The inauguration ceremony was held in the historic Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá. The president of the Senate, Roy Barreras, took the oath and imposed the presidential sash along with Senator María José Pizarro in front of some 100,000 people, including King Felipe VI of Spain, leaders of Latin America and ordinary people invited by Petro .
“We have to end, once and for all, six decades of violence and armed conflict,” Petro said. “We also call on all those who are armed to lay down their weapons in the mists of the past. To accept legal benefits in exchange for peace, in exchange for the definitive non-repetition of violence, to work as owners of a prosperous but legal economy that puts an end to the backwardness of the regions”, he added.
Petro, a 62-year-old economist who was a congressman, intends to seek a “total peace” that silences the rifles and before his inauguration he announced that he will re-establish a peace negotiation with the leftist guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN). With the dissidents of the FARC, he 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. The internal armed conflict has left at least 450,000 dead, most of them civilians, between 1985 and 2018 alone.
Groups of people also gathered to celebrate on both sides of the border between Colombia and Venezuela, at the Simón Bolívar bridge, outside the city of Cúcuta. The president also proposed in his inaugural speech a new international strategy to combat drug trafficking and said that the war on drugs had failed.
“It is time for a new International Convention that accepts that the war on drugs has failed, that it has left a million Latin Americans murdered during these 40 years, and that it leaves 70,000 North Americans dead by overdoses every year. That the war on drugs strengthened the mafias and weakened the States,” Petro stated.
Colombia faces permanent pressure from the US to eradicate coca leaf crops, the raw material for cocaine, as well as to confiscate drug shipments.
Petro announced that it will restore diplomatic relations with Venezuela, allowing the resumption of trade between the two countries and consular services.
The new vice president, Francia Márquez, an environmental activist and former domestic worker, also took office as the first Afro-Colombian woman to hold that position.
Petro, who in his youth was a member of the M-19 guerrillas, announced plans to reduce hunger in the country of 50 million inhabitants.
The president will 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. 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.
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.
Source: Ambito
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