Gustavo Petro, the former guerrilla fighter who wanted to change Colombia

Bogotá"Despite not having been a soldier, I know about war and clandestinity," Petro said a few days ago when Trump was issuing warnings to Bogotá. A tension and exchange of public messages The truce was short-lived: on Wednesday night they made peace with an hour-long phone call that eased tensions, according to the Colombian ambassador in Washington. Trump noted that it had been "an honor" to speak with the very president whom he had labeled a drug trafficker just days beforeFor his part, Petro posted a photograph on social media of two animals—an eagle and a cheetah—symbolizing a step toward friendship between the two countries. But Petro had already warned: "I swore not to touch another weapon since the 1989 peace agreement, but for the sake of my country, I will take up the weapons I don't want again."

Only Petro and his comrades in arms know if his hands are truly stained with blood or if his guerrilla career didn't extend beyond the training camps of the M-19, the April 19 Movement formed by young people with leftist ideas in the 1970s. The group's activities were more propagandistic than military, while he combined clandestine activity—under the alias [missing name]—with other activities. Aureliano—with a council seat in the Zipaquirá City Hall, a town located about 50 kilometers from Bogotá. “Political activities,” say analysts who have studied Petro’s career, referring to his operations. These activities began when the now-president was only 18 years old and studying economics at university. From opaque actions with the group, he moved underground and, later, to prison. A couple of years in a cell that did not silence him. Petro emerged to found the M-19 Democratic Alliance, a now-legal party that brought together the organization’s principles to be presented in the halls of power with arguments, not in the mountains with guns. As a senator, Petro gained supporters throughout the country for his fight against paramilitarism, but he also did not align himself with the actions of the FARC. And many saw him as a bridge between two visions, or an interlocutor for two Colombias that were not speaking to each other.

The Mayor President

Petro won the mayoral election in Bogotá in 2012 with a Progressive Movement that garnered the support of the capital's citizens. Social justice and poverty reduction were his main slogans. In fact, he managed to reduce monetary poverty from 11.6 to 10 percent, according to official data. He also created a Women's Office and an LGBTI Citizenship Center, and established centers for birth control and abortion services in cases permitted by law. This was a wave of progressivism in a context where the traditional—and right-wing—political class had enjoyed free rein for decades.

But his moment of glory came when he ran—for the third time—for a presidency that seemed only suitable for conservative candidates. In 2022, with the Historic Pact candidacy, he broke with the right-wing hegemony. Together with Francia Márquez, a well-known environmental activist, he brought to the forefront unprecedented proposals: public services, civil rights, environmentalism, and foreign relations that broke with previous administrations. Because Petro, in addition to wanting to build a welfare state from scratch, sought to extend a hand to neighboring Venezuela, even if it meant straining relations with Washington.

Trump's last stint in the US presidency, a country that had always kept a tight grip on its Colombian partner, was marked by a Casa de Nariño (the Colombian presidential palace) that was ideologically distancing itself. In fact, although Trump recently invited his counterpart to the Oval Office, he will have to negotiate with immigration authorities. Gustavo Petro's visa was formally cancelled the last time he entered the country. On the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly, he declared, "I call on the American military not to obey the orders of their president," in the streets of Manhattan, with a stunned Roger Waters—co-founder of the psychedelic rock group Pink Floyd—in attendance. Suddenly, he went to the airport, and upon arriving in Bogotá, he was informed that he was no longer welcome in the United States.

Despite his rhetoric against Trump, whose elections are in 2026 and in which he will not be a candidate, his actions speak for themselves. The newspaper The CountryCiting diplomatic sources, he said that this week Petro has bombed FARC dissident camps, fumigated several sugarcane fields with glyphosate, and agreed to the extradition of drug trafficker Andrés Felipe Marín. Furthermore, President Petro is currently under a request from the Pentagon to include dissident guerrilla groups or the ELN as drug trafficking organizations. A Petro who emerged from the trenches to change Colombia is now heeding the advice of a Trump who doesn't hesitate to force his way into the country.