About to complete five months as president of Colombia, the country's first left-wing leader has high expectations regarding the beginning of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's (PT) term in Brazil. "We have to transform ourselves into a beacon for the world's progressive movement. Everyone is looking at us", says Gustavo Petro.
He alerts, however, that it is necessary to build a new agenda in view of the risk of "a resounding failure" if the formula of the so-called first "pink wave" is repeated — in reference to the generation of left-wing leaders who governed in Latin America at the end of the 1990s. The 1990s and early 2000s and the tactic of investing in "the rise in the price of raw materials, including fossils, and basing the redistribution of wealth on that".
"Southeast Asia's success has to do with industrializing, adding value, and investing in knowledge. None of that has been done here [Latin America], neither by the left wing nor by the right wing." The agenda for discussion with the Brazilian president includes the Amazon, common positions in the region regarding the climate crisis, and the invitation for Brazil to participate, as an observer and guarantor, in a plan for Colombia to reach peace with armed groups.
In Brasília for Lula's inauguration, held on Sunday (1st), Petro asked questions about the Amazon, showed interest in the Brazilian political process, and remembered to retrace the trajectory of the Brazilian president since the founding of the Workers' Party.
Translated by Cassy Dias