After Colombia elected its first leftist president, Gustavo Petro, the vice president of Brazil, Hamilton Mourão, said that the relationship between the two countries is independent of the government at the moment.
“The relationship is from state to state, independent of the government,” he said on Monday (20).
“[Desejo] Lucky for Gustavo Petro, because managing a country in the situation the world is facing is not simple. We have common interests with Colombians, especially on the issue of the Amazon,” he added.
President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) has yet to officially comment on the new Colombian chief. On a broadcast list he maintains on WhatsApp, however, he questioned whether Brazil would be the next country to elect a left-wing leader like Petro.
As shown by the column Mônica Bergamo, from SheetBolsonaro forwarded to this group an image of a BBC News Brazil article entitled “Ex-guerrilla wins election in Colombia and will be the country’s first left-wing president”.
Below the photo, he wrote: “Cuba… Venezuela… Argentina… Chile… Colombia… Brazil???”, in reference to the fact that the left, with Lula, has a chance to return to power. in the country.
Gustavo Petro was elected president this Sunday (19), with 40.32% of the votes, in a country that had never seen a president who was not from the right in its history.
According to Bolsonaro’s ministers and interlocutors, the president also drew attention to the high abstention rate in the Colombian election. Voting is not mandatory in the country, and about 45% of citizens eligible to vote did not turn up at the polls. Although high, the number represents the lowest number of abstentions in two decades in Colombia.
Bolsonaro, however, would be concerned that abstention in Brazil could also be high, even with mandatory voting.
In addition to highlighting the strengthening of the left in Latin America – progressive candidates won elections in Bolivia, Peru and Chile, in addition to already being in power in Argentina –, Petro’s victory had another symbolism: it was recognized by his main opponent, Rodolfo Hernández, less than an hour after the results were published.
