Colombia Gustavo Petro: "I am not going to burn churches or expropriate banks. They are 'fake news'"
Colombia Gustavo Petro wins the presidential race and the left will govern for the first time in Colombia
On July 17, Gustavo Petro traveled to La Macarena, a small town in the heart of Colombia,
to take the official photo with the presidential sash before Caño Cristales
, one of the natural jewels of the South American nation.
Last Thursday they broadcast the video of the day as if it were the presidential inauguration.
It was the first link in a chain of acts loaded with symbolism with which the new president intends to make it clear that his mandate will break the mold and
will make a 180-degree turn
in the way of dealing with the country's most serious problems.
"A government is going to start that can bring (Colombia) what it has not had for centuries: peace," he proclaimed in the so-called "popular and spiritual possession," held on Saturday in a neighborhood in the south of Bogotá, before indigenous and Social Organizations.
"It will fight for environmental justice,
we can balance with Nature, the substantial base of life
. Thirdly, it will fight for social justice in one of the most aberrantly unequal societies; opportunities for everyone. A country of peace, of environmental justice and social justice. Long live Colombia, world power of life!", was his final touch.
Unlike his predecessors, who made the change of command in the Plaza Simón Bolívar in the capital, before some three thousand special guests, the leader of the Historical Pact wanted to celebrate the arrival of the radical left at the Palacio de Nariño, summoning one hundred thousand citizens.
Although the socialists have been mayors of Bogotá on several occasions
, they had never before reached the Head of State.
"Petro, from the mayor's office and in the campaign, has tried to claim his ascendancy over the masses," columnist and political analyst Gabriel Cifuentes tells El Mundo.
"Showing a strong president, with the massive accompaniment of the people in this situation of enormous polarization, with a convening power that few leaders possess,
has value and an obvious political message when half the country voted against him
. It is a way bold to appear strong with the support of the people, even intimidating for the opponent".
In addition to his related, some Heads of State of the region wanted to accompany him, headed by His Majesty King Felipe, such as the Chilean Gabriel Boric, the aforementioned Ecuadorian, Alberto Fernández, from Argentina and Beatriz Gutiérrez, First Lady of Mexico, among others.
For the Spanish monarch, he means adding seventy-nine occasions,
including the times that he replaced his father, in which he attends a presidential relay in Latin America
.
He took advantage of his 12-hour stay to meet with Iván Duque, Ecuadorian Guillermo Lasso and Gustavo Petro.
Maduro was missing
The Biden administration, for its part, did not send top-level officials, as the Petristas expected, and Pedro Castillo, who was denied permission to leave Peru by Congress, was absent,
as were Nicolás Maduro and Daniel Ortega
.
Iván Duque warned that both dictators would not set foot in Colombia while he was still at the helm.
Precisely relations with Venezuela will be one of the changes of the new government.
Álvaro Leyva, Foreign Minister, has already held a meeting with his Venezuelan counterpart to finalize details regarding the reopening of the borders
and the reestablishment of diplomatic delegations with the Chavista regime
.
The turn is an unknown for Juan Guaidó and the Venezuelan opposition refugees in Bogotá.
They expressed their concern to this newspaper as they did not know what his situation would be and if the tenant of Casa Nariño, who had communists in his cabinet, could guarantee them that they would not be harassed by the Chavista authorities.
"The composition of Colombia-Venezuela relations will not happen overnight. The central issue will be to set an agenda that includes the presence of armed groups on the border,
the alleged collusion of Venezuelan generals with illicit activities with these groups
", considers Gabriel Cifuentes.
"It would be difficult to digest an absolute and unconditional reopening, when the great bogeyman (wielded by the right) has been the example of Venezuela."
As for "total peace", as Petro has baptized his security policy, a differentiating aspect will be desisting from the military combat against the criminal gangs, with all the power of the State, to seal different agreements with all of them.
Nor will he continue the frontal war against drug trafficking, which he considers a total failure after half a century.
He prefers to travel the tortuous and controversial path of drug legalization
, together with the voluntary substitution of coca crops for other agricultural products.
One of its most controversial initial steps will be the decree of a bilateral ceasefire with the ELN to resume immediately, in Havana, the negotiations that Juan Manuel Santos undertook and interrupted by Iván Duque after the massacre, with a car bomb, of twenty-two students from the General Santander Police School in Bogotá.
"President Duque's security and defense policy maintained the development of permanent military and police operations against all organized armed groups, including the ELN, as a fundamental principle. Before any space for potential negotiation, basic requirements were set
not to recruit minors, not to kidnap or carry out other terrorist actions
," the outgoing Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, explained to EL MUNDO.
They will not only sit down with the ELN, but also with the FARC dissidents, to whom they give political cover.
The Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia and other drug gangs will be offered to reach agreements within what they have baptized as a "reception" law, different from the law of submission to justice that has always existed.
And
there will be another romp in the National Police
.
It will go from depending on the Defense portfolio to that of the new Ministry of Peace.
Therefore, another presidency begins, joining the wave of the radical left that is invading Latin America.
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