Gustavo Petro

Biography

Gustavo Petro was born in 1960 in Ciénaga de Oro, Córdoba, and grew up in Zipaquirá. At 17 he joined the M-19 guerrilla movement and served as a town councillor in Zipaquirá; he was arrested by the army in 1985. He graduated in economics from the Universidad Externado de Colombia in 1982. After the M-19 made peace with the government, he was elected to the Chamber of Representatives in 1991.

Petro sat in the Chamber again from 1998 and was elected to the Senate for the Alternative Democratic Pole in 2006, gaining attention for exposing links between politicians and paramilitaries. He ran fourth in the 2010 presidential race, then founded the Humane Colombia movement and was elected mayor of Bogotá in 2011, serving until 2015 apart from a brief removal in 2014. He lost the 2018 presidential runoff and returned to the Senate.

In 2022 Petro defeated Rodolfo Hernández to become Colombia's first left-wing president in recent history. His government raised the minimum wage, expanded labour protections and redistributed land, while his health and labour reforms stalled and his Total Peace policy drew criticism. He restored relations with Venezuela, cut ties with Israel over the Gaza war, and clashed with the Trump administration. Barred from re-election, he backed Iván Cepeda, who lost narrowly in 2026, and handed power to Abelardo de la Espriella on 7 August 2026.