“I swear to God and I promise the people to faithfully comply with the Constitution of Colombia,” Petro said at the traditional swearing-in ceremony. Photo: La sexta.com
Gustavo Petro became the first president of the alternative and leftist forces in Colombia. With the national anthem of this country began the presidential investiture act of Gustavo Petro who moved from the Palacio de San Carlos, headquarters of the chancellery, accompanied by his family and four hostesses, to the Plaza de Bolívar to receive the band that accredited as head of state of Colombia.
After the anthem, the president of the congress, Roy Barreras, took Petro’s oath in this ceremony described as historic.
“I swear to God and I promise the people to faithfully comply with the Constitution of Colombia,” Petro said at the traditional oath-taking ceremony, while more than 100,000 people shouted “Yes, it could be done.”
Senator María José Pizarro, of the Historical Pact, placed the presidential sash on him, then 21 salvos were fired as part of the protocols of this act.
Later, Petro took the oath of Francia Márquez, who will be his vice president in this government of change.
Petro said before this moment that the outgoing president, Iván Duque, did not authorize Bolívar’s sword to be in the symbolic act scheduled for the presidential inauguration ceremony.
Within the formal acts of the presidential inauguration, it was planned that Bolívar’s sword as a symbol of freedom, unity, hope and life would be part of the official ceremony.
France swore before the people and the ancestors and recalled the phrase that during these months has been the slogan “Until dignity becomes customary”
In this way, a new stage begins today in Colombia where for the first time the people, fundamentally, the indigenous, black, Palenquera and Raizal communities, youth, women, LGBTQ+ people, peasants, and victims of the armed conflict.
The Cuban delegation that attends the inauguration is made up of Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josefina Vidal, the General Director of Latin America and the Caribbean of the Minrex, Eugenio Martínez Enríquez and the Cuban ambassador in Colombia, Javier Caamaño Cairo.
(With information from Prensa Latina and Granma newspaper)