Gustavo Petro, a former urban guerrilla who was jailed for his political beliefs in the 1980s, was sworn in as Colombia’s president on Sunday at the head of what is likely to be the most leftwing government in the country’s history.
In a ceremony rich in symbolism, Petro, 62, took the presidential oath in Bogotá’s Plaza de Bolívar, outside Congress and opposite the Palace of Justice. In 1985, while Petro was in prison, the urban guerrilla group he belonged to stormed the palace. About 100 people were killed as the army tried to take it back.
In his speech, Petro repeated many of the promises from his election campaign, saying that after decades of bloody conflict Colombia needed a complete overhaul to make it “a potential for life”.