This will be the presidential possession of Gustavo Petro – Up Jobs News

The possession of Petro and Francia Márquez will be this Sunday.

Photo: AFP – JUAN BARRETO

This Sunday, August 7, Gustavo Petro begins his mandate as President of the Republic for the period 2022-2026. The four years of Iván Duque come to an end and leave the first left-wing government in the history of Colombia in power, which promises to be a change and get out of what is commonly used, something that is wanted to be made clear from the possession, in the that some protocols will be omitted and cultural events throughout the country will be preponderant.

In dialogue with The viewer, Marisol Rojas, communications coordinator of the event, said that this possession will be “of the citizenship”, from which a great participation is expected. On the controversy surrounding the cost of the ceremony, she maintained that the rumors of spending $ 5,000 million are false. “Each government leaves an established budget for the inauguration of the president who arrives. That item, in our case, is $1,859 million, to that we must include the issue of inflation and the taxes that are collected. We more or less calculate that in total it can be $2.4 billion,” she explained.

Regarding the number of guests (100,000 people) expected, Rojas stressed that “the difference is that we are not going to make a closed transmission of command, only for the political circle and special guests.” In this sense, he said that in other cases “that same money was spent with 4,500 guests and we are investing it in citizenship.” For example, Petro will not use the customary red carpet during the event, as this would not convey the message of equality that he has been promoting since the campaign.

Security will be guaranteed by 15,000 members of the Public Force: 10,000 from the Police and 5,000 from the Army. On the main stage of the Plaza de Bolívar, where the formal acts will be held, there will be a congressional commission that will receive Petro, in addition to four members of the Indigenous Guard. Once the greetings are over and the new president arrives on the platform, he will be accompanied by the president of the Senate, Roy Barreras, who will impose the presidential sash on him. In the same space will be the first lady, Verónica Alcocer; the vice president, Francia Márquez, accompanied by her daughter; the diplomatic corps, the entire Congress and the magistrates of the high courts.

Among the international guests, the presidents of Chile, Gabriel Boric; Argentina, Alberto Fernández, and Bolivia, Luis Arce Catacora, all with leftist governments in Latin America. In the case of Peru and Mexico, countries with the same political orientation, they will be represented by women: the vice president and the first lady, respectively. In the case of Portugal, Cuba and Serbia, they will be present through their foreign ministries, while the attendance of King Felipe VI of Spain, the only monarch on the list, has yet to be defined.

On the other hand, members of the Democratic Center, an opposition party, will also be under the spotlight during the event, as a speech is expected in which they state their position towards the four-year government that begins. Congresswomen Paloma Valencia, María Fernanda Cabal and Paola Holguín will lead that spokesperson. As is known, former president Álvaro Uribe, leader of the community and who had been invited by Petro to the inauguration, would not attend because, according to him, “for two years I have had a prison complex (…) I will not attend out of modesty derived from my legal situation, which I want to overcome”.

Beyond the act of official possession this Sunday, Gustavo Petro was last Thursday in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in a symbolic act in which the Arhuaca community handed him the baton, just as they did with Juan Manuel Santos in 2010, in his first presidential term. Likewise, it is expected that this Saturday, Petro and Francia Márquez will go to Parque Tercer Milenio, in Bogotá, where they will be sworn in “spiritually and popularly” by popular, community, ethnic and social authorities.