Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos said Monday that the election of former guerrilla Gustavo Petro as Bogota mayor is a message to rebels that it’s time to lay down their arms.
Santos said that Petro’s election is “the most prominent example that reintegration does pay, and social transformations are obtained from the polls of democracy and not from the gun.”
With Petro’s victory, Santos sees an opportunity for an ex-guerrilla to prove that the path of reconciliation is the most sensible way, according to the presidential website.
Commenting on Petro’s past as a guerrilla, Santos remarked, “The mayor was active in the M-19 – as I said and as he had said – a son of the peace process, but now the first charge from the capital of the country comes from the force of his ideas, by the courage of his convictions, and by something very important, by betting on democracy.”
He went on to stress that Petro’s victory shows that “proposals never, ever should be [made] from pain or death.”