The elected president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, appointed former peace negotiator Álvaro Leyva Durán as the new foreign minister this Saturday, the first member of his cabinet to announce since he won the elections last Sunday.
«Álvaro Leyva Durán will be our Minister of Foreign Affairs. He will be a chancellery of peace. Colombia will contribute all its efforts to the world to overcome the climate crisis and we expect all the effort from the world to overcome our endemic violence,” Petro said in a message posted on his Twitter account.
Leyva Durán, 79 years old, is a conservative politician who has participated in several peace processes that have taken place in the country in the last 40 years. He was also Minister of Mines and Energy between 1984 and 1985, during the government of President Belisario Betancur.
The former minister supported Petro’s presidential candidacy before the first round, held on May 29, when he made his adhesion to the campaign official along with a group of conservative politicians from the department of Meta (center).
After last Sunday’s triumph, Leyva Durán assured that Petro came to the Presidency to “reconcile, unite the Colombian people” and said that this is the meaning of the “great national agreement”, for which the president-elect has summoned all country forces.
“In Colombia, President Petro’s call for a comprehensive agreement is equal to peace with the threatening opponent, with the defamer, peace with the detractor,” Leyva added in a video posted on his Twitter account on Friday.
The foreign minister appointed by Petro was a peace mediator with several guerrillas during the governments of presidents Belisario Betancur (1982-1986), Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002) and Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018)..