According to the Global Network, Colombia's new president, Gustavo Petro, was officially sworn in on August 7, local time, becoming the country's first left-wing president since independence.
On the day of Petro's inauguration, Spain, the former suzerainty of Colombia, and a number of leaders and representatives of Latin American countries attended, and 150,000 Colombians spontaneously held celebrations outside the venue.
Chinese netizens thousands of miles away also issued a blessing, "I hope that the rain in Macondo will stop here." (Note: "The Rain of Macondo" is from the Colombian writer Márquez's masterpiece "One Hundred Years of Solitude", alluding to the war and suffering suffered by the Colombian people)
In the political spectrum in Latin America, left-right swings are the norm, with a "collective turn" about every 10 years. In recent years, with the decline of US hegemony, this cycle has gradually shortened to the time of one administration.
But Colombia is obviously the more special one, no matter which way you go, I will not move, and I will remain in power on the right, and Colombia has become the most important ally of the United States in Latin America.
To describe the relationship between the United States and Colombia, one sentence is enough, "Colombia is a non-NATO main ally of the United States." From the Korean War to the Iraq War, Colombia has not been absent in almost every foreign war launched by the United States, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a military "thug" of the United States in Latin America.
At the same time, Colombia and the United States are also deeply bound politically, the most typical case is the two severances of diplomatic relations between Colombia and neighboring Venezuela.
The first severance of diplomatic relations occurred in 2010, when Colombian President Uribe ordered a crackdown on his left-wing guerrillas in Venezuela and accused Venezuelan President Chávez of secretly supporting the Colombian opposition. He also said bad things about other people's turf, which was not done properly, and Chávez announced in a fit of rage that he had severed diplomatic relations with Colombia.
The second severance of diplomatic relations was after the victory of Venezuela's left-wing President Maduro in 2019, the United States used electoral fraud as an excuse to prop up opposition leader Guaido to come to power, and the then right-wing government of Colombia also followed the pace of the United States, denying the legitimacy of maduro's government, resulting in another severance of diplomatic relations between the two sides.
Now, with Petro winning the election, there has also been a turnaround in Colombian-Venezuelan relations. Not long ago, officials of the two countries jointly issued a statement saying that when Petro officially took office, normal diplomatic relations with Venezuela would be resumed, and the two sides would re-send ambassadors.
The United States certainly does not want to see such an outcome. After Petro announced his victory, US Secretary of State Blinken came sourly, congratulating the Colombian people on their full exercise of their right to democratic elections and hoping that the new government would still maintain friendly relations with the United States after taking office.
Although Colombia has suffered from the United States for a long time, in the view of many scholars, Petro's rise to power does not mean that Colombia has since deviated from the United States. The reason is nothing more than one word: money.
All along, the most criticized problem of the Latin American left is the problem of corruption, don't look at the campaign period of the mouth to create a fair and just society, after coming to power, or can not escape the "dragon slayer teenager eventually becomes a dragon" circle.
It sounds a bit ironic, but it's not contradictory. Since the "Monroe Doctrine" was proposed in 1823, the United States has been deeply cultivated in Latin America for nearly 200 years, firmly controlling the economic lifeblood of Latin American countries.
If the left-wing government insists on going its own way, it will only fall into the same blockade situation as Venezuela and Cuba, and instead of clinging to the unattainable ideals, it is better to take advantage of the opportunity to gain more, and human nature will always seek benefits and avoid harms.
What's more, under the double blow of the new crown epidemic and the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, the economic development of Latin American countries has been stagnant, and it is definitely not a wise approach to break up with the United States at this time. Therefore, Petro may adjust to diversification in domestic and foreign affairs, but there will be no fundamental change in the general direction of developing economic cooperation with the United States.
In addition to the influence of the United States, the domestic situation that Petro has to face is not necessarily very good. In the parliamentary elections in March, Petro's left-wing party won only 17 percent of seats in both houses.
Compared with the United States, the Democratic Party controls the two houses by a slight advantage, but Biden's bill is still difficult to produce one after another. With less than 1/5 of petro's left-wing party seats, it is even more difficult to push forward with any bill.
In addition, although the Colombian civil war has ended, local warlords are divided, armed conflicts still occur from time to time, and the power of drug trafficking groups cannot be underestimated. How to improve the security environment is also one of the difficult problems that Petro has to solve.
In general, although the road ahead is not clear, the "millennium old right" Colombia began to turn left, which is itself a historic breakthrough. It was only when Lula won the election and successfully returned to the team that the era of belonging to the Latin American left really began.