The inauguration ceremony will take place in the historic Bolivar Square in Bogota. The President of the Senate, Roy Barreras, will take the oath and impose the presidential sash in front of some 100,000 people, including King Felipe VI of Spain, nine leaders from Latin America and common people invited by Petro. The meeting will be attended by Argentine President Alberto Fernández, along with a small entourage that accompanied him.
Beside Gustavo Petroalso assumes the new vice president France Marquez, an environmental activist and former housewife. She will be the first Afro-Colombian woman to hold that position in the history of that country.
Who is Gustavo Petro, the new president of Colombia
Petro, a 62-year-old economist who was a congressman, announced that his first government action will be to implement a plan to reduce hunger in the country of 50 million people, where nearly half the population lives in poverty.
The president, who in his youth was a member of the demobilized guerrilla of the M-19will present to Congress next week a bill to increase taxes on people with higher incomes and initially raise some 5.8 billion dollars for social programs.
“I am also scared to enter the Presidency of the Republic,” Petro said recently, referring to his challenges before a group of students at the Externado University of Colombiawhere he graduated as an economist.
The incoming president’s plans also contemplate free public university education, changes to the health system and subsidies for the poor elderly who do not receive retirement.
What will the political and social scenario be like for Petro
His economic promises, including a reform of the pension system and the prohibition of new oil exploration projects in favor of renewable energies, caused nervousness in businessmen and investors, despite the fact that he appointed the renowned economist José Antonio Ocampo as Minister of Finance. .
Although the left did not win the majority of the 295 seats in Congress, Petro consolidated a coalition with the forces of the center and traditional parties such as the Liberal that would guarantee the approval of his reforms and governability.
Petro, who will replace in the presidency Ivan Dukewill also seek to make a “total peace” to end the internal armed conflict of almost six decades that has left at least 450,000 dead between 1985 and 2018 alone.
The former mayor of Bogotá announced that he will re-establish a peace negotiation with the leftist guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN) for which it would decree a bilateral ceasefire.
With the dissidence of the FARC It intends to implement the 2016 peace agreement that allowed the demobilization of some 13,000 combatants, while seeking legal alternatives for the criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking who would receive benefits such as reduced sentences in exchange for reporting routes.
Source: Ambito
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