Gustavo Petro: Ex-rebel fighter sworn in as Colombia’s president

Gustavo Petro, a former rebel fighter, has been sworn in as Colombia’s first left-wing president.
The former member of the M-19 armed group took his oath of office in Bogota’s Bolivar Plaza on Sunday afternoon, pledging to unite the polarised country in the fight against inequality and climate change, and achieve peace with rebel groups and crime gangs.
His inauguration was watched by some 100,000 invitees including Spanish King Felipe VI, at least nine Latin American presidents and other Colombians invited by Petro.
“I do not want two countries, just as I do not want two societies. I want a strong, just and united Colombia,” an emotional Petro said in his inaugural speech. “The challenges and tests that we have as a nation demand a period of unity and basic consensus.”
Petro, a 62-year-old former senator, has promised to revive scuppered peace negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels and to apply a 2016 peace deal to ex-members of the FARC fighters who reject it.

Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti reports from Bogota.

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