Gustavo Petro, a former insurgent fighter, has been sworn in as Colombia’s first left-wing president.

The previous member of the M-19 armed group took his oath of workplace in Bogota’s Bolivar Plaza on Sunday afternoon, pledging to unite the polarised nation within the combat in opposition to inequality and local weather change, and obtain peace with insurgent teams and crime gangs.

His inauguration was watched by some 100,000 invitees together with Spanish King Felipe VI, at the least 9 Latin American presidents and different Colombians invited by Petro.

“I don’t want two nations, simply as I don’t want two societies. I need a sturdy, simply and united Colombia,” an emotional Petro mentioned in his inaugural speech. “The challenges and checks that we’ve as a nation demand a interval of unity and primary consensus.”

Petro, a 62-year-old former senator, has promised to revive scuppered peace negotiations with the Nationwide Liberation Military (ELN) rebels and to apply a 2016 peace deal to ex-members of the FARC fighters who reject it.

His overseas minister has mentioned the federal government will maintain dialogue with gangs and probably give members lowered sentences in alternate for details about drug trafficking.

Armed teams ought to settle for that deal, Petro mentioned.

“We name on all those that are armed to go away their arms within the haze of the previous. To simply accept authorized advantages in alternate for peace, in alternate for the definitive non-repetition of violence,” Petro advised the cheering crowd gathered underneath a vibrant Andean solar.

He additionally referred to as for a brand new worldwide technique to combat drug trafficking, saying the United States-led battle on medicine has failed.

“It’s time for a brand new worldwide conference that accepts that the battle on medicine has failed, that it has left 1,000,000 lifeless Latin People throughout 40 years and that it leaves 70,000 North People lifeless by overdose every year. The battle on medicine strengthened mafias and weakened states,” he mentioned.

Local weather change have to be fought internationally, however particularly by nations which emit probably the most greenhouse gases, Petro added, saying Colombia would transition to an financial system with out coal or oil.

On the marketing campaign path, Petro mentioned Colombia will cease granting new licenses for oil exploration and can ban fracking tasks, despite the fact that the oil business makes up nearly 50 % of the nation’s authorized exports. He plans to finance social spending with a $10bn-a-year tax reform that will increase taxes on the wealthy and eliminate company tax breaks.

Petro has additionally mentioned a high precedence is to combat starvation within the nation of fifty million, the place almost half the inhabitants lives at some stage of poverty. He has additionally pledged free public college training and healthcare adjustments, and constructed a broad congressional coalition of left-wing and centrist events to move his platform.

The brand new president begins from an “enviable place, with a big majority in Congress and, by way of the road, with assist that no authorities had in recent times,” analyst Jorge Restrepo of the Useful resource Middle for Battle Evaluation, advised the AFP information company.

However others mentioned Petro should prioritise his coverage objectives.

“He’s acquired a really formidable 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 without delay and will get nothing” by Colombia’s congress.

New Vice President Francia Marquez, an environmental activist and former housekeeper, is the primary Afro-Colombian lady to carry her put up. Their cupboard contains an internationally famend professor, Jose Antonio Ocampo, as finance minister and a tutorial who researches the unfavourable impacts of industries as minister for mining. The labour ministry might be led by the pinnacle of Colombia’s communist social gathering.

1000’s of supporters celebrated in Bogota and at giant screens arrange in public locations across the nation.

“I didn’t consider I’d dwell to see this lastly occur,” mentioned Nelson Molina, a 56-year-old plumber who was sporting a Petro t-shirt and hat. “I do know we gained’t change from someday to the following, that is only the start.”

Teams of individuals have been additionally celebrating on either side of the Colombia-Venezuela border, with dozens gathered on both aspect of a crossing level on the Simon Bolivar bridge exterior the Colombian metropolis of Cucuta.

Petro, a former mayor of Bogota, has promised to reopen diplomatic relations with Venezuela, permitting commerce between the 2 nations and consular providers to renew.

Petro’s first order as president was for the army to carry the sword of Latin American liberation hero Simon Bolivar — stolen by Petro’s erstwhile M-19 comrades in 1974 — to be displayed within the plaza, after his predecessor Ivan Duque didn’t authorise its use within the ceremony.