Petro vows to unite Colombia

New govt in Bogota faces huge challenge to implement deep social and economic reforms

Colombia’s new president, Gustavo Petro, has pledged to unite the country after being sworn in before about 100,000 people in Bogota on Aug 7.

Petro, a former congressman and mayor of the national capital, will for the next four years oversee a highly divided country facing significant political and economic challenges.

“The challenges and tests that we have as a nation demand a period of unity and basic consensus,” he said in his first speech as president.

During his campaign, he promised significant social and economic changes for the Latin American country, including changing the social security and pension schemes, putting an end to oil exploration, and resuming relationships with Nicolas Maduro’s government in Venezuela.

Petro’s government is also expected to implement a foreign policy that will maintain good relationships with China, Russia and Iran.

“The new government has said that they expect the relationship (with China) to be further strengthened in the next four years, and to be extended to other issues, such as rural development and cooperation in the energy transition,” said David Castrillon, research professor in international relations at the Externado University of Colombia.

“We hope that this will be a government that will continue the friendly and long-standing relations with the US, but that Colombia will put its national interests first on certain issues, even (if that means) saying no to some US positions.”

“This is the case of the re-establishment of relations with the government of Nicolas Maduro and the improvement of relations with governments that the US considers undemocratic in the region, such as Cuba and Nicaragua,” Castrillon added.

Castrillon said the new government will also strengthen diplomatic and economic ties with Africa and the Global South.

“This will mean opening new diplomatic missions on the continent and engaging in discussions with the African and Asian continents, building on the identity of the countries of the Global South, which, like China, face similar challenges and have a reason to work together to address them,” Castrillon said.

Petro is also expected to try to reposition Colombia in the region by turning the country’s face more towards other Latin American nations.

Domestically, Petro will face enormous challenges delivering the changes he promised during the campaign despite having a majority in congress.

“For the time being, there is already evidence of fissures in the legislature,” said D’mar Córdoba, a journalist and lawyer specialized in legislative affairs.

One of the most urgent matters is fiscal reform through which the new government hopes to collect about COP$50 billion ($11 million) by raising tariffs and expanding the tax base.

“Taxes will not be confiscatory; they will simply be fair in a country that must recognize as an aberration the enormous social inequality in which we live. In a state that must protect transparency in spending and in a society that deserves to live in peace,” Petro said during his inauguration speech.

The split of 11.2 million to 10.6 million votes respectively for Petro and his rival Rodolfo Hernandez underlines how divided politically the country is.

Angela Velez, a lawyer and former candidate to the congress, who opposes Petro’s government, said the new president faces difficulties over Ecopetrol, the profitable state-owned oil company, which provides about 40 percent of Colombia’s total exports.

During his campaign, Petro announced that he would put an end to new oil exploration projects, embrace new energies and shift the economy to tourism and alternate sources of income.