The left-wing candidate, who won the first ballot, is committed to the continuation of the peace process and a total change in the country’s development model. These are their main nominations.
Steer
He wants to reverse the 2019 tax reform and start a new one that will increase revenues. That would already raise 20 billion pesos, he says. On occasion he has said that the 4,000 largest fortunes in Colombia need to pay more jobs. The new spending of his program is 19.5 billion, while the tax reform he is proposing is 50 billion. Half of that, he says, should go toward reducing the budget deficit.
peace treaty
It promises to stick to what was signed in 2016 and end violence against its signatories. “We will make the agreement come true with all its extension.” Above all, the comprehensive land reform, with which the country should be “democratized”.
Venezuela
He supports the resumption of diplomatic and consular relations with Venezuela. She would set up an embassy in Caracas and reopen borders with the neighboring country to boost the economy.
education
Petro proposes free public higher education and a total eradication of illiteracy. There will be a universal and free kindergarten for 0-3 year olds, complementing home education, especially for 2.7 million children at risk of exclusion. In puberty, he says, you have to actively look for school-free children and put them into the system with transport and food. In the upper, it offers the same and also creates a rescue plan for thousands of students trapped in credits from Icetex, the public company.
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drugs
He wants to put an end to prohibitionism, a failed model in the fight against drugs. According to Petro, the country must move towards a new paradigm in which producers from rural communities are not criminalized. It will ban the spraying of glyphosate on coca crops and encourage land substitution with other economies. There will be programs that guarantee rural people a secure and decent income and reduce dependence on the sale of coca or cocaine.
pensions
Petro wants to unify the pension system, which is currently mixed, public and private. The candidate wants it to be mostly public because those earning up to four minimum wages must pay into the public colpensiones system. Pension entitlement will be a state guarantee and not “private earmarking”.
Health
He hopes to form state-funded health teams that will visit Colombians in their homes to prevent disease. It would create insurance for territorial health ministers. Petro is very critical of the EPS, the entities responsible for belonging and delivering the subsidized regime’s mandatory healthcare plan.
Surroundings
She proposes making pacts to protect the jungle and forests; deep transformations to address the emergency of climate change and biodiversity loss; promises to make the energy transition away from fossil fuels; defends a circular economy model based on responsible production and consumption that maximizes source separation, waste reduction and reuse.
occupation
It proposes moving from an extractive economy to a productive one. A country more distributed and exploited by farmers. There will be a retraining plan for workers in highly polluting and obsolete industries. It promotes loans for entrepreneurs. It will try to feed the Colombians with the same products that they produce. It will promote recognition of the informal economy and harmonious tourism, which will increase when there is peace in the country.
Poverty
His idea is to create a minimum living wage for elderly people without a pension and single mothers. Irresponsible men taking care of their children will be prosecuted and compensation demanded.
corruption
Petro proposes creating an anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, like those found in other countries, to replace the Attorney General’s office. The latter, he says, is currently a political police force with no other purpose than to prosecute officials who are enemies of the president. The Attorney General’s Office would thus be transferred to the judiciary. He also wants to convene an international commission to investigate the major corruption cases in the country, such as the Odebrecht case, in which, unlike in other countries, hardly any criminal responsibilities are clarified; and eliminate the brokerage of congressmen into public resources, which eventually becomes a nest of corruption, favors, and perks.
gender
Idea to create a ministry for equality that articulates empowerment policies for women, diversity of gender and sexual orientation, generational, ethnic and regional. The elimination of economic, political and social inequalities between men and women and the nation as a whole between the generations is provided with public funds. This ministry will also deal with the homeless, disabled and victims.
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