2024-03-20 15:42:20
The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, assured this Tuesday that “many of those who oppose” the constituent assembly proposed by him do so because they are “lovers of paramilitary governance”, in reference to the links of politicians with groups such as the extinct United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Last Friday, Petro opened an unexpected debate on the Constitution by proposing the convening of a national constituent assembly given the difficulty he has in getting Congress to approve his reforms.
“To be honest with the debate: many of those who oppose a constituent process that makes citizens the protagonist of the fundamental reforms, do so not because they are lovers of the Constitution of ’91, but because they are lovers of paramilitary governance and the regime. of corruption that after the Constitution was issued was imposed de facto in the country,” Petro expressed on the social network State and the M-19″, guerrilla of which he was part.
“The constituents do not always repeal, but recover what was counter-reformed and add what at the time a Constitution could not declare. In this case, I insist, the Constitution of ’91 has not been applied because it was immediately replaced by a de facto regime: the paramilitary governance or the corruption regime,” Petro said. That is why he stated: “It is time to change that, to recover the institutions for citizens and to guarantee the fundamental aspects that have not been implemented for 33 years.”
“No more blackmail or threats”
The initiative was criticized by politicians of all currents, including some who supported Petro in the 2022 presidential elections. However, the president’s proposal received unexpected “support” this Tuesday from former vice president Germán Vargas Lleras, leader of the right-wing Radical Change party. and one of Petro’s main opponents.
“Let’s support Petro’s Constituent Assembly, no more blackmail, no more threats, let’s convene and defeat him in his constituent. President Petro is right, it is very important that the people decide, but the people are all Colombians, not just the affiliates” to the unions, Vargas expressed in constituent.
“The Constituent Assembly is a democratic mechanism to which we can attend and be a majority, and thus put an end to this bloodshed in which the current government of ‘change’ has plunged us. Welcome to the constituent assembly, let us make way for a political consensus that allows us to remove it forward. And within it determine what the course of the country will be,” said Vargas Lleras.
Peace agreement, among the priorities
In the midst of a clash of powers with Congress, Petro assured last week that Colombia has to go to a national constituent assembly, which according to his adversaries is a window to extend his four-year mandate beyond August 2026. “The The constituent process called is neither to change the Constitution of ’91, nor to perpetuate myself in power,” the president responded on his X account this Monday.
In Colombia, a presidential re-election was allowed in the periods in which Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) and Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018) governed. But in 2015 it was removed again. The president, in power since 2022, qualified his statements in an interview with the newspaper El Tiempo and assured that the reform actually contemplates several points that “require urgent attention.”
Among those points is the implementation of the peace agreement that led to the disarmament of the FARC guerrilla in 2016, accelerate agrarian reform, modify the judicial system and include a chapter on climate change and decarbonization of the economy. This Tuesday the Clan del Golfo, the largest criminal gang in Colombia, announced that it accepts the government’s invitation to carry out a “legal negotiation” that will lead to a peace agreement.
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