Colombia: Marxist Ex-Guerrilla Gustavo Petro Calls for Radical Wealth Redistribution in Inauguration Speech

Colombia inaugurated the first leftist president in its history, Gustavo Petro, on Sunday, who delivered an inauguration speech that promised an end to the nation’s drug war, radical wealth redistribution, a potential end to the nation’s fossil fuel industry, and dialogue with “everyone – with no exceptions.”

Petro broke an uninterrupted streak of conservative or center-right leadership in the country with his victory in June’s presidential election – a race riddled with election irregularities and that Petro himself claimed was rigged before he won it. Petro mysteriously stopped attacking Colombia’s election administrators as liars immediately after winning the presidential election. The former mayor of Bogotá, the nation’s capital, won after losing the prior race in 2018 to his predecessor, Iván Duque, who left office on Sunday as one of the most unpopular presidents in recent memory due to a poor – and often violent – response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

Petro’s rise to power has prompted global alarm, as the radical leftist vowed to cooperate with Colombia’s communist guerrillas to end the drug war – claiming that sugar and oil are more dangerous “drugs” than cocaine – and promised to curtail Colombia’s lucrative oil and gas industries to fight climate change. Petro has a personal history with Colombia’s guerrillas, once belonging to the violent M-19 communist organization. More recently in his political career, Petro has attempted to defend M-19 as distinct from drug trafficking communist groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) or the National Liberation Army (ELN). The FARC enthusiastically supported his election, however, undermining Petro’s attempts to distance himself from terrorists.

Petro delivered an extreme leftist speech on Sunday that promised tax hikes, cited communist writer Gabriel García Márquez, and demanded the world pay Colombia to maintain its share of the Amazon Rainforest.

“It is time for change,” Petro proclaimed. “Our future is not written. We own this sphere and we can write it together, in peace and union. Today begins the Colombia of the possible. We are here against all predictions, against a history that said we would never govern, against the same people as always, against those who did not want to let go of power.”

“Of course, peace is possible if we change, for example, our policies against drugs, seen as a war for a preventative policy in developed countries,” Petro said, promising to redirect military resources currently in use to fight terrorist groups and instead make them engage in construction labor in rural areas.

“Helicopters and planes, frigates, they are not only useful to bomb or shoot,” he told his nation, “they are also good for creating the first infrastructure of preventative health of the Colombian people.”

Petro also promised comprehensive tax reform to empower the state to redistribute wealth.

“With will, redistribution policies, and a plan for justice, we will make a more egalitarian Colombia with more opportunities for all,” Petro promised. “This is why we propose a tax reform that generates justice – to take a part of the riches from those who have the most and earn the most to open the doors of education to all children and the youth.”

“This should not be seen as a punishment or sacrifice,” the now-president insisted. “It is just the payment in solidarity that someone fortunate makes to a society that allows them and guarantees their fortune.”

“We have not advanced as humanity through competition, we have done so helping each other,” Petro claimed.

Petro also promised to make climate alarmism a cornerstone of his policies, claiming his government was open to eradicating all fossil fuels.

“Climate change is a reality. And it is urgent. That is not the left or the right speaking, that is science saying it,” Petro insisted, adding that Colombia required funding from wealthy countries to do its part to stop the allegedly incoming climate catastrophe.

“We are willing to transition to an economy without coal and without petroleum, but we will be of little help to humanity with this,” Petro said. “We are not the ones emitting greenhouse gases – it is the rich people of the world who do this, bringing humanity closer to its extinction.”

The threat to end Colombia’s fossil fuel industry arrives with the context that Colombia has been energy independent since 1987 due to its efficient use of both coal and gasoline. Crude oil and coal are the nation’s top legal exports.

Petro proposed wealthy nations either redistribute wealth to his government to fight climate change or “exchange external debt for internal expenses to save and recover our jungles, forests, and wetlands” – meaning, forgive Colombia’s foreign debts as a form of climate justice.

Elsewhere in the extended speech, Petro also promised more “peace” talks with terrorist organizations. Under former President Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia embarked on a communist Cuba-led “peace” process with the FARC that resulted in the implementation of an unpopular deal with the terrorist organization in 2016. The Colombian people voted against it, but Santos unconstitutionally overrode the results of that referendum, garnering a Nobel Peace Prize for his effort. Colombia, and the world, have experienced record-high cocaine production since the “peace” deal went into effect. In June, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published its latest report, covering 2020, warning that Colombia had increased its cocaine production even as it limited the land used for coca cultivation due to technological advances that improved cultivation, requiring less space.

“I will dialogue with everyone, with no exceptions and no exclusions,” Petro promised on Sunday. “This will be a government of open doors for anyone who wants to discuss the problems of Colombia. Whatever their names, wherever they are from. The important thing is not where we come from, but where we are going.”

Petro’s own past with the M19 guerrilla became the source of an awkward moment during his inauguration when, in what should have been his first act as president, Petro requested the sword of founding father Simón Bolívar, a tradition in the inauguration process. M19 famously stole the sword in an act of Marxist protest in 1974. Duque refused to hand it over, citing “security reasons.” The Colombian military ultimately handed the sword over following the inauguration.