Colombia's incoming leftist President Gustavo Petro on Friday named Ivan Velasquez, a former assistant judge in the country's Supreme Court of Justice and previously a UN anti-corruption investigator in Guatemala, as his defense minister.
Petro, a 62-year old economist who will become Colombia's first leftist president on Aug. 7, pledged to fully implement a peace deal with the demobilized FARC guerrillas during his campaign and has proposed talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group and criminal groups linked to drug-trafficking.
