Colombian Opposition Leader Gustavo Petro Has Esophageal Cancer

Colombian senator, former mayor of Bogotá, and ex revolutionary militant Gustavo Petro is slated to undergo an operation today in Cuba to remove esophageal cancer that was discovered several weeks ago according to the senator, but not announced publicly.

The senator said that two separate examinations confirmed the early state cancer, the first one March 2^nd in Cuba. Petro returned to Colombia for a second opinion which concurred with the diagnosis.

The far-left senator ran unsuccessfully for president in the 2018 Colombian elections but lost in the runoff to current president Ivan Duque. Born in a small-town in Colombia’s northern coastal plains, the senator in his youth joined the M-19 Marxist armed revolutionary movement. Captured in the 1980s, Petro served prison time until a peace accord was signed with the M-19 rebels.