Former rebel Petro takes office in Colombia promising peace and equality

Bogota, Aug. 8 (BNA): Gustavo Petro became Colombia’s first leftist president on Sunday, pledging to unite the polarized country in fighting inequality and climate change and making peace with leftist rebels and crime gangs.

Pietro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla group, was sworn in by Senate President Rui Barreras at Bogotá’s Bolivar Plaza on Sunday afternoon, and was watched by some 100,000 invitees including Spain’s King Felipe VI, and at least nine Latin American and other Colombian presidents. They were invited. By Petro, Reuters reported.

“I don’t want two states, just as I don’t want two. I want a strong, just and united Colombia,” Petro said in his inaugural address. “The challenges and tests we face as a nation require a period of fundamental unity and harmony.”

Petro promised to revive failed peace negotiations with the National Liberation Army (NLA) rebels and implement a 2016 peace deal on former FARC members who reject it.

His foreign minister said the government would hold a dialogue with the gangs and possibly give their members reduced penalties in exchange for information about drug smuggling.

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