Gustavo Petro takes office with peace and agricultural, economic and educational reforms as key challenges
Colombia woke up this Sunday, August 7, the date on which it took the first step towards its independence 202 years ago, full of optimism, full of enthusiasm and hope for a peaceful future, of enjoying a Colombia where violence stops. and dialogue prevail over confrontation. It was another historic day, the inauguration of the first left-wing government led by Gustavo Petro Urrego, the country’s 42nd president, who was elected by 11.3 million Colombians. A day when Colombia would be in the mouth of the world and not because of drug trafficking or because they had taken the lives of social leaders in a rural area. A day when he would be visited by several presidents from other countries and also by King Felipe VI of Spain. The streets of Bogotá, the capital, awoke to the colors of the Colombian flag. A day to forget the outgoing government and reflect on the one who has promised the social transformation of the country, in which it has assured that it will try to unite Colombia divided in two.
Expectations are high. We will have to see how Gustavo Petro delivers on everything he promised in his election campaign in a global world centered on the war in Russia and Ukraine, on the threats between China and the United States, and which is witnessing a serious economic and political crisis after going through a pandemic.
It will not be easy for the Petro government to rectify a country that this week knows it has the highest inflation rate in recent years (10.21%) and has so many internal wars. Questions arise about all the projects and promises made by the new president during his election campaign. There are many who want the option that was never voted on to be a good one. Petro got the prize he was looking for, which was to lead the country.
The newspaper ‘El Espectador’ stated in its editorial: “The challenge, once possession is over and the important symbolic moments have taken place, is how to cope with a country with great problems and deep divisions”. And at the same time, he wondered, “Which Petro will we have as president? The speaker who calls his opponents enemies or the moderate statesman he has shown himself to be since the election. For the good of the country, we hope that the second version will be the norm for the next four years. In this way, he will also have the opportunity to create a government that will go down in history at a critical moment for Colombia.”
It is true that no one believes the farewell speech of Iván Duque, the outgoing president, in which he assured that he had achieved the goal of positively transforming Colombia. Words that earned him a monumental battle in Congress. But it is no less true that Petro is not a wizard who will instantly eradicate rural violence, urban insecurity or corruption or heal the wounds of so many years of armed conflict in the country. “I will not forget the reality of the country,” the president said recently, taking office in front of some 100,000 guests and in an act that parked many protocols and embraced citizens more.
While Petro’s opposition forces remain skeptical of the new executive, many media outlets recalled the key challenges facing the first left-wing president facing Colombian democracy. In his editorial ‘El Tiempo’, he recalled that Petro is also the first president to be part of a guerrilla group, the M-19, which surrendered its weapons in 1990 and became a political party. The newspaper confirmed that the national dialogue that Petro has proposed since the day of his election has “been a good sign that has helped generate a scenario of citizen hope around the possibility of a collective construction, in which different sectors with the vocation within a framework of democratic and institutional respect”.
Total peace is one of the main challenges Petro has promised, and he wants to achieve it through social and national dialogue amid transformations that, according to Iván Cepeda, chairman of the Peace Commission in Congress and member of the Historical Pact party, under Petro’s leadership, should enable the country to move towards peaceful and unarmed coexistence. Returning to dialogue with the guerrillas of the ELN (National Liberation Army), with whom Duque never negotiated, is another project of Petro. He also has an agrarian reform ahead of him, ending the use of glyphosate to eradicate illegal crops, segregating the Ministry of Defense police, and other social promises such as free education and financial support to the elderly.
Gustavo Petro has arrived at the most important day of his political career and wished the citizens, through social networks, that August 7 would be a great celebration for everyone. At the same time, he announced the names of the new ministers who will form his cabinet, which currently consists of eight women and six men, in addition to the social leader’s first vice president, Francia Márquez Mina, who turns 41 next week. December, which will occupy the Ministry of Equality.
Source: La Verdad
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