Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla commander, has been chosen to lead Colombia.
Petro won 50.49 percent of the vote, according to early presidential election results.
Businessman and rival Rodolfo Hernandez, a conservative, received 47.26 percent of the vote.
The first left-leaning president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro also served as mayor of the nation’s capital, Bogota.
Leftist Gustavo Petro is a former member of the M-19 guerrilla movement.
Who long struggled for social and economic change. Gustavo Petro became the first progressive leader in the country’s history to become president.
He pledged to end social inequality and implement free higher education, pension reform, and higher taxes on unproductive land.
Colombia is embroiled in a 52-year civil war between left-wing FARC rebels and right-wing paramilitary forces that ended in 2016 with a peace deal. The conflict killed 220,000 people and left millions homeless.