Colombia president-elect Petro names peace envoy as foreign minister

FILE PHOTO: Alvaro Leyva, a negotiator between the Marxist FARC rebels and the government, gestures during an interview with Reuters in Bogota, Colombia, September 14, 2016. Picture taken September 14, 2016. REUTERS/Felipe Caicedo/File Photo

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's leftist president-elect Gustavo Petro named long-time politician and peace envoy Alvaro Leyva as the first member of his future cabinet on Saturday, ahead of Petro's August inauguration.

Leyva, 79, is well-known for his decades of work under presidents from several parties to bring various armed groups, including the M-19 rebels, of which Petro was a member as a young man, to the negotiating table.