Gustavo Petro sworn in as Colombia’s 1st leftist president

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Gustavo Petro on Sunday took the oath of office as Colombia’s first-ever leftist president, before a crowd of hundreds of thousands at his inauguration in Bogota.

The 62-year-old former guerrilla and onetime mayor takes over from the deeply unpopular Ivan Duque, with plans for profound reforms in a country beset by economic inequality and drug violence.

Petro’s hard-fought victory in June elections brought Colombia, long ruled by a conservative elite, into an expanding left-wing fold in Latin America, reports AFP.

“I swear to God and promise the people that I will faithfully enforce the constitution and the laws of Colombia,” said Petro in his oath of office.

Petro — whose government should enjoy support from a left-leaning majority in Congress — called in his inaugural address for Colombian armed groups to “lay down their arms” and accept legal benefits “in exchange for peace.”

He also took aim at decades of counter-narcotics efforts, saying: “It is time for a new international convention recognizing that the war on drugs has failed.”