Colombia's leftist firebrand presidential candidate Gustavo Petro is too close in recent polls for the comfort of oil companies and miners who worry that his promised policies would imperil Colombia's economy and energy self-sufficiency, high-ranking industry figures and business associations said.
Petro, currently a senator, told a rally last month that coal and oil are akin to cocaine: "Our three main exports are poisons." He has won support vowing profound change, including social and economic reform in Colombia, where about half the population lives in some form of poverty.
