Petro is a part of a rising group of leftist politicians and political outsiders who’ve been profitable elections in Latin America because the pandemic broke out and damage 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 smooth 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 target 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 deal with Colombia’s social and financial inequalities by boosting spending on anti-poverty packages and rising funding in rural areas. He has described U.S.-led antinarcotics insurance policies, such because the pressured eradication of unlawful coca crops, as a “large failure.” However he has mentioned 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 fashioned alliances with environmentalists throughout his presidential marketing campaign and has promised to show Colombia right into a “world powerhouse for all times” by slowing deforestation and taking steps to scale back the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels.
The incoming president has mentioned Colombia will cease granting new licenses for oil exploration and can ban fracking tasks, though the oil trade makes up virtually 50% of the nation’s authorized exports. He plans to finance social spending with a $10 billion a 12 months tax reform that might enhance taxes on the wealthy and eliminate company tax breaks.
Petro has additionally mentioned he desires to begin peace talks with remaining insurgent teams which might be at present preventing over drug routes, gold mines and different assets deserted by the FARC after their peace cope with the federal government.
“He’s obtained a really bold agenda,” mentioned Yan Basset, a political scientist at Bogota’s Rosario College. “However he must prioritize. The danger Petro faces is that he goes after too many reforms directly and will get nothing” by Colombia’s congress.
No less than 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. Levels with stay music and large screens may also be positioned in parks throughout Bogota’s metropolis heart in order that tens of 1000’s of residents with out invites to the primary occasion may be a part of within the festivities. That’s an enormous change for Colombia the place earlier presidential inaugurations have been extra somber occasions restricted to some hundred VIP friends.
“We would like the Colombian folks to be the protagonists,” Petro’s press chief, Marisol Rojas, mentioned in an announcement. “This inauguration would be the first style of a brand new type of governing, the place all types of life are revered, and the place everybody matches in.”
