The ex-rebel's victory was also exceptional for Colombia, where voters had been historically reluctant to back leftist politicians — often accused of being soft on crime or allied with guerillas.
Conservative parties failed to connect with voters frustrated by rising poverty and violence against human rights leaders.
But he has said he would like to work with Washington "as equals," building schemes to combat climate change or bring infrastructure to rural areas where many farmers say coca leaves are the only viable crop. He said Colombia will stop granting new licenses for oil exploration and will ban fracking projects, even though the oil industry makes up almost 50 per cent of the nation's legal exports.
Yan Basset, a political scientist at Del Rosario University in Colombia's capital Bogotá, said the incoming president had a "very ambitious agenda"."The risk Petro faces is that he goes after too many reforms at once and gets nothing [through Colombia's congress]." Stages with live music and big screens were also placed in parks across Bogota's city centre so tens of thousands of citizens without invitations to the main event could join in the festivities.
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