MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petro's liaison team releases report on the state of Colombia

Duque leaves Petro very little on which to build

Colombian President-elect Gustavo Petro's liaison team with the outgoing administration of Iván Duque released earlier this week a report on what to expect when the first-ever leftwing head of state is inaugurated Aug. 7.

The document showed that Petro will not look to the past, but will rather focus on total pacification, overcoming poverty, as well as in deep economic changes.

Few are the programs from Duque's years that Petro will keep. Many U-turns are expected, such as the delivery of land to peasants, which has been quite deficient under the outgoing conservative leadership.

The new government will also focus on education, where Duque leaves big cracks to be filled both in urban and in rural areas.

Petro's team concluded that there were few resources for the new administration to build on.

But “We are not going to govern with a rear-view mirror, but with the purpose of offering a better country to the communities and Colombians, those who voted and those who did not vote for us,” said Daniel Rojas, of Petro's leftwing coalition.

He admitted that “the fiscal reality of the country is a great concern,” as much as “the level of indebtedness and fiscal deficit is critical.” Hence, the need for tax reform to put an end to exemptions granted by the outgoing government to specific sectors, Rojas explained.

Rojas also hoped the new administration would broaden the taxpayer base in order to generate more resources for the State to undertake its social support policies.

Petro's team has also pledged to create the conditions for the beginning of the change in the energy matrix, so as to avoid the mess in which other governments in the region have been involved.

Future Health Minister Carolina Corcho also announced she would oppose fracking, due to its consequences “on life and human health.”

The Petro administration will also not insist on herbicide spraying to end coca leaf crops and vowed to honor what was agreed upon in the peace deal with the FARC, which proposes an ambitious program for the substitution of these crops.

Corcho also announced a reform to the heavily-indebted current health system.

Petro's liaison team known as “empalme” insisted the accountability reviews were not intended to judge anyone but to merely understand the state in which the new government receives the country, although they did admit there was some uneasiness over the last-minute appointments by the Duque administration of officials in key positions.