The first of the two crucial Latin American elections took place on Sunday and the news is good.
Down in Colombia, Ivan Duque, the center right candidate, got 54% of the vote:
Mr. Duque spoke of mending the fissures which had opened up in Colombia after a divisive election campaign.But he also said he wants to see changes to the historic but controversial peace deal agreed with Farc rebels in 2016.Duque beat his left-wing rival, Gustavo Petro, by 12 percentage points.He received 54% of the vote in Sunday’s run-off election.The 41-year-old candidate for the Democratic Centre party says he will overhaul the agreement that guaranteed the rebels seats in Congress and allowed them to contest elections.
It’s a good move and a victory for Colombia.
The Duque vote is a rejection of President Juan Manuel Santos’ deal with FARC.
President-elect Duque was supported by former President Álvaro Uribe, who was one of the peace accord’s toughest critics. Like Uribe, Duque saw the deal as soft on FARC terrorists. Duque does not want to cancel the agreement, but wants to improve it.
Duque is not a miracle worker. He was a much better choice than Gustavo Petro, a leftist singing the same old tired song of distribution and social justice that we’ve seen fail all over.
We wait for Mexico’s elections. So far, the leftist choice looks like a winner there, but let’s see what happens when real people vote.
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