Leading opposition senator Gustavo Petro Thursday officially announced he is
running to be the presidential candidate for social democratic party
Polo Democrático.
On the first day of the Polo convention, the senator — who had earlier announced he would not be attending the meeting — unexpectedly showed up, receiving a spontaneous ovation.
Talking to the members of the party, Petro advocated not to just think of party strategies as an opposition party, but to come up with an alternative for the ‘Democratic Security’ policy of the current coalition, led by Álvaro Uribe.
According to Petro, the country should stop allowing itself to be divided in supporters of Uribe and the FARC, speaking only of war.
The senator called on his own party to consider a collaboration with the Liberal Party — also in the opposition — to be able to seriously offer an alternate candidate for Uribe or his coalition successor.
Petro is the first member of Colombia’s opposition to officially present himself as candidate.