WORLD LEADERS: heads of state and government
Revista Estilo de Vida Latin America
The current president of Colombia says that his government, will be developed under three fundamental axes: peace, social justice and the environment, which will guarantee a better country.
Magazin: Revista Estilo de Vida Latin America by Claudia M. Gómez – Photo: Mauricio Vélez
August 05/2022: Although he is a native of Ciénaga de Oro, his roots are quite steeped in Italian culture, thanks to his paternal grandfather, Francesco Petro, an immigrant who arrived in the north of Córdoba at the end of the 19th century, where he settled and saw his family multiply, including Gustavo Petro, his son and father of the new president of Colombia, who stood out for being a consecrated teacher, one of those considered major league, who later married Clara Nubia Urrego.
However, when Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego was in his second year of elementary school, he moved with his parents and siblings to Zipaquirá, in the department of Cundinamarca, and continued his studies at La Salle school. In that municipality, some time later, he founded the newspaper Carta al Pueblo and the Gabriel García Márquez Cultural Center, his favorite author.
But before that, he began to get involved in workers’ movements, where he learned first-hand about the injustices against the people. At the end of high school, at just 16 years of age and with one of the best ICFES scores at the time, he applied to pursue a career in economics at the Universidad Externado de Colombia, where he received his degree.
He also completed a specialization in administration at the Escuela Superior de Administración Pública (ESAP) and a diploma in specialized studies in Development, Population and Environment at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium); he also began a doctorate program in New Trends in Business Administration at the University of Salamanca, but it was not completed.
In 1981, he was elected as representative of the Alianza Nacional Popular (Anapo), and between 1984 and 1986 he was councilman of Zipaquirá, during which time he declared his militancy in the M-19 guerrilla group – to which he belonged since 1977 – where he was recognized as commander Aureliano, in homage to Colonel Aureliano Buendía, a character in the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, but from which he withdrew when the group surrendered weapons during the government of Virgilio Barco.
He was elected to the Colombian Senate in 2006 and served as mayor of Bogota between 2012 and 2015. He then ran for president of Colombia in 2018, being defeated in the second round of voting; but in this 2022 he tries again with the Historic Pact party, and with a lead of 11 million votes he becomes the 42nd president of the country and the first of the left, having as vice presidential formula the leader Francia Márquez.
He is currently the husband of Verónica Alcocer García (cousin of Mario Fernández Alcocer, current senator of the Liberal Party) and father of six children: one from his first marriage; two from Mariluz Herrán, former combatant of the M-19, to whom he was married; and the two youngest children from his current marriage: Sofía and Antonella.
