Colombia: New President Gustavo Petro promises a stronger state
Gustavo Petro, March 13, 2022 in Bogota.
REUTERS - LUISA GONZALEZ
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
For the first time in over 200 years, Colombia will be led by a leftist president.
Gustavo Petro promises more social justice, more environmental justice and finally peace in a country still plagued by violence of all kinds.
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The new Colombian president-elect is an old hand in politics.
As an elected representative, senator and mayor of Bogota, he had time to refine the proposals of his program, which is well known to Colombians.
Gustavo Petro promises a stronger state: he wants to make health and pension systems public.
Universities must become free and his first act as president will be to declare a state of emergency against hunger.
To finance these social measures and ensure a better distribution of wealth, the first left-wing head of state proposes to upset the economic model: tax the 4,000 richest personalities and companies and above all transform this oil and mining nation into a Colombia where agricultural production and eco-responsible tourism will be the main sources of income.
Gustavo Petro thus wishes to kill two birds with one stone: to commit his country to the path of energy transition and to offer a viable alternative to rural areas where illicit crops are a source of daily violence.
For the elected president, the war against drug trafficking waged for decades with the support of the United States is also a failure.
This finding could augur a broader questioning of this strategic alliance, which had made Bogota Washington's most important ally in Latin America.
►Also read: Colombia: Francia Marquez, first Afro-descendant vice-president
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Colombia
Gustavo Petro
Economy
Social issues