Will Biden Accept a Leftist President of Colombia?

"As the election nears the Colombian ruling class has become increasingly hysterical, with much of the wealthy-owned media accusing Petro of being a “communist” who plans to turn Colombia into Venezuela, a punch that partially lands because around 3 million economic refugees from Venezuela are living in Colombia

How will Colombia’s oligarchs react to a Petro Presidency, assuming he is allowed to govern? Will there be a capital-strike in response to Petro’s progressive policies? In reality the strike started a month ago, as investors began to accept that Petro was bound to win: the Colombia peso has been dropping precipitously, which should be considered a warning shot: “go left and we (the oligarchy/US banks) destroy the economy.”

Is the Colombian oligarchy overreacting to a Petro Presidency? Not at all. They will have lost their grip on political power after 200 years, and his policies are too Left for Colombia’s wealthy and the US establishment to bear.

He wants to raise taxes heavily on the richest 4000 Colombians; he wants to end new oil exploration; he wants to end the very basis of the US-Colombian relationship by stopping the drug war, via phased legalization.

He has spoken to Colombia’s youth and the working class very convincingly, and the many public debates have sharpened ideas and agitated existing issues for millions of people, i.e. there has been a dangerous level of democracy in this election in the minds of the oligarchy. Ultimately they fear how the Colombian working class will respond to a Petro Presidency, since under a capitalist oligarchy the system only “runs smoothly” when the working class is quiet and obedient.!

more in the analysis by Shamus Cooke

Will Biden Accept a Leftist President of Colombia? - CounterPunch.org