BOGOTÁ (AP) — Gustavo Petro was sworn in Sunday as the first left-wing president in Colombia’s history and promised to put a definitive end to internal violence and seek a new strategy in the fight against drug trafficking.
In an act full of symbolism in the Plaza de Bolívar, the political and historical center of Bogotá, Petro swore to defend the constitution and laws together with Francia Márquez, who also made history as the first Afro-descendant to hold the vice presidency of the nation.
The 62-year-old economist received the presidential sash from the hands of María José Pizarro, congresswoman and daughter of the top commander of the extinct M-19 guerrilla, to which Petro belonged, assassinated when he aspired to the presidency.
During the ceremony he was accompanied by the sword of Simón Bolívar, stolen in January 1974 by the M-19 and which was in his possession for 17 years until it was delivered to the State in 1991 as a gesture of peace. Since then it has been kept in a vault of the Banco de la República and in 2020 it was transferred to the Palacio de Nariño, where the president resides.
“May peace be possible. We have to end, once and for all, six decades of violence and armed conflict. We also call on all those armed to lay down their arms in the mists of the past. To accept legal benefits in exchange for peace, in exchange for the definitive non-repetition of violence, ”said the president before a crowd that cheered him while chanting his name.
Petro embodies a left that has been marginalized and sometimes stigmatized by the weight of more than five decades of an internal armed conflict that left 50,770 kidnapped, 121,768 disappeared, 450,664 murdered and 7.7 million forcibly displaced, according to the Truth Commission. .
Although the country has been going through a post-conflict phase for five years after the signing of the peace agreement between the State and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) -which was the oldest guerrilla group in Latin America-, the pact did not put an end to the violence.
Petro aspires to achieve a “total peace” that implies the submission to justice of the drug gangs -such as the Clan del Golfo- and the resumption of negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN), the last guerrilla active in the country. country.
During his speech, Petro assured that it is time to change the anti-drug policy.
“It is time for a new international convention that accepts that the war on drugs has failed completely, that it has left a million Latin Americans murdered, most of them Colombians,” he said. “The war on drugs strengthened the mafias and weakened the states,” she added.
Petro will have to overcome in his mandate the growing violence that has claimed the lives of more than 560 human rights defenders since 2016, the highest inflation in the last two decades and the search for consensus in a divided country.
Several sectors fear being affected by their objective of carrying out reforms in agriculture, energy production, the police, pensions and tax collection.
In this regard, Petro emphasized that “the taxes will not be confiscatory, they will simply be fair in a country that must recognize the enormous social inequality in which we live as an aberration.”
After being elected, Petro adopted a more moderate position than the one he had during the campaign, which resulted in broad support and a majority in Congress, which is key to carrying out the tax reform that will give him resources to finance social programs.
“The time has come to return the debt to our public education so that it reaches everyone and is of quality. I will take care of our grandfathers and grandmothers, of our boys and girls, of people with disabilities, of people whom history or society has marginalized,” the president remarked.
In the business community and the markets there is great expectation for the content of the tax reform and other measures, such as the possible suspension of the granting of mining and oil exploration licenses with the aim of accelerating the energy transition. The energy sector contributes about 18% of the nation’s fiscal income and is in the first line of exports.
Ricardo Triana, executive director of the Council of American Companies -which brings together more than 100 US companies in 17 sectors-, assured that in a meeting prior to his election, Petro promised them that it would respect the signed contracts and that the investments in progress would not be in danger. .
Petro also promised to put an end to the violence “with a comprehensive security strategy… ranging from prevention programs to the persecution of criminal structures and the modernization of security forces.”
For this purpose, he appointed Iván Velásquez as Minister of Defense who, according to political analyst Sandra Borda, points to a process of internal transformation of the Armed Forces to end corruption and promote respect for human rights.
The Plaza de Bolívar, which was attended by thousands of people, was divided into two: in the first part there were representatives from various countries -including King Felipe VI of Spain and the presidents of Chile, Paraguay, Ecuador and Costa Rica- and in the second the citizens.
In addition to the international guests, the ceremony was attended by former Colombian presidents Juan Manuel Santos, Ernesto Samper and César Gaviria, of liberal tendencies. Conservatives Álvaro Uribe and Andrés Pastrana declined the invitation.
Dressed in the traditional costume of the Guambiano indigenous people, with a short-brimmed hat and a blue fleece suit, Luis Alberto Tombe Cantero attended Petro’s possession. “It’s the first time that a presidential inauguration is really accompanied by the base or the people,” he told The Associated Press.
“Today the history of Colombia is split in two. Today a new sun is born for nobodies and nobodies,” Rosa Chocó, a native of Cali, told AP.
The cultural diversity of Colombia was reflected in the inauguration ceremony and in the prelude, in which dozens of artists performed national rhythms in the parks of the city center.
During the Petro campaign, he said that he would seek to strengthen ties with his neighbors and especially with Venezuela, a country with which Colombia broke relations in 2019.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was not invited to the inauguration ceremony due to deep political differences with outgoing Colombian President Iván Duque.
In the city of Cúcuta, a few kilometers from the border with Venezuela, student Daniela Cárdenas said she hopes that Petro will carry out an educational reform that includes financial aid for university students. The young woman studies computer science on Sundays and works the rest of the week in a restaurant to pay her tuition and fees.
“A lot of things are difficult for us as students,” said the 19-year-old student.
A few blocks away, Aurora Rodríguez sold cigarettes, candy and food on the same corner where she has had her stand for three years. She said she feels governments have abandoned that state for too long, allowing violence to grow and health care services to decline, which she hopes she will change with Petro. “Here we do not have security, we do not have health.”
Right next to the border bridge, in Venezuela, dozens of people erupted in applause the moment Petro took office.
“Seeing Gustavo Petro president is something very impressive. And to be aware that for the first time in life we are a government is beautiful,” Javier Uscategui, a human rights defender who works with victims of the armed conflict, told the AP while wearing a baseball cap with the faces of the late leader embroidered. Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro, the late former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and other leftist leaders.
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AP journalist Regina García Cano contributed to this story from Venezuela.