2023-05-21 04:00:52
20/05/2023
Their names are Víctor Manuel Salcedo and Camilo Esteban Ávila. The first is from Valle and the second from Vaupés. And the two —under the baton of Dilian Francisca Toro— gave the controversial health reform the votes that La U publicly wanted to disguise as elusive. Thus, settling under the umbrella of political independence, this week they made it easier for the Government of Gustavo Petro for one of its most controversial projects to advance by 84 percent.
On the other side are María Eugenia Lopera (Antioquia), Hugo Alfonso Archila (Casanare), Germán Rozo (Arauca) and Héctor Chaparro (Boyacá), who are part of a group of 18 representatives of the Liberal Party who declared themselves in absentia before the ex-president César Gaviria and preferred to negotiate directly with the Executive their support for the reform.
They are not the only ones. There is a third block, that of Gerardo Yepes (Tolima) and Jorge Quevedo (Guaviare), who, faced with the specter of the sanctions that Efraín Cepeda promotes from the leadership of the Conservative Party, were more timid in their support for the health reform, but they gave it to him anyway.
Whether it was abstaining from some votes or just excusing himself from others, which according to legislative mathematics helps to maintain a quorum among the 21 members of the Seventh Committee of the House.
In these three political groups, each one with a direct line with the ministers Luis Fernando Velasco, of the Interior, and Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo, of Health, as well as with the chief of staff, Laura Sarabia, was the key so that in just three sessions — the last one was on Thursday and in it an article was approved on average every 7 minutes— the bulk of a reform that the polls punish, the medical unions reject, the Attorney General questions as risky and the business community in the health sector asks that it be remove.
None of the latter was helpful, since Congress gave free rein to 117 of the 139 articles that the reform has in total, including the most controversial ones such as the one that puts an end to the health promoting entities (EPS) in two years_—the they rename health and life managers with fewer tools—and the one that gives Adres superpowers to directly manage the money in the sector.
“I want to thank the parliamentarians who have been very diligent, because it has been an intense discussion and review work, and I believe that this is the way in which reforms can be advanced in Congress, reaching agreements and a majority consensus” , affirmed Minister Jaramillo after the victory he had in the Capitol.
And what moved in the last 120 hours so that a reform that came to Congress on February 13 finally unraveled and, despite all the controversy, advanced in the first of the four debates that must take place for it to be a law?
First, the telephone of the Minister of the Interior was very active. He called the representatives to hear his doubts, but not only about the reform, but about the key issues in their regions in an election year.
He did it with the conservative Quevedo, from Guaviare, from whom he received an emissary from the municipality of El Retiro in his office to speak about a series of investments in that region. The envoy is from the congressman’s political group.
He also spoke often with the Liberals Lopera and Rozo, whom he has known since he was a member of that party’s officialdom. With the first, messages were exchanged about how they can finish convincing the other members of the red bench so that, like Velasco, they take a step forward and ask for the removal of Gaviria from the leadership of the community.
There, another Antioquia native plays an important role, the controversial ex-congressman Julián Bedoya, who seeks endorsement to run for governor and, at the same time, wants to lead someone else from Petrista.
With Rozo, the same one who has been in direct dialogues to promote the reform from the Carolina Corcho administration, on how certain candidacies can be made viable in Arauca in the midst of a tough confrontation that exists between dissidents and the ELN, which ends up permeating irregularly the electoral process.
With those of La U the dialogues were fluid, but there is an additional interest there. Dilian Francisca Toro, her president, wants to go for the Government of Valle and she is not willing to have rivals to stop her from that contest.
For this reason, through Velasco and Laura Sarabia, they discussed how to guarantee that Senator Alexander López Maya assumes the Presidency of Congress next Tuesday and desist from —as he recently confessed to this newspaper that he is thinking about it— competing for that departmental position .
In addition, according to spokespersons for the three parties that began as part of the ruling coalition and are now becoming more critical at the microphones but not in the reform votes, quick meetings were held in at least two congressional halls —between Tuesday and Wednesday — to guarantee that, despite public opposition to the reform by their party leaders, congressmen would join the Historical Pact, Alianza Verde and other members of the “Change combo” in the Seventh Commission.
In addition, from the Casa de Nariño itself they confirmed that both Wednesday and Thursday, the most complex days for the debate on the reform in Congress, Petro himself closely followed the vote, receiving the reports from Sarabia and with certain messages crossed directly with Jaramillo and Velasco.
Even this week there was a meeting in the Palace, on Monday, between Petro and Toro to find out how that group would move by taking a step towards independence, but voting favorably for the interests of the Government. And so it happened, because La U positively promoted the health reform.
In the midst of these comings and goings, the exchange of messages and the minute reports that Petro received, there was another key appointment. It took place on Wednesday at the house of former President Gaviria and 42 of the 44 members of the liberal bench were there. It was somewhat informal, but it allowed the ex-president to use the letter of the delivery of guarantees for the October regional elections in exchange for not making such harsh opposition.
And that, at least on paper, served because although several of the attendees admit that there are disagreements with a Gaviria who puts his bureaucratic quotas at risk when confronting Petro, in public they maintain a lukewarm voice. In fact, after that lunch, Velasco and Sarabia spoke with several of the 18 representatives to find out the climate of that lunch.
What happened after? That the 4 liberals of the Seventh Chamber Commission voted positively for the bulk of the 117 articles that passed the reform.
This means that the direct negotiation that Petro ordered to do above the institutionality of the parties was useful, and that the positions that are close to the representatives in Fiduprevisora, 24/7, Coljuegos and other entities serve to oil a machine that does not necessarily It is powerful, but it does serve to push political millimeter.
“Perhaps in history no project has been discussed like this, in all kinds of spaces, and it has been adjusted and modified,” said the president of the Chamber, David Racero, who is no stranger to all these movements that the opinion until now he was unaware and that they are going to be strongly strengthened in two weeks when the reform goes to discussion in plenary and it is precisely up to this parliamentarian to skate it.
All this also makes it clear that the labor and pension reforms, which are already on their way to this same commission to be debated, will have support and will be approved. Perhaps not as the House of Nariño wants them, but with the thick points that Petro has been defending since the campaign.
It is not in vain that the opposition itself recognizes that the majorities are at stake to promote the reforms and that, of course, they are preparing lawsuits before the Constitutional Court for what they denounce are procedural and formal defects. For example, they claim that the Seventh Commission was summoned for the first debate and the paper had not yet been formally published in the official gazette, a legal requirement; and they also warn that this health reform should have been processed as a statutory law.
“We have already seen that the government has no scruples to achieve the majorities it needs, despite the procedural flaws it has and everything that makes this reform inconvenient,” emphasized representative Andrés Forero, of the Democratic Center.
They have a history that could play in their favor. The Constitutional Court issued a concept in the first week of March with which this court was given powers to suspend the entry into force of a norm that is in demand until it is studied in depth.
In this context, there are many voices —including those of some magistrates— who warn that this prerogative could be launched with the reform when the judicial resources that Forero and others receive, with the support of figures such as former president Álvaro Uribe and former vice president Germán Vargas Lleras —today politically distant— will be promoted as soon as they finish their legislative process.
Darío Echandía, of conservative lineage, asked himself back in the 40s “power for what?” And in light of these events, all of which have occurred in the last five days, Petro seems to have tacitly responded to him. He used precisely his inauguration as President to pull the strings of political sectors that need the bureaucratic support of the Government to move their candidates in the elections on October 29. And, judging by the facts, the applied formula is working.
The four liberals who do like reform
The two from La U who don’t care about the controversy
The conservatives who support everything in silence
Labor reform, the debate that follows for the seventh commission of the Chamber
With the approval in the first debate of 117 of the 139 articles of the health reform, the Government of Gustavo Petro and Congress are heading batteries to process another controversial project: the labor reform. Although there is criticism from the business community and the Bank of the Republic, which warn of difficulties such as higher operating costs and few incentives for the generation of formal employment, the Executive insists on the benefits of the initiative, such as dignifying work. Perhaps one of the most controversial points is the overtime from 6:00 in the afternoon.
The papers on the reform have already been filed and the text completes an article with 82 points.
Precisely, the controversial endorsement that representative Jorge Alexander Quevedo gave to the labor presentation led not only to his being formally investigated for his actions, but also to being suspended for 3 months, in which he will not have the right to speak or vote in Congress.
President Gustavo Petro urged to defend the congressman, said that he is politically persecuted and even went so far as to say that his case should be investigated by the IACHR: “We are facing a political persecution for defending the rights of workers, rights that today spread throughout the world,” he said.
1684747476
#secret #strings #moved #promote #health #reform