The election of Gustavo Petro in Colombia focused on important issues of regional politics and potential reserve for the international relations of the country and the region. On the one hand, we see the rise of a new pink wave of left-aligned governments in the region. On the other hand, and more relevantly, Petro has defended resuming and improving Colombian relations with Venezuela, talks about getting closer to other Latin American countries and was elected with the promise of giving greater attention to the environmental issue and the Amazon — areas in which Brazil has already tried to exercise leadership.
“Colombia has always been a country that has its back to Latin America. Not now. There is a significant change in the discourse, which shows the need to promote a change in the country’s regional insertion project”, says the professor of international relations. Fernanda Nanci Goncalves.
Gonçalves holds a doctorate in political science from the Institute of Social and Political Studies (IESP/UERJ) and coordinator and professor of the international relations course at Centro Universitário La Salle-RJ. She, who spoke to the website Interesse Nacional, lived in Colombia and is the author of “The Articulation between Foreign Policy and Defense in Brazil and Colombia: Institutional Trajectory and Decision-making Autonomy”.
How important is Petro’s victory for Brazil and Latin America? Petro’s election will bring a significant change to the region as a whole with the resumption of diplomatic relations with Venezuela, which can bring new breath to seek this greater insertion of Venezuela in the region. Petro also made it clear that he will emphasize Colombia’s relations with Latin America. For the first time, Colombia will more emphatically assume its Latin American identity. Colombia has always been a country with its back to Latin America. And now there is a significant change in the level of discourse, which shows the need to promote a change in the country’s regional insertion project.
What influence does his election have specifically on Brazil? It will depend on the presidential elections in Brazil. With the arrival of Petro we see the resumption of a progressive wave in the region. The regional context is changing, it is no longer the same context as when Jair Bolsonaro became president.
In addition, there will be great mobilization by Colombia in the environmental area, and this should spill over into bilateral relations between the two countries. Francia Márquez, vice president-elect, and Petro’s agenda proposes greater activism in the area of ​​the environment. In addition, Petro has declared a bias of worrying about the decarbonization of the economy, making the economy less dependent on oil, and has already made it clear that he wants to invest in clean energy. So there may be good developments in this field of cooperation in the area of ​​the environment, especially in the Amazon border region.
The first analyzes of Petro’s election point to a growing isolation of Bolsonaro in the region, but from what you say, the issue seems to go beyond isolation and give space for countries like Colombia to assume positions of regional leadership and leave Brazil. without much political force in Latin America… Brazil has already lost any regional leadership role in recent years. We had a greater role during the Lula government, but this process of emptying began in the Dilma government and worsened under Bolsonaro. This is evident in the absence of leadership in the negotiations with Venezuela to resolve the crisis in the country, in the absence of a proactive stance in relation to the environment.
Brazil is definitely becoming more and more isolated, and it has been increasingly difficult for Bolsonaro to take a proactive stance in the region because he has no dialogue with these new leaders in Latin America. If Lula is elected, which is what opinion polls indicate today, there will certainly be a movement for change in Brazilian foreign policy, and then there is the possibility of a resumption of cooperation within the region, a more progressive agenda, revitalization institutions that today are doomed to failure, bankrupt, like Unasur itself.
And the isolation is not only in the region, but internationally. We saw this in the case of the death of the British journalist [Dom Phillips] and the indigenist [Bruno Araújo Pereira], which reveals the lack of interest in a government environmental policy. And then, when you have a newly elected president in the region, like Petro, proposing this environmental and regional agenda, he wins points with the other more developed countries.
Can the acceleration of this leftist movement in Latin America influence the election in Brazil? There is no direct link. It is much more an issue driven by a domestic and conjunctural context than a left-wing movement that is strengthening itself in a transnational way.
How are the right and extreme right movements in the region in the midst of this progressive wave? In Colombia, the conservative right-wing movement that will oppose Petro is made up of the most traditional parties, as Hernández has no support base in Congress and will not have the strength to do so, not least because he, who sold himself as an outsider, had little political articulation to fight Petro. On the other hand, Petro has already invited the opposition to dialogue and said that the idea is not to exclude the other parties. He wants to promote a policy of peace that is conciliatory between the different Colombian political sectors.
Is this new pink wave taking a much more pragmatic stance than in the past? It is a less ideological and much more pragmatic left. The trajectory of this new left is different, it makes them have to be, in fact, more pragmatic. In addition, they face a period of economic and political crisis. Being protesting in a period of crisis would not open up so many opportunities for countries.
