MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia's Petro has managed to reverse disapproval ratings, from 20% to 61%

Until February, Petro’s approval rating had been higher than the percentage who disapproved of him.

Colombian president Gustavo Petro and his “government of change” project seems to have run aground, according to the latest Invamer bimonthly poll. The president, who in August 2022 began his mandate with a 56% approval rating and 20% against, now in a reversal of expectations has a disapproval rating of 61%.

Up until February, Petro’s approval rating had been higher than the percentage who disapproved of him. In that first period, the total peace law and the tax reform were approved, relations with Venezuela were reestablished, the dialogue table with the ELN guerrillas was set up and a resounding agreement was signed to buy land from cattle ranchers and give it to rural people without property. Today, Petro’s approval rating has dropped to 33%.

The poll is a reflection of what Colombian voters think of the last two months of Petro’s government. In that period, the president appointed a new, more leftist cabinet, broke up the coalition that gave him a majority in Congress and saw his reforms projects fail.

And that is not all. In the past two months, the Colombian government has also faced numerous scandals.

One of Colombia’s intelligence agencies admitted to illegally tapping the phone of nanny Marelbys Meza, based on the false suspicion that she was part of a vicious criminal syndicate. Moreover, this innocent young woman was subjected to a polygraph test in the basement of a building near the presidential palace, because she was suspected of involvement in the theft of an unspecified sum of money from the home of her employer, Laura Saravia, who until recently served as Petro's chief of staff.

The government was also rocked by the suicide of a colonel who worked in the president’s security detail and received audio messages allegedly sent by Colombian ambassador to Venezuela, Armando Benedetti in which he threatens to reveal incriminating evidence about the funding for Petro’s presidential campaign.

Thus with three years left in office, performance and prospects are not encouraging.

The latest poll results also showed widespread pessimism in almost all indicators. Vice President Francia Márquez has a 52% disapproval rating compared to 26% approval, 70% of Colombians believe that things are getting worse in the country and 61% think that the government’s total peace policy is on the wrong track. What’s more, 16% believe that the country’s main problem is “bad government,” which has overtaken corruption.

It’s a low moment for Colombia’s first leftist government in contemporary history, and its fall is boosting the other political extreme. While it’s too soon to claim that Colombia is shifting to the right — 11 million people voted for Petro just a year ago — it is striking that 49% of respondents in the Invamer poll have a favorable view of Nayib Bukele, the authoritarian president of El Salvador. Only 10% have a negative opinion of the leader, who has been accused of violating human rights in his war against the gangs. And the Bukele model is not just gaining ground in Colombia. His iron-fist approach to violence has also become the formula to follow in other countries governed by the left such as Chile, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico.