Former leftist rebel, anti-corruption crusader in Colombia wins election for Bogota mayor

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Former leftist rebel, anti-corruption crusader in Colombia wins election for Bogota mayor
By Associated Press, Published: October 30

BOGOTA, Colombia — Voters on Sunday elected former leftist rebel and anti-corruption crusader Gustavo Petro as mayor of Bogota, the first time an ex-guerrilla has won Colombia’s second most important elected office.

Petro, 51, has been a key player in Colombia’s recent history and ran a “zero corruption” campaign in the nation’s capital, whose last elected mayor is jailed in a bid-rigging scandal.

Five years ago, his denunciations as a senator of close ties between national and regional politicians and right-wing death squads spurred the so-called “parapolitics” scandal that has landed dozens of lawmakers in prison.

Short, slim and bespectacled, Petro is deliberate in speech and favors tweed and Nehru jackets. Like many prominent Colombians unafraid to speak their minds, he has periodically been targeted by death threats and has long been assigned a phalanx of bodyguards.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/former-leftist-rebel-in-colombia-holds-lead-in-early-vote-counting-for-bogota-mayors-race/2011/10/30/gIQAd9yxWM_story.html