Peter DeShazo, visiting professor of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College and former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs: “President Petro and his Pacto Histórico coalition were the big losers in the Oct. 29 regional elections. While pro-government candidates went down in defeat in large cities such as Medellín, Barranquilla and Bucaramanga, the most telling losses took place in Cali and especially Bogotá, where Petro won the presidential election 16 months ago by large margins but where his candidates did very poorly. Colombian politics is a mosaic of parties, coalitions and movements, often regional and personalistic, so losses in local elections do not automatically imply a shift in national politics, but in this case, the result does resemble a plebiscite on Petro’s first year-and-a-half in office. Petro’s brief honeymoon period ended months before the election, and recent polling (in large urban areas) shows…”