BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s first leftist president shall be sworn into workplace Sunday, promising to combat inequality and heralding a turning level in the historical past of a rustic haunted by a protracted warfare between the federal government and guerrilla teams.
Sen. Gustavo Petro, a former member of Colombia’s M-19 guerrilla group, received the presidential election in June by beating conservative events that provided reasonable adjustments to the market-friendly financial system, however failed to attach with voters annoyed by rising poverty and violence in opposition to human rights leaders and environmental teams in rural areas.
Petro is a part of a rising group of leftist politicians and political outsiders who’ve been successful elections in Latin America because the pandemic broke out and harm incumbents who struggled with its financial aftershocks.
The ex-rebel’s victory was additionally distinctive for Colombia, the place voters had been traditionally reluctant to again leftist politicians who have been usually accused of being mushy on crime or allied with guerrillas.
A 2016 peace deal between Colombia’s authorities and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia turned a lot of the main focus of voters away from the violent conflicts enjoying out in rural areas and gave prominence to issues like poverty and corruption, fueling the recognition of leftist events in nationwide elections.
Petro, 62, has promised to sort out Colombia’s social and financial inequalities by boosting spending on anti-poverty applications and rising funding in rural areas. He has described U.S.-led antinarcotics insurance policies, such as the pressured eradication of unlawful coca crops, as a “big failure.” But he has stated he want to work with Washington “as equals,” constructing schemes to fight local weather change or deliver infrastructure to rural areas the place many farmers say coca leaves are the one viable crop.
Petro additionally shaped alliances with environmentalists throughout his presidential marketing campaign and has promised to show Colombia right into a “global powerhouse for life” by slowing deforestation and taking steps to cut back the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels.
The incoming president has stated Colombia will cease granting new licenses for oil exploration and can ban fracking initiatives, despite the fact that the oil trade makes up virtually 50% of the nation’s authorized exports. He plans to finance social spending with a $10 billion a yr tax reform that may enhance taxes on the wealthy and cast off company tax breaks.
Petro has additionally stated he desires to begin peace talks with remaining insurgent teams which might be at the moment combating over drug routes, gold mines and different sources deserted by the FARC after their peace take care of the federal government.
“He’s got a very ambitious agenda,” stated Yan Basset, a political scientist at Bogota’s Rosario University. “But he will have to prioritize. The risk Petro faces is that he goes after too many reforms at once and gets nothing” via Colombia’s congress.
At least 10 heads of state are anticipated to attend Petro’s inauguration, which is able to happen at a big colonial-era sq. in entrance of Colombia’s Congress. Stages with stay music and large screens will even be positioned in parks throughout Bogota’s metropolis middle in order that tens of 1000’s of residents with out invites to the primary occasion may also be a part of in the festivities. That’s a giant change for Colombia the place earlier presidential inaugurations have been extra somber occasions restricted to some hundred VIP company.
“We want the Colombian people to be the protagonists,” Petro’s press chief, Marisol Rojas, stated in an announcement. “This inauguration will be the first taste of a new form of governing, where all forms of life are respected, and where everyone fits in.”