SINCE entering office in August 2022, Colombia’s progressive government of Gustavo Petro has acted swiftly to implement its own version of “levelling up” – no small feat in a country where chronic underdevelopment and violence have produced one of the planet’s most unequal societies.

In Colombia’s northernmost region of La Guajira, Wayuu indigenous communities experience some of the most deprived social conditions on the South American continent, due in large part to the devastating social-environmental impact of El Cerrejon, the massive coal mine owned by London-based multinational Glencore.

Last September, the government instigated an emergency relief plan to provide significant state investment in education, healthcare and environmental protection in La Guajira, a region where 55 children died during January-September 2023 owing to food insecurity, preventable disease and lack of clean water.

On the isolated Pacific coast, where a significant proportion of Colombia’s indigenous and African-descendent populations are based, social conditions are scarcely better. As with La Guajira in the north, the Pacific departments of Chocc, Cauca and Narino have suffered historic neglect by national governments.

Between January 22 and 26, Petro and his ministers toured the Pacific region to boost investment and tourism. Comparing Colombia’s neglected and underdeveloped coast to the economic growth other countries derive from their Pacific location, the president declared “the region is a statistical stain of poverty thanks to little state attention throughout history.”

State abandonment, aligned to the coast’s strategic importance in illicit economies, fuelled armed conflict in the Pacific zone. As elsewhere, successive right-wing governments exploited conflict to justify repression of social movements demanding dignified living conditions. 

The ongoing legacy of violence and inequality explains why so many Colombians, particularly young people, low-paid workers, indigenous and African-Colombian communities and those in conflict-affected zones, supported Gustavo Petro’s electoral campaign. The “government of change” promised to represent their urgent needs and interests. And it has stayed true to its word.

Yet there are powerful actors in Colombia who seek to thwart the government’s redistributive agenda. They belong to the landholding, business and oligarchic groups that long carved up the country’s resources and labour for personal gain, while millions of their compatriots existed in crushing circumstances.

Whenever their dominance was challenged, they turned to violence to protect their privileges. 

Such groups are behind attempts to undermine the government, with supporters fearing a golpe blando (soft coup) plot. On January 24, while visiting the Pacific zone of El Charco, where he announced the construction of a new hospital, Petro issued his latest condemnation of anti-democratic manoeuvres.

Two days earlier, authorities raided the Bogota offices of the FECODE teachers federation, Colombia’s largest trade union, as part of an investigation by the attorney general’s office into FECODE’s support for Petro’s election campaign. “They raid a workers’ organisation seeking to find ways to remove the president,” Petro said.

Attorney General Francisco Barbosa, an appointee of the previous far-right government of Ivan Duque, has blocked the Petro administration’s progressive agenda wherever possible, while also shielding former president Alvaro Uribe, whose 2002-10 government was characterised by massive human rights violations, from legal investigations.

Through the campaign organisation Justice for Colombia, FECODE works closely with British and Irish education unions. FECODE’s robust industrial action, including extended strikes, has enraged the political right.

Far-right politicians routinely make bogus claims of indoctrination in schools against FECODE, feeding a climate of aggression that has seen close to 30 teacher trade unionists murdered since 2016.

Also on January 24, the office of another Duque appointee, Inspector General Margarita Cabello, suspended foreign minister Alvaro Leyva over alleged irregularities in the bidding process for producing passports after the ministry took measures to ensure their continued availability.

“It is shameful to suspend officials who are doing their job,” Petro said. “They believe they will weaken the popular government.”

Leyva is a veteran politician who has played a critical role in multiple peace processes in Colombia, uniquely positioned to act as an intermediary between the Farc guerilla movement and the political establishment.

He was pivotal to the 2016 Farc peace agreement, as well as the 1985 agreement that collapsed after the state murdered thousands of demobilised guerillas and other leftists who had formed the Patriotic Union party.

Under Cabello, the inspector general’s office has previous in targeting progressive politicians. In 2021, as Colombian police committed widespread killings, sexual assaults and physical beatings with impunity during anti-government protests, it charged five opposition congress members – all of them Duque critics – over their attempts to defend unarmed protesters and challenge police violence.

Petro also highlighted concerted attempts by Guatemala’s right-wing opposition to prevent the inauguration of elected president Bernardo Arevalo earlier this month. “This was a coup d’état,” he said.

Since Petro’s election, opponents have jumped on any opportunity to undermine or even remove the president. The prosecution of his eldest son Nicolas over alleged campaign finance irregularities has provided them with ammunition. The president has steadfastly backed the judicial process.

Although under constant attack, the governing Historic Pact coalition is determined to maximise its single four-year term in office. It is battling to push progressive labour, healthcare and pension reforms through congress, where the lack of a majority presents a major obstacle to its plans.

Alongside a pending education reform Bill, the reforms seek to redistribute economic power into the hands of ordinary workers, targeting the ultra-neoliberal system that has enriched the private sector at the expense of millions of low-income households.

Ongoing conflict remains the most urgent priority facing the government. A sixth round of dialogues with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerillas has just got underway in Cuba, with cautious optimism that a lasting peace agreement can be reached.

In mid-January, the government and Estado Mayor Central dissident group also announced a six-month ceasefire extension. While these are undoubtedly positive developments, violence continues to impact many regions. More than 1,500 social activists and over 400 former Farc members have been killed since the 2016 peace agreement.

Colombia’s progressive government has demonstrated its political will to drastically confront the deep-rooted and historic problems affecting the country.

The concern is that emboldened political opponents will resort to any tactics to preserve the lucrative benefits – for an elite minority – of conflict and inequality.

For the residents of La Guajira, the Pacific region and elsewhere, that is an unthinkable outcome. 

Nick MacWilliam is Trade Union and Programmes Officer at Justice for Colombia. Visit the website at www.justiceforcolombia.org