Gustavo Petro wants a new strategy to stop drug trafficking

• Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has called for a new worldwide drug-trafficking strategy.
• The 62-year-old ex-rebel soldier and former Bogota mayor was elected in June.
• . He will work with Francia Márquez, who was chosen as Colombia’s first black vice president.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has called for a new worldwide drug-trafficking strategy. The country’s first ever left-wing leader labelled the “war on drugs” a failure during his inaugural speech.

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in Colombia’s decades-long civil conflict, which was fueled in part by the drug trade.

The 62-year-old ex-rebel soldier and former Bogota mayor was elected in June on a radical campaign pledging to combat inequality and block new oil projects.

Mr Petro told a throng of supporters in Bogota that it is time for a new worldwide agreement that “accepts the war on drugs has failed.”

“It has left a million dead Latin Americans during 40 years,” he said, “and it leaves 70,000 North Americans dead by overdose each year.”

More than 50 years ago, US President Richard Nixon launched the “war on drugs,” a worldwide anti-narcotics policy that emphasized criminalization and the use of police force.

Colombia’s newly sworn-in president said that the plan had only empowered mafia organisations and damaged Latin American nations over decades.

Colombia, which generates more than half of the world’s cocaine, is substantially engaged in the drug’s manufacturing and shipment to customers worldwide, including the United States and Europe, according to estimates.

Mr Petro’s predecessor, Ivan Duque, made the drug war an a priority for his administration, recruiting strong US help to crack down on cocaine production throughout Colombia.

More than 100,000 people gathered in Bogota’s main plaza on Sunday to see the former Marxist guerrilla become Colombia’s first left-wing leader.

He will work with Francia Márquez, who was chosen as Colombia’s first black vice president alongside Mr Petro.

“I do not want two countries, just as I do not want two societies, I want a strong, just and united Colombia,” Mr Petro said after being sworn in, according to the Reuters news agency.

The referendum in June was conducted despite considerable dissatisfaction with the way the nation had been administered, and there were anti-government rallies last year in which dozens died.

The new president was elected on a bold platform of fighting inequality via free university education, pension changes, and hefty taxes on unproductive lands, a shift for Colombia, which had previously chosen solely conservative presidents.

He also promised to completely execute a 2016 peace agreement that ended a 50-year struggle with the communist guerrilla organization Farc, as well as to pursue talks with the still-active ELN rebels.

Mr Petro’s inauguration signals a significant political shift in the nation, which has been headed for decades by moderates and conservatives.

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