Protecting Colombia’s Fragile Democracy

From Democracy Digest:

“With Petro I’d be concerned about good governance, whether he will be able to be a good manager, but I would not worry for democracy itself,” analyst Laura Gil, director of La Línea del Medio, observed of the leftist candidate Gustavo Petro prior to Colombia’s recent presidential election.

Petro has surprised observers by criticizing Nicaragua’s authoritarian drift that, in his words, has turned into a climate of “repression against opponents and political prisoners.”

“If he wins, we are in for four turbulent years” said Gil, also a political scientist at Bogota’s Javeriana University. “He will have to prove that his leftist movement is willing to operate within the rules of democracy and control the most radical members of his coalition, while facing right-wing groups that will make every effort to block his proposals.”

Read the full article here.