THE REPUBLIC
Gustavo Petro was sworn in this Sunday as Colombia’s first leftist president, a position he came to succeed Iván Duque, before hundreds of thousands of people who applauded him during the investiture ceremony in Bogotá.
“I promise God and I promise the people to faithfully comply with the Constitution and the laws of Colombia,” Petro said when sworn in before the president of Congress, Roy Barreras.
The international guests at the inauguration of the president-elect arrived in Bogotá on Friday. Among the presidents who attended are those of Chile, Gabriel Boric; Argentina, Alberto Fernandez; Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso; Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benitez; Bolivia, Luis Arce; Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader; Panama, Laurentino Cortizo; and Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves.
Petro will govern for four years a country of 50 million inhabitants that for the first time will enter the orbit of the left in the region.
LATIN AMERICAN UNIT
During his speech, he assured that “Latin American unity cannot be a rhetoric”, which is why he called for unity so that the region is strong in a “complex world”.
“Today we need to be more together and united than ever. As Simón Bolívar once said: ‘Union must save us, just as division will destroy us if it comes between us.’ Let the division of Latin America come to an end. But Latin American unity cannot be a rhetoric, a mere speech”, he stated.
