It’s not easy being Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president : NPR

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Chanting and waving flags, a whole bunch of supporters of Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first-ever left-wing president, surrounded the Supreme Court docket constructing final month. They have been indignant as a result of the judges inside have been stonewalling Petro’s push to nominate Colombia’s first feminine legal professional normal.

“This can be a progressive authorities that’s attempting to assist the folks,” stated one Petro partisan, retired schoolteacher Cecilia Vargas. “However they’re blocking him.”

Petro, who’s a former left-wing guerrilla and Bogotá mayor, has pledged to remodel Colombia right into a extra equal society. However throughout his practically two years in workplace, Petro has typically floundered after which made issues worse by lashing out at his critics on social media and in incendiary speeches.

“I believe the difficulties of being the primary leftist authorities in Colombia’s historical past have been augmented by self-inflicted wounds,” says Daniel García-Peña, a college professor who labored for Petro when he was mayor a decade in the past. “Many individuals who voted for Petro have been anticipating one thing very totally different.”

Petro, 63, has gotten some issues finished.

He pushed by way of what analysts describe as a extra equitable tax code. He reestablished diplomatic and business ties with neighboring Venezuela that had been severed in 2019 over that nation’s crackdown on democracy. Petro has additionally maintained good relations with Washington, regardless of his efforts to overtake Colombia’s long-running U.S.-backed anti-drug technique.

Nevertheless, Petro has confronted fierce opposition from the opposite branches of energy. His push to reform well being care, pensions and the labor code have stalled in Congress. Legislators have decried his efforts to make peace with guerrilla teams. Authorities watchdog businesses annulled the election of Petro’s prime congressional ally, suspended his overseas minister for alleged corruption, and are actually probing his 2022 election marketing campaign for potential unlawful donations.

Petro, whose press workplace didn’t reply to NPR’s request for an interview, has loudly defended his overseas minister and the integrity of his presidential marketing campaign. He describes these disciplinary actions mixed with the gridlock in Congress and the courts as amounting to a bureaucratic coup in opposition to his authorities by what he views as Colombia’s deeply conservative deep state.

“Corrupt politicians and sectors inside the Legal professional Normal’s Workplace are looking for the ouster of the president who was elected by the folks,” Petro declared on X (previously Twitter) on Feb. 2.

Petro’s complaints coincide with a broader principle inside the Latin American left contending that reactionary authorities establishments are utilizing authorized levers — a apply typically known as “lawfare” — to delegitimize and even take away progressive and left-wing presidents within the area.

Petro was a fierce critic of the 2022 ouster of left-wing Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, despite the fact that he was arrested for closing Peru’s Congress and trying to rule by decree. In January, Petro traveled to Guatemala in a present of help for that nation’s newly elected progressive president, Bernardo Arévalo, who was briefly blocked by conservative legislators from taking the oath of workplace.

What’s extra, Petro stays bitter about his personal non permanent elimination as Bogotá mayor in 2014 following a ruling by the archconservative head of a authorities watchdog establishment that accused him of mishandling rubbish pickup within the metropolis.

Luis Almagro, who heads the Group of American States, just lately spoke out in opposition to what he stated have been politicians’ makes an attempt to “harm the democratic course of in Colombia.”

“The Normal Secretariat condemns and repudiates the threats to interrupt the constitutional mandate of President Petro,” the OAS stated in a Feb. 8 assertion.

Bogotá authorized scholar Rodrigo Uprimny says Petro has some legit complaints. For instance, Colombia’s former legal professional normal, Francisco Barbosa, whose time period ended this month, was a fierce and frequent critic of the president. After months of dithering, the Supreme Court docket has but to approve Petro’s alternative to switch Barbosa as legal professional normal despite the fact that that course of often takes just some weeks.

However Uprimny and different observers additionally contend that nobody is attempting to oust Petro and that the majority of his issues are of his personal making.

Petro’s legislative agenda has been caught for months, partly, as a result of he has step by step misplaced the help of a lot of the Congress. He has eliminated many of the average members of his Cupboard, typically changing them with left-wing ideologues, says Alejandro Gaviria, Petro’s former schooling minister who lasted six months till he was pushed out in February 2023. He known as Petro a chaotic administrator.

“He would not know how one can lead a authorities,” Gaviria instructed NPR. “Cupboard conferences have been so messy that I might hardly consider it.”

Opposition Sen. Miguel Uribe claims that Petro distrusts anybody past his inside circle — maybe a byproduct of his time as a fighter within the M-19 guerrilla group within the Eighties. He says this mentality makes it more durable for Petro to succeed in throughout the aisle, compromise and get payments handed.

Though Petro has by no means embraced communism, “he has a really communist logic,” Uribe says. “It is like Che Guevara. You solely have two choices. Both win or die and that is it.”

Petro has additionally been hobbled by household scandals.

His eldest son, Nicolás Petro, was indicted Jan. 11 for allegedly pocketing donations from drug traffickers meant for his father’s presidential marketing campaign. The Legal professional Normal’s Workplace is investigating the president’s brother, Juan Fernando Petro, for allegedly looking for funds from jailed drug sellers in change for judicial advantages from the Petro administration. The president has tried to distance himself from the instances and says justice ought to take its course.

In the meantime, first woman Verónica Alcocer is dealing with scrutiny within the Colombian media for lavish spending.

Petro’s job approval score suffered. It fell from 48% in December 2022 to 26% a yr later, earlier than climbing to 35% in February, in response to surveys by the pollster Invamer.

In speeches and on social media, an more and more annoyed Petro has been urging his followers to take to the streets to defend his authorities. They responded with their march to the Supreme Court docket constructing on Feb. 8.

However the protest sparked a flurry of accusations that Petro was bullying the judiciary department. As well as, some protesters carried flags of the M-19, Petro’s former guerrilla group. That introduced again painful reminiscences of the rebels’ 1985 takeover of the Supreme Court docket, which led to a army siege that killed greater than 100 civilians, together with 11 courtroom justices.

With Petro closing in on the midway level of his four-year time period, Uprimny says he is proving to be a greater provocateur than president.

“He likes to make speeches. He likes to be cheered. He desires to be liked,” Uprimny says. “However the issue is that he would not ship. As a result of perhaps he would not like to manipulate.”

That stated, Petro has two extra years to show issues round.