On June 19, Colombia became the latest in a string of Latin American countries to elect radical leftist governments in recent months, following in the footsteps of Chile, Peru, and Honduras in 2021. The Colombian electoral result is particularly concerning for several reasons. Colombian president-elect Gustavo Petro is the first radical leftist ever elected in this traditionally conservative country. Petro is a died-in-the-wool Marxist revolutionary who was jailed in the 1980s for his activity with M-19, a Marxist insurgency and terrorist organization in Colombia.
Colombia, which is next door to Marxist Venezuela and has had to absorb waves of refugees fleeing the appalling conditions created by that country’s dictatorship, ought to know better. In addition to the fruits of Marxism on display in Venezuela, Marxist insurgents have exacted a bloody toll in Colombia over the decades, a toll less well known than the drug violence of the late 20th century, but devastating nonetheless.
In November 1985, for example, M-19 terrorists took over the Colombian Supreme Court, intending to compel the justices to put then-President Romulo Betancourt on trial. When the government stormed the Supreme Court building, a horrific battle ensued that left 12 of Colombia’s 25 Supreme Court justices dead, along with 86 others. Yet today, a former associate of the group that carried out the most notorious attack in Colombian history, along with numerous other atrocities, is Colombia’s elected president.
The current wave of radical leftists taking power in Latin America is worrisome, to say the least. Today Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Peru, and Argentina all have radical Left governments, with Nicaragua and Venezuela openly in cahoots with the likes of China and Iran. Colombia is likely to join their radical neighbor, if Petro remains true to his communist and terrorist roots. Such political changes are a testament not only to waning American influence in a region ever-more-closely entwined with Communist China, but also to the bad example being set by the dominance of the radical Left in American politics.
