# Gustavo Petro ## Identity and office Gustavo Petro was president of Colombia from 7 August 2022 to 7 August 2026. He is commander-in-chief of the public force for that term. He does not sit as an ELN commander and he does not write a CNE credential. As of September 2026 he is a living former president. Francia Márquez served as vice-president. She is named as an unresolved person candidate. This run does not mint a page for her. He is not a progressive saint. Law 2272 of 4 November 2022 defined Total Peace as state policy ([Cancillería compilation of Ley 2272](https://www.cancilleria.gov.co/sites/default/files/Normograma/docs/pdf/ley_2272_2022.pdf)). That statute is the parent of the ELN table. On 5 July 2023 he signed Decree 1117, decreeing a bilateral, national, temporary ceasefire with the ELN from 00:00 on 3 August 2023 and suspending offensive military and police operations against listed ELN members from 6 July ([Sisjur text of Decreto 1117](https://www.bogotajuridica.gov.co/sisjur/normas/Norma1.jsp?i=143697); [Infobae, 6 July 2023](https://www.infobae.com/colombia/2023/07/06/cese-al-fuego-gustavo-petro-firmo-el-decreto-que-ordena-la-suspension-de-operaciones-militares-contra-el-eln/)). The Cuba agreement of 9 June 2023 sat as parent. The 31 December 2022 announcement of five-group ceasefires, which the ELN denied, and Decreto 4 of 4 January 2023 that suspended that ELN pause, sit as earlier neighbours. They are not this decree. The ceasefire was prorogued and expired at midnight on 3 August 2024 without renewal ([Insight Crime, 5 August 2024](https://insightcrime.org/news/colombias-total-peace-hangs-by-a-thread-after-ceasefire-with-eln-expires/)). The ELN had demanded removal from the organised-armed-group list. Contact resumed. A 17 September 2024 Arauca attack that killed soldiers sat as a later child of the expiry, not as Decree 1117 itself. On 17 January 2025 Petro suspended the ELN table after Catatumbo fighting ([Reuters, 17 January 2025](https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombias-president-suspends-peace-talks-with-eln-rebels-2025-01-17/)). On 24 January he signed Decree 62 declaring conmoción interior for ninety days in Catatumbo, the Cúcuta metropolitan area, and two Cesar municipalities ([SUIN Decreto 62 de 2025](https://www.suin-juriscol.gov.co/viewDocument.asp?ruta=Decretos/30054344); [AP, 20 January 2025](https://apnews.com/article/colombia-eln-violence-petro-7c0ec0b598be4f85a40a9788d92e4838)). UN News recorded around 80,000 people affected and more than 53,000 moving toward Cúcuta, Ocaña and Tibú in the following weeks. OCHA’s 24 January print had already counted more than 40,000 displaced. Those are dated UN figures. They are not mixed here into a unique later national IDP coefficient. Death totals that week were contested. This page does not invent one. Antonio García, ELN commander, is an unresolved person candidate. Gustavo Aníbal Giraldo (“Pablito”), named by Petro as a Catatumbo organiser, is unresolved. This run does not mint them. On 3 April 2024 the Senate’s Seventh Committee archived the health reform, 9–5 ([Reuters, 3 April 2024](https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombian-senate-committee-rejects-petro-government-health-reform-2024-04-03/)). That is a completed legislative defeat and a coalition-rupture instrument. Cabinet churn — including the April 2023 request that the whole cabinet resign — sits as neighbouring administration weather, not as a second copy of the archive vote. National homicide prints for 2025 diverge: DANE, Policía, and Medicina Legal do not print the same integer. This page cites that divergence. It does not pick a number and call it Contribution.size. ## Documented benefits The offsets that a commissioned-positive portrait would lead with are real only where dated. The 7 August 2022 oath followed a competitive runoff. The 7 August 2026 handover to Abelardo de la Espriella, after CNE credentials in June 2026 and Cepeda’s concession, is a completed constitutional transfer ([AP, 24 June 2026](https://apnews.com/article/colombia-election-ivan-cepeda-concedes-de-la-espriella-e0a39ed59a9d432d318e11c1e0735f4e)). A first left presidency is identity, not a rebate of Decree 62. A pension statute that later met a Constitutional Court procedure fight is a neighbouring social instrument; it is not stored here as a unique later poverty miracle. Amazon and COP hosting are not automatic pluses on this ELN file. ## Contributions and limits of responsibility He sanctioned Law 2272. He signed Decree 1117 and Decree 62. He announced the 17 January 2025 suspension. He did not sit as every ELN fighter in Catatumbo and he did not write a Senate archive vote as a teller. Sharing a ceasefire table with an ELN delegation is not a reason to drop the rows. It is a reason not to treat every later municipal killing as his Contribution. ## Causal chain through facts 4 November 2022 initiates petro-security-and-eln. 5 July 2023 strengthens it as a completed ceasefire instrument that later ruptured. 3 April 2024 strengthens [political-polarization](/drivers/political-polarization). 24 January 2025 strengthens petro-security-and-eln after Catatumbo. 7 August 2026 strengthens [capacity for peaceful transfer of power](/drivers/capacity-for-peaceful-transfer-of-power). None of those dates hang on [territorial-revisionism](/drivers/territorial-revisionism), ukraine-war, or Soviet-scope rows. He connects to those mechanisms only through dated facts, not as a tag on a personality. ## What the score does not say This page does not promise an exact number. Direction on the ELN cluster is negative: a ceasefire that expired, a talk suspension, and a Catatumbo emergency with UN displacement prints. A later genuine ELN accord, or a successor statute with a date, would be a different fact. Francia Márquez, Antonio García, Iván Cepeda, Abelardo de la Espriella, Iván Duque, and Laura Sarabia remain names on this file, not invented biographies. ## Dated facts - Petro leaves office as Abelardo de la Espriella is sworn after the 2026 runoff. https://factrail.ai/facts/co-petro-handover-2026. Sources: https://apnews.com/article/colombia-election-ivan-cepeda-concedes-de-la-espriella-e0a39ed59a9d432d318e11c1e0735f4e, https://www.cne.gov.co/. - 2025: Petro signs Decree 62 declaring conmoción interior in Catatumbo after ELN–dissident fighting. https://factrail.ai/facts/co-petro-catatumbo-2025. Sources: https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160401, https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombias-president-suspends-peace-talks-with-eln-rebels-2025-01-17/, https://www.suin-juriscol.gov.co/viewDocument.asp?ruta=Decretos/30054344. - 2024: Senate Seventh Committee archives Petro’s flagship health reform, 9–5. https://factrail.ai/facts/co-petro-salud-archivo-2024. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombian-senate-committee-rejects-petro-government-health-reform-2024-04-03/, https://www.senado.gov.co/. - Petro signs Decree 1117 ordering a bilateral ELN ceasefire from 3 August 2023. https://factrail.ai/facts/co-petro-decreto-1117-2023. Sources: https://www.infobae.com/colombia/2023/07/06/cese-al-fuego-gustavo-petro-firmo-el-decreto-que-ordena-la-suspension-de-operaciones-militares-contra-el-eln/, https://www.bogotajuridica.gov.co/sisjur/normas/Norma1.jsp?i=143697. - 2022: Colombia enacts Law 2272 defining Total Peace as state policy. https://factrail.ai/facts/co-petro-ley-2272-2022. Sources: https://www.crisisgroup.org/brf/latin-america-caribbean/colombia-united-states/b56-total-peace-iron-fist-colombias-risky-turn-hard-security, https://www.cancilleria.gov.co/sites/default/files/Normograma/docs/pdf/ley_2272_2022.pdf. - 2022: Gustavo Petro won Colombia’s presidential election. https://factrail.ai/facts/gustavo-petro-won-colombia-presidential-election. Sources: https://www.registraduria.gov.co/En-la-segunda-vuelta-presidencial-del-2022-se-registro-la-abstencion-mas-baja.html. ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/people/gustavo-petro