Ivan Duque took oath as the 60th President of Colombia on August 7 in Bogota. Duque is a right-winger and has limited political experience compared to his peers in the government. Before his election, he had served for four years in the Senate.
One of the goals of Duque is to rewrite the peace deal with the FARC or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who are seen as the leftist rebels in the country.
Duque also aims at dealing with the increasing production of coca and cocaine and negotiate peace settlements with the guerrilla army.
According to The Washington Post, Duque said, "The moment has come for all of us to unite to fight against illegal groups," during his inauguration speech.
The 42-year-old is said to be the youngest president of the country. He was the protégé of Álvaro Uribe, who served as the president for eight years (2002-2010).
During his tenure as the president, Uribe had managed to call for a truce between the government and the FARC and also managed to squash the drug traffickers in the country. Uribe is now part of the Senate.
Duque had contested against Gustavo Petro, who was a part of the Guerrilla and was also a mayor of Bogota. Petro got 42 percent of the votes during the elections.
During the campaign, Duque spoke about how the multiple corruption scandals will be tackled. Along with this, he also spoke about the rising number of Venezuelan refugees in the country.
With signing an agreement with the Leftist FARC as a key point in his campaigns, it is not Duque's priority to get the two sides to come to an agreement for the peace of the country. His predecessor, Juan Manuel Santos is popular for signing an agreement with the FARC in 2016 which required the members to give up fighting, have the fighters disbanded and demobilized, hand in their weapons, form political parties and get elected to the Parliament.
However, peace is still far away from the South American country. While some members of the FARC have signed the agreement, many have refused and formed their own communities.
Duque has proposed to reimplement the aerial spraying of coca crops to irradicate drug problem.
