Petro, 62, has described US-led anti-narcotics policies as a failure, but has also said he would like to work with Washington “as equals”, building plans to combat climate change or bring infrastructure to rural areas where many farmers say coca leaves are the only viable crop.
Petro also formed alliances with environmentalists during his presidential campaign and has promised to make Colombia a “global powerhouse for life” by slowing deforestation and reducing the country’s reliance on fossil fuels.
He has said Colombia will stop granting new licenses for oil exploration and ban fracking projects, even though the oil industry accounts for nearly 50 percent of the country’s legal exports. He plans to fund social spending with a $10 billion-a-year tax overhaul that would raise taxes on the wealthy and eliminate tax breaks for businesses.
“He has a very ambitious agenda,” said Yan Basset, a political scientist at Rosario University in Bogotá. “But he will have to prioritize. The risk Petro faces is that it goes after too many reforms at once and gets nothing” through Colombia’s congress.
Analysts expect Petro’s foreign policy to be very different from that of his predecessor Iván Duque, a conservative who supported Washington’s drug policies and worked with the US government to isolate the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. in an attempt to force the authoritarian leader to remain free. elections
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Instead, Petro has said he will recognize Maduro’s government and seek to work with the Venezuelan president on a number of issues, including fighting rebel groups along the countries’ porous border. Some border residents hope improved relations will lead to more trade and job opportunities.
Hours before Petro took office, at the main border bridge with Venezuela, a group of people carried a Colombian flag as they walked toward Venezuela chanting “Viva Colombia, Viva Venezuela!” Maduro’s supporters held a concert on the Venezuelan side of the border.
In Cúcuta, a city a few kilometers from the border with Venezuela, business school student Daniela Cárdenas hopes that Petro will introduce an education reform that includes free tuition for university students.
“He has promised so many things,” Cárdenas, 19, said after traveling 90 minutes from his rural community to the city. “We have to work to be able to pay our student fees, which are quite expensive and, well, that makes a lot of things difficult for us.”
Eight heads of state attended Petro’s inauguration, which was held in a large colonial-era plaza in front of the Colombian Congress. Stages with live music and big screens were also set up in Bogotá’s downtown parks so that tens of thousands of citizens without an invitation to the main event could join the party. This was a big change for Colombia, where previous presidential inaugurations were more somber events limited to a few hundred VIP guests.
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“It’s the first time grassroots people can come here to be part of a presidential inauguration,” said Luis Alberto Tombe, a member of the Guambiano tribe wearing a traditional blue poncho. “We’re honored to be here.”
But not everyone is so hopeful about Petro’s victory. In Medellin, Stefan Bravo, a conservative activist, organized an anti-Petro march on Saturday that was joined by about 500 people. He is worried that the new president of Colombia will erode the separation of powers in the South American country and follow the policies of the Venezuelan Hugo Chávez.
“Petro doesn’t represent us,” Bravo said. “This government will be a threat to family values, private property and foreign investment.”
Petro won the election by just 2 percentage points, and remains a polarizing figure in Colombia, where many have distrusted former guerrillas participating in politics.
His cabinet appointments have also been heavily overhauled: the new president chose an internationally renowned economics professor as finance minister, while picking an academic researching the negative impacts of extractive industries as mining minister and put the Ministry of Labor in charge. of the Communist Party of Colombia.
“I think he’s trying to forge a balance,” said Sergio Guzmán, a political risk analyst in Bogota. “He has included the activists he promised to be an integral part of his government, the centrist technocrats who give confidence to the markets and the various political parties he has to govern with to get anything passed in Congress.”
AP