Gustavo Petro, a former rebel and mayor of Bogota, will face Rodolfo Hernández, a populist business tycoon and former mayor of Bucaramanga, in a showdown where both candidates have been touted as political outsiders. Both men are divisive, prone to blunders and high, and the pre-election campaign was bitter, with each candidate accusing the other of corruption. Hernandez – who is under investigation for bribery – refused to talk to Peter and moved to Miami for a while after claiming his life was in danger. Hernandez shocked Colombia when he reached the second round on Sunday, after ousting several career politicians from the race in the first round of voting on May 29. Peter got the most votes then, about 8.5 million, but he could not collect enough to pass the 50% threshold required for the final victory. Sunday would mark the first time Colombia is led by a leftist. Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernandez face off at the polls on Sunday. Photo: Martin Mejia, Fernando Vergara / AP “We are one step away from achieving the real change we have been waiting for our whole lives. There are no doubts, only certainties. “Let’s make history,” Petro said in a video posted on social media on Wednesday. “You decide: vote for those who have been in power for more than 30 years or for someone who has worked for their family,” Hernández wrote on Twitter, avoiding traditional rallies and relying on social media – especially TikTok – to reach out to voters. Whoever wins on Sunday will be fired. The country is still recovering from anti-inequality protests that rocked the country last year, and the 2016 peace deal with the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) hangs in the balance. This agreement officially ended decades of civil war that killed 260,000 people and displaced 7 million, although it was implemented only by stopping. But whichever candidate wins, history will be written, and both men will share their ticket with Afro-Colombian women – meaning Colombia’s next vice president will be a black woman. Petro’s nominee, Francia Márquez, is an agricultural activist who won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Award. Hernandez’s ticket companion is Marelen Castillo, a little-known university director and conservative catholic. “One of the things that makes this election stand out is that it’s removing the traditional political forces that have been in power in the country for two decades,” said Sergio Guzmán, an analyst at Colombia Risk Analysis. “It is an intense departure from where the country was and leads to an uncharted path.”
