represent the demands of millions of poor Colombians who were neglected by what they call in Colombia the “establishment”: the fight against inequality, clientelism and violence.
But to address them, and so that they are resolved with success, the President Petro needs that political, media and business class that controls the country
That is why the methodology of consensus permeates his entire government: the cabinet has people of almost all tendencies and in the legislative coalition there are conservative and traditional parties.
The day after his election, Petro met with old enemies: his opponent in the second round, Rodolfo Hernández, and the leader of the right, former president Álvaro Uribe. Photos were taken that seemed unthinkable before.
They predicted a weak governance, but the pro-government bench has managed to pass important laws
It has also launched massive “binding regional dialogues” that convene communities in search of infrastructure solutions, order public and transparency.
Many, however, see it as a strategy: they accuse him of using old-time political tactics, the so-called “jam
In In any case, the politician who was described as “arrogant”, “stubborn” and “despot” fell for the fraternity when he became president.
Opposite shores
Y For two of his most ambitious promises, agrarian reform and peace with the National Liberation Army (ELN), Petro called businessman, rancher leader and politician José Félix Lafaurie.
Lafaurie accepted the invitation: he will be one of the government negotiators in the peace process with the ELN, which began this week in Caracas, and signed a crucial and generous agreement so that the State buys 3 million hectares of land from ranchers who are waiting to be distributed among peasants
During 30 years Lafaurie has made politics against everything that Petro represents: peace talks, land redistribution and State assistance.
If Petro in the past said that the ranchers were “narco latifundistas violent expropriators of peasants”, Lafaurie said that Petro was “Nazi”, “Chavez adviser” and “terrorist”.
Now the tone It is different.
“Petro has shown that his administration will be one of dialogue and agreement,” Lafaurie justified these days. “It has opened up scenarios… those of us on the other shore, what we have to do is go to those spaces and build in the direction that they propose, but also of course under the criteria that one believes they should contribute.”
Uribe, an old friend of the rancher, celebrated the initiative: “Your participation can contribute to bringing an acceptable level of national agreement on the issue closer, which requires reflection and acts of peace from the ELN.”
During the peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), between 2008 Y 13474, the implacable opposition of Uribismo generated skepticism among millions of Colombians, who mostly voted against the agreement in a plebiscite.
“In the case of the FARC, the national agreement was denied to us when we requested it as a result of the victory of the no in the plebiscite,” said or Uribe. “There was no peace, but there was more drug trafficking, more violence and more political polarization.”
Petro somehow agrees, and hopes that Lafaurie’s accession to the negotiating table will give him legitimacy to the agreement that is signed with the ELN.
The powerful unionist
Reactions to the arrival of Lafaurie to the negotiating group there is something for everyone: “Thorn in the shoe”, “bold gesture” and “complex but interesting” were some of the expert comments. The former leader of the FARC, Rodrigo Londoño, described it as a “sign that peace is unstoppable, wins wills and transforms the country”.
Nobody, in any case, can omit the surprise, because the ranchers are the great enemies of the guerrilla. The promoters, according to judicial records, of paramilitarism; the owners, according to study centers, of a third of the land in the country
Lafaurie was born into a family of cotton growers in the north of the country. From a young age he was between businessman and politician. He went through several state fiscal control organizations and those linked to agriculture. He was the union leader of the powerful notaries.
He is also the founder of one of the wealthiest clubs in Bogotá, El Nogal
Does 15 years, Lafaurie came to the Presidency of Fedegán, a cattle ranchers association that manages more than US$30 millions of public resources, as reported by La Silla Vacía, in one of the largest parafiscal collection funds in the country.
He is married to María Fernanda Cabal, an Uribista senator who rejects peace talks, is against all of Petro’s initiatives, supports carrying arms and opposes abortion. Cabal said she did not feel “comfortable” with the collaboration of her husband with Petro: “I firmly believe that crime should be subjected,” she said. And he defined the role of his partner in the peace talks as “observer”.
In 2006, Lafaurie was sanctioned for influence peddling in the Superintendence of Notaries and Registry, a decision ratified by several courts despite their appeals; and in 2008 was appointed in courts as one of Uribe’s allies who pressured and bribed congressmen to approve his re-election.
The great suspicion about him, however, has been an alleged connection with paramilitaries
He denies the accusations, although he admitted having negotiated with them in search of peace. “The cattle union has the courage to assume the responsibility for having financed the paramilitary movement in the past,” he said in 2008. He always gave a justification, which he has even maintained in recent scenarios of land invasions: the self-defense of private property.
Now, however , seems like one more ally of the so-called “total peace” of Petro. ” The livestock sector cannot refuse a request like the one made by the president with great generosity
Many view it with skepticism. The government is just beginning and the honeymoon continues. Lafaurie may well leave the negotiating table when he sees fit. The polarization is reactivated with a breath and in 2023 there are municipal elections.
But these days, at least half of Colombia is surprised by this fraternity between old enemies.
Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC News World. Download the new version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.