Colombia’s first-ever leftist president sworn in

Ex-guerrilla and former mayor Gustavo Petro will be sworn in Sunday as Colombia’s first-ever leftist president, with plans for profound reforms in a country beset by economic inequality and drug
iolence.

The former senator, 62, takes over from the deeply unpopular Ivan Duque for a four-year term during which he will enjoy support from a left-leaning majority in Congress.

Petro’s hard-fought victory in June elections brought Colombia, long ruled by a conservative elite, into an expanding left-wing fold in Latin America that could be consolidated in October with a likely victory for Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil.

At a ceremony in Bogota on the eve of his inauguration, Petro said his government would aim to “bring to Colombia what it has not had for centuries, which is tranquility and peace.”

“Here begins a government that will fight for environmental justice,” he added.

On the campaign trail, Petro had promised to raise taxes on the rich, invest in health care and education, and reform the police after a brutal crackdown on anti-inequality protests last year that was internationally condemned.

He has vowed to suspend oil exploration, to promote clean energy, and to reactivate diplomatic and commercial relations with the government of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, suspended since 2019.

Petro starts from an “enviable position, with a large majority in Congress and, in terms of the street, with the support that no government had in recent years,” analyst Jorge Restrepo of the Resource Center for Conflict Analysis (Cerac) told AFP.

Mridha Shihab Mahmud is a writer, content editor and photojournalist. He works as a staff reporter at News Hour. He is also involved in humanitarian works through a trust called Safety Assistance For Emergencies (SAFE). Mridha also works as film director. His passion is photography. He is the chief respondent person in Mymensingh Film & Photography Society. Besides professional attachment, he loves graphics designing, painting, digital art and social networking.
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