Voters punish Petro allies in Colombia’s regional elections

President Gustavo Petro of Colombia suffered another political setback after his leftist coalition was soundly beaten in the country’s regional elections, losing in most key districts and seeing a steep decline in votes compared to previous elections.

Centrist Carlos Fernando Galán won the mayoral race in the capital, Bogota, after two failed attempts. He won by a first-round landslide, with 49 percent of the vote.

Mr. Galán defeated Mr. Petro’s candidate, Gustavo Bolívar, who finished third with just 18 percent of the vote in a district that had once been a stronghold for Mr. Petro’s allies. Even economist Juan Daniel Oviedo beat Mr. Bolívar to second.

Meanwhile, former presidential candidate Federico “Fico” Gutiérrez won in Medellín, while Alejandro Éder and Alejandro Char became mayors-elect in Cali and Barranquilla, respectively. As such, all the country’s biggest cities will now be led by right-leaning mayors.

President Petro initially responded to the results by posting a message on X (formerly Twitter) saying his coalition had gained ground in smaller districts and denying that the results were a defeat for his group, but later deleted it.

Although the complex combination of parties and coalitions in each district makes it difficult to have a final count of how much territory each group will control after the vote, analysts generally agreed that the results were a victory for opposition forces. 

After winning the 2022 presidential race and ending 24 years of right-wing dominance in Colombian politics, Mr. Petro worked to implement an ambitious reform agenda, including changes to the country’s pensions, health care system, and labor laws. But he has so far failed to reach consensus with centrist forces on all but one of his key pieces of legislation (a tax reform that he managed to pass last year). 

His other key campaign promise, to make peace with Colombia’s remaining armed groups, has also shown slow progress, and the weakening Colombian peso has contributed to a decline in his popularity.

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