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Gustavo Petro Urrego (born April 19, 1960 in Ciénaga de Oro, Córdoba Department) is a Colombian leftist politician member of the Alternative Democratic Pole, currently serving as Senator in the Congress of Colombia. His family is of Italian descent who established in Cordoba. At a young age he became a member of the 19th of April guerrilla movement (M-19) and later demobilized with the group's full demobilization. He then joined the newly established Alianza Democrática M-19 political movement.

Contents 1 Early life 1.1 M-19 militancy 2 Studies 3 Political career 3.1 Opposition to the Uribe Government 3.2 Criticism of FARC 3.3 Death threats against Petro 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early life

Petro studied in the Colegio de Hermanos de La Salle where he founded the student newspaper Carta al Pueblo (Letter to the People). At the age of 18 he became a member of the "19th of April" (M-19) guerrilla movement involved in mililtary and political duties. During his militancy in the group, Petro became a popular leader and was elected in 1981 as Ombudsman of Zipaquirá, and later as councilman for this same city between 1984 and 1986.

[edit] M-19 militancy

After the presidential elections of April 19, 1970 the National Popular Alliance accused the National Front of electoral fraud. Four years later, in 1974, the 19th of April movement emerged as opposition to the bipartisan interests of the National Front. The (M-19) stole in 1978 the sword of El Libertador Simon Bolivar and some five thousand weapons from a military garrison: El Canton Norte. Petro, who was 18 at the time, is believed by some to have already proclaimed his militancy in the group and, having been elected councilman of Zipaquirá, helped hide the weapons in the municipality of the city. However, there is uncertainty as whether the accusations are true or not, since there is no concrete evidence to make the claims against him valid. Years later the guerrilla movement began a peace process with the government.

[edit] Studies

After the demobilization Petro graduated as economist from the Universidad Externado de Colombia and took graduate studies at the Escuela Superior de Administración Pública (ESAP). Later on, he received a masters degree in economy from the Universidad Javeriana. He then traveled to Belgium, enrolling in graduate studies in Economy and Human Rights in Lovaina. After these he received a Doctorate in Business Administration New Tendencies at the Universidad de Salamanca in Spain.^[1]

[edit] Political career

After the demobilization of the M-19 guerrilla, former members of the group (including Petro) formed a political party called Alianza Democrática M-19 which obtained and important number of seats in the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia in 1991 representing the Cundinamarca Department.

Years later in 2002 Petro obtained the highest voting turnout for the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia representing Bogotá, this time under the Vía Alterna political movement founded with former guerrilla colleague Antonio Navarro Wolff and other former M-19 guerrilla members. During this period he was proclaimed "Best Congressman", both by his own Congress colleagues and the press.^[2]

With Vía Alterna, Petro conformed in 2002 an electoral coalition along with the Frente Social y Político to form the Independent Democratic Pole, which in 2005 fusioned with the Alternativa Democrática to form the Alternative Democratic Pole grouping an important number of leftist political figures.

In 2006 Petro was elected Senator of Colombia for a second period with the second highest voting turnout in the country.^[3] During this year he also aired the Parapolitics scandal accusing members and followers of the government of mingling with paramilitary groups in order to "re-found" Colombia.

[edit] Opposition to the Uribe Government

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Senator Petro has vehemently opposed to the government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, denouncing various actions of the government that have later been classified, by the government, as calumnies. In 2005, while a representative in the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia, Petro denounced the lottery businesswoman Enilse López aka "La Gata" (the cat). She is currently (as of May, 2009) in jail and under investigation for having ties with the (now demobilized) paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Senator Petro alleged that the AUC financially contributed to the presidential campaign of Álvaro Uribe in 2002. Uribe refuted these statements by Petro, but during his presidential reelection campaign in 2006, admitted to having received financial support from Enilse López.^[4]

During Álvaro Uribe's second term as president, Petro promoted debates related to the Parapolitics scandal. In February 2007 Petro started a public verbal dispute with President Uribe when Petro suggested that the president should have declared himself "unsuitable" to negotiate the Demobilization process of paramilitaries in Colombia after accusations were made that Uribe's brother, Santiago Uribe, was a former member of the paramilitary group named "The Twelve Apostles" in the mid 1990s. President Uribe responded by accusing Petro of being a "civilian-dressed terrorist" and by calling the opposition to an open debate.^[5]

On April 17, 2007, Senator Petro started a public debate, in Congress, about CONVIVIR and the development of paramilitarism in Antioquia Department. During a two-hour speech, he exposed various documents demonstrating the relationship between members of the Colombian military, the current political leadership, narcotraffickers and paramilitary groups. Petro also criticized the actions of Álvaro Uribe as Governor of Antioquia Department during the CONVIVIR years and presented an old photograph of Álvaro Uribe's brother, Santiago, alongside Colombian drug trafficker Fabio Ochoa Vázquez.^[6]

The Minister of Interior and Justice, Carlos Holguín Sardi and the Minister of Transport, Andrés Uriel Gallego were asked to defend the president and his government. Both of them questioned Petro's past as a guerrilla member and accused him of "not condemning the combating of violent people". Most of his arguments were considered as calumnies. The day after this debate the president said "I would have been a great guerrilla, because I wouldn't have been a guerrilla of calumnies, but a guerrilla of riffles. I would have been a military success, not a protagonist of calumnies".^[7]

President Uribe's brother Santiago Uribe said that his father and the Ochoa brothers had grown up together and were in the Paso Fino business together. He then mentioned that he also had many photographs with many people.^[8]

On April 18, 2007 the Vigilance and Security Superintendency released a communique rejecting the various affirmations made by Petro in regards to the CONVIVIR groups. The superintendency said that many of the groups mentioned were authorized by the Departments of Sucre and Córdoba but not by the Antioquia government and added that Álvaro Uribe, then Antioquia's governor, had canceled the juridic liability of eight CONVIVIR groups in 1997. It was also mentioned that the paramilitary leader known as "Julian Bolívar" had not yet been identified as such and was not associated with any CONVIVIR during the authorization of these groups.^[9]

[edit] Criticism of FARC

Senator Gustavo Petro has publicly criticized the FARC guerrilla group.

In a September 5, 2007 interview for the Colombian newsweekly magazine Revista Cambio, Petro argued that "the FARC are insensible to the calls of both the international community and Colombian society because they have lost contact with the world after the assassinations of UP members. And since they don't need social and popular support any longer because they make a living from the drug trade, that increases their insensibility".^[10] During that same interview, Petro compared the FARC to Pol Pot and stated that "FARC aren't revolutionaries, they aren't left but right wing and they are criminals".^[10]

Petro was among those who participated in a February 4, 2008 worldwide mobilization against the FARC. His political party's leaders officially decided not to do so, voting 3 to 18 against an initial proposal made by Petro. The senator had previously met with the organizers of the march, asking them why the event was only against FARC and not the paramilitary forces or the ELN. After he decided to participate, according to Petro, the "traditional left" labeled him as an "Uribist". Senator Petro later stated that "this is a manifestation against kidnappings and against the FARC, but it is clear that the democratic expression of the citizenry cannot be impeded".^[11]

[edit] Death threats against Petro

Petro has denounced in many occasions death threats against his life and of his family members as well as persecution by government-run security organizations. On May 7, 2007 the Colombian army captured two Colombian Army intelligence non-commissioned officers that had been spying on Petro and his family in the municipality of Tenjo, Cundinamarca. These members had first identified themselves as members of the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS) the Colombian Intelligence Agency, but this was later denied by Andrés Peñate director of the agency.^[12]

[edit] See also

• 19th of April Movement
• Alternative Democratic Pole

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Gustavo Petro in the official website of the Alternative Democratic Pole
• Interview with Gustavo Petro