BOGOTA - Former guerrilla Gustavo Petro shook off any lingering voter suspicion Sunday to become the first leftist candidate to contest the second round of an election in conservative-dominated Colombia. Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, a leftist, is up against conservative Ivan Duque in a runoff on June 17, 2018Petro will face the favorite, right-wing senator Ivan Duque in the second round of the presidential election on June 17. FARC's five-decade war of terror has stigmatized the political left in Colombia, but Petro managed to draw large crowds to his campaign meetings, including many young people. "People have been able to detach themselves from the fear generated by war and the politics of hatred," he told AFP. He claims his campaign was blackballed by the conservative mainstream press, but he found his audience via social media.

Source: Bangkok Post May 28, 2018 00:33 UTC