Do we like Gustavo Petro?
Our score: 5 out of 10. A real record on climate and LGBTQ+ inclusion sits against disputed election claims, a Nazi-slogan post and unresolved allegations.
Petro was born in 1960 in Ciénaga de Oro and joined the M-19 guerrilla group as a teenager. He was arrested in 1985 for weapons possession and spent about a year and a half in prison. After M-19 signed a peace deal he went into politics: the House in 1991, the Senate from 2006, then Mayor of Bogotá in 2012.
Bogotá was a stoush. The inspector general removed him in December 2013 and barred him from office for 15 years. A court reinstated him in April 2014, and the Inter-American Court later ruled the removal violated his political rights. He lost in 2018, then won the 2022 runoff to become Colombia's first left-wing president, serving four years.
The harm check starts well. At COP30 he told the room “Mr. Trump is against humanity by not coming here,” and blamed fossil fuel lobbies for global inaction. In 2025 he ordered state oil giant Ecopetrol to sell its US operations over a fracking deal, after Trump threatened 25% tariffs over deportation flights. He later agreed to accept those flights. On LGBTQ+ people, he pledged to fight discrimination and named an openly gay man as justice minister, though one report found little else enacted.
The ugly part is democracy and rhetoric. After his side lost the June runoff narrowly, Petro repeated claims of alleged election fraud, called the inauguration that of “an illegitimate president”, and urged rural residents to form “liberation guards”. Colombia's electoral authorities and international observers rejected the claims, and one analyst warned they could help justify civilians taking up weapons. Earlier that month he posted “Heil Hitler” on X in reply to a column backing De la Espriella, saying he was targeting the writer's “fascist phrases”. Israel's government and 24 Latin American lawmakers condemned it.
Israel is a long-running fight. In May 2024 Petro announced Colombia would cut ties with Israel, saying it had a president who was genocidal, and Israel has denied genocide accusations. Where you land depends on whether you read his Gaza stance as moral clarity or his Nazi comparisons as reckless; Israeli officials and some lawmakers read them as the latter.
On the good-person side, there's no conviction. Reports say US prosecutors in New York are allegedly probing claimed ties to traffickers, and the DEA reportedly named him a priority target. Petro denies any link to drug traffickers, and the inquiries were at an early stage. He has been on the US Treasury sanctions list since October 2025. Separately, his 2022 campaign was sanctioned for exceeding spending limits, though the penalty fell on campaign officials and parties, not on him personally.