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France 24
France 24
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Will Colombia look left? Presidential race focuses on inequality, enduring violence

THE DEBATE © FRANCE 24

Is a peace generation coming of age in Colombia? Six years after the FARC rebellion laid down its arms and one year after student-led protests against inequality and police brutality, citizens will vote on Sunday in the first round of a presidential election where the 2016 peace deal that ended the Americas' longest civil war is but one factor. For the very first time in the country's history, the left could come to power.

We ask about the many lives of candidate Gustavo Petro, a one-time rebel turned economist and mayor of Bogota. How radical a change do he and his running mate Francia Marquez represent? How real are the threats against them and the electoral process, in a nation where militias still kill human rights activists and which still counts at least one active rebellion?

More broadly, we see why the protests sparked by the perceived mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic resonate well beyond Colombia's borders: in a Peru that faces a potential food crisis, a Venezuela still isolated on the world stage and a Brazil that also heads to the polls later this year.

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laurain and Guillaume Gougeon.

>> Watch our special programme: Colombia's peace deal generation

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