The Congress starts this July 20 with five reforms that will be a priority for Gustavo Petro, the promise of a government of change and the milestone that a left-wing caucus – that of the Historical Pact – is the majority group in the Capitol.
The nominee by that group to be president of the Senate, Roy Barreras – who will impose the presidential sash on Gustavo Petro on August 7 – makes accounts that show him that regarding 80 of the 108 seats will vote “yes” to the proposals for Petro, with the exceptions of the legislators of the Democratic Center and, in some cases, those of Mira.
At least on paper, these numbers show that the president-elect would achieve governability among the legislators, who will have as one of their first tasks to resolve the election of the comptroller – following the Superior Court of Cundinamarca and a guardianship resolved by a judge of Medellín will revoke the list–, in what is emerging as a Congress that will be working more for the new fast track that Barreras will implement.
In this conversation with EL COLOMBIANO, the senator assures that Petro will be a “moderate” president and that this moderation will last 12 years because, he affirms, the political project that he promises needs up to three terms in the House of Nariño to become a reality. These are his reasons.
What is really a priority as of July 20?
“The absolute priority is the tax reform, because resources are needed so that in the first 100 days a plan to fight hunger can be established. The second is point one of the Peace Agreement, comprehensive rural reform; the third, point two of the Agreement, the anti-corruption political reform (see modules). Fourth, a reform to the institutional architecture that President Petro has proposed to separate the Police from the Ministry of Defense and elevate it to the rank of Ministry of Peace, Security and Coexistence.”
He spoke of a reform to the structure and institutional design. Which?
“It would be the fifth priority: the Ministry of Equality proposed by Francia Márquez, but we are not aware of her proposal. I understand that it is so complex that it is barely being structured”.
It has been said that he wants to bring together everything social, such as the Ministry of Labor and the ICBF…
“Yes, I would seek to bring the entire social area together, but I don’t want to anticipate giving an opinion on a proposal that I don’t know regarding. What is clear is that the Vice President wants to act quickly and that seems noble to me”.
They have five priorities. Knowing the size of these reforms, how many can really go through?
“All. The guachafita of working two days a week is over. We are going to work twice as hard, I am going to sleep in Congress and I have proposed a legal prescription that is a new fast track”.
How’s that for the new fast track?
“It is nothing more than a legal recipe, which combines constitutional and legal norms that already exist with political decision. Article 150, 138 and 163 of the Constitution; 191, 119 of the fifth law and the third law”.
What say what?
“The first allow us that the permanent constitutional commissions, which are seven, work simultaneously. We will use the message of urgency and insistence that allows the sessions to be joint in the specialized commissions and there will be simultaneous plenary sessions”.
But can the plenary of the Chamber be discussing the tax while the Senate is also debating it?
“Of course, because we are going to apply article 150. We will study the articles that are already approved and thus avoid conciliation. This mechanism saves us 15 days, and the previous step (simultaneous plenaries) a month. If also instead of meeting two days a week we meet four, and instead of starting in March we start in February, we are going to approve all the reforms”.
Are you including the Democratic Center in your negotiations?
“The opposition parties will have all the guarantees in the commissions, the second vice presidencies and the debates that correspond to them. I need the voice of Senator (María Fernanda) Cabal and Senator (Miguel) Uribe, because it is very important that there are critical opinions, even if they are delusional, so that there is opposition in Colombia”.
Will there be health reform?
“I want to be the first line of change and, therefore, I am going to listen to Minister Carolina Corcho’s proposal. I know, as the author of the Statutory Law, that the insurance system has allowed a wide coverage of service offerings, but not necessarily quality. But it has problems: the vertical integration that generates a dominant position and, derived from it, the mixture of insurance with the provision of services that makes the drug lists prevail”.
As a doctor and connoisseur of the health system, do you think it is good to change it?
“My opinion is that a reform is necessary. The EPS will surely not disappear, but will be transformed. I believe that the insurance system should be maintained, which works, recovering the hospital public law and eliminating vertical integration so that they are not providers of the service. On the other hand, that the provision of the service be mixed, public and private, due to a liberal position of mine, which is the right to choose”.
What are they going to change regarding the Constitution?
“Only the political reform needs a Legislative Act, the rest are statutory and ordinary laws. The Constitution has been tampered with by all governments and requires improvements. For example, the Attorney General’s Office, as Germán Vargas Lleras says, might disappear and nothing happens. It is a bureaucratic entity, very expensive”.
It is difficult for this reform to pass to the Attorney General’s Office because it is a bureaucratic stronghold…
“Let’s try. It is possible that the political parties that lost the presidential election and came last in the second round will listen to the clamor of the citizens for change”.
Gustavo Petro’s post-election alliances are center, but his bench is very far to the left. Is it possible that the opposition begins to emerge within the same Historical Pact?
“The democratic left won and it seems positive to me that President Petro is sending messages of stability, balance and moderation, if you will, to the other Colombia that did not vote with us.”
How long will that moderation last?
“I hope it lasts 12 years, because transitions take time. The energetic one, that of the failure of the war on drugs due to a right-wing position that has subjected Colombia to the curse of drug trafficking and that has failed; while in stores in Europe and the United States today they sell marijuana in all kinds of ways, here we continue to kill ourselves. This transition towards the regulation of the market and the global legalization of drugs is not made in four years; the integral rural reform, either”.
What does 12 years mean?
“That means that we hope that Petro, when it ends in four years, will do so well that the Colombian people give continuity to this broad front with another candidate.”
What role does Daniel Quintero play in the Historical Pact?
“He is not a member of the Historic Covenant. He has a senator and a representative on the caucus and he is one of several mayors who have invited the government caucus to present their development plan”.
