Long Neglected, Colombia’s Caribbean Is Growing in Influence
Through economic success—and highly publicized scandals—the region is reshaping national politics. A local election may reinforce the trend.
BOGOTÁ — It’s the region where Colombian President Gustavo Petro was born and the one that catapulted him to the presidency in 2022. Petro beat his opponent by 700,000 votes—and that is the number by which his votes in the Caribbean rose from the first to the second round, with those in Barranquilla growing by 40%. Yet the Caribbean coast is also the source of two ongoing scandals threatening his political future. A zone in flux, its largest city is an ambivalent success story—and home to a powerful political family, aligned with the president’s right-of-center enemies, which...
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