Inequality in Latin America is fuelling a new wave of populism
Voters are once again turning to politicians who promise radical change
On august 7th Gustavo Petro was sworn in as Colombia’s president. He is the first left-wing politician to hold that office. Together with his vice-president, Francia Márquez, a human-rights activist and environmental lawyer (and the first Afro-Colombian to have the job), Mr Petro campaigned on promises to redistribute wealth from Colombia’s richest to its poorest, to expand public education and to scrap all new oil exploration in the country. “We will cease to be one of the most unequal societies in the world,” his programme declared. The radical message worked: in June’s election he was backed by 11m people, or 50.4% of voters.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “The jet set and the rest”
From the August 13th 2022 edition
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