In June and July this year, millions of Colombians in the country itself along with members of the extensive diaspora turned on their TVs and radios to follow the Colombian national soccer team’s extraordinary progress in the Copa América. Colombia had a real chance of winning the title for the first time in over twenty years, with only the reigning world champions Argentina standing in their way when the final was played on July 14.
Ultimately, a late Argentinian goal destroyed the hopes of Colombians. But the support that the national team generated throughout la copa created a rare moment of national unity in a country that has been highly polarized for generations.
That polarization has taken many different forms in the past, from the dichotomy between Liberals and Conservatives in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the opposition between supporters and opponents of the peace process with left-wing guerrillas. Today it is solidified in the binary divide between those who support President Gustavo Petro and those who oppose him.
Two years ago, when Petro assumed the presidency of Colombia in a ceremony that included the sword of the country’s liberator, Simón Bolívar, he made a call on Colombians of all political stripes to support the government of change and the first left-wing president in Colombia’s history.
A wide range of political parties, from the Conservatives and Liberals to Comunes, the group led by former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) commanders, heeded Petro’s call and supported his government, which included cabinet ministers from several of these parties. But the plans for broad unity quickly fell apart when the country’s traditional elites discovered that the rules of the game had changed…
La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: Cruz Bonlarron Martínez
