With Colombia’s Election, is Latin America Seeing a Leftward Shift?

Pollsters are predicting that Colombia’s first-round presidential elections on May 29 will result in a victory for frontrunner Gustavo Petro. Should he go on to win the presidency, it would be the first time Colombia elects a left-wing candidate to lead the nation. 

With leftist candidates having previously won recent presidential elections in Honduras, Peru, Chile, and Bolivia, this is feeding debate over whether a significant political paradigm shift is taking place in the Americas. Is it overly simplistic to describe Latin America as shifting leftwards once more? What dynamics in Colombia influenced the outcome of the May 29 elections? How do Colombia’s elections fit into wider discussions about the state of Latin America’s democracies? 

Join us for this timely conversation with a panel of experts.

When: Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Time: 1 p.m. ET | 12 p.m. Colombia + CT | 10 a.m. PT

Where: Zoom. 

• Renata Segura

International Crisis Group 

• Demian D. Regehr 

Hanns Seidel Foundation

Moderator: Helena Olea, Alianza Americas associate director of programs

Virtual panel 

This event will be held in Spanish, with English interpretation available in Zoom.