2023-08-07 22:21:56
“We are not doomed to 100 years of solitude“. With that literary gloss, that of one of his favorite authors, Gabriel Garcia MarquezPresident Gustavo Petro defended tooth and nail his government program, the first of the left in Colombian history, and redoubled his call for a national agreement based on the pacification of the country and consensual reforms that benefit the most neglected sectors of society. “If we don’t face poverty and hunger and we don’t educate young people, change will be just an empty word“. The president refrained this time from talking about the scandal of corruption and illegal financing of politics involving his son Nicolás and his ex-wife, Daysuris Vásquez, and whose shock wave has caused an institutional crisis. He had already said everything in the days precedents, when he distanced himself from the legal fate of his eldest son and refused to resign.
The head of state made his public balance of the first year of management in the town of Tunja, about 150 kilometers from Bogotá. He was accompanied by the first lady Verónica Alcocer and her daughters Sofía and Antonella Petro, as well as the president of Congress, Iván Name, and the main authority of the House of Representatives, Andrés Calle, where the right-wing opposition will try to promote a constitutional accusation in his against.
Petro did not imagine commemorating his first 365 under such circumstances. However, he expressed his satisfaction with what was done. Inflation, he said, has stopped, the salary was increased by 16%. Nor did the predicted economic catastrophe take place. “We are leaving behind a past of violence and a destiny that power belongs only to the castes. They tell us that we incite class struggle when we seek a national agreement.” The president reached out to his adversaries in a moment of weakness. “Together we go much further, Colombia does not need fractures.” Peace, he remarked, however, “arises from fair access to land, health, decent work and a secure old age, it is not just disarmament and mobilization. That would be sweeping the dust under the rug.” Therefore, the agreement “It cannot mean that the poor man is still on his kneesreceiving the crumbs that fall from the table”.
“Total peace” and the environment
A few days after the start of the ceasefire as part of the agreement with the ELN guerrillas, Petro claimed the roadmap that should lead to “total peace.” Talks with all armed groups, including paramilitaries, drug gangs and ex-FARC remnants, are taking place under “enaltecer la vida.” The agreements “are not a negotiation” but a project to end “the violence that destroys the social fabric, with the youth and the poorest people.” As part of this will, the Government tries to comply with the agreement that was signed with the FARC in 2016 to end the armed conflict.
During his speech he highlighted the progress of the Agrarian reform:”We have contributed 73,322 hectares to the land fund. This corresponds to those purchased and recovered. It is little for the three million hectares that the Peace Agreement imposes.” He stressed in this regard that these lands were not expropriated and will be granted “to those who really want to work it.”
As in his inaugural speech, on August 7, 2022, Petro emphasized the urgency of implementing an ambitious environmental agenda. “Science tells us thatwe are reaching a critical point of no return. So much so that it can reach the extinction of life. We have to decarbonize the economy and extend the use of clean energy.” In this sense, he claimed that deforestation has been curbed. In the Colombian Amazon alone, he said, 40,000 hectares were saved in relation to the previous year. He also defended one of his most criticized proposals: a radical turn in the way of approaching the drug problem. Petro considered that the scourge cannot only be faced from the confrontation. This recipe has given very bad results. “We are not afraid of the challenge of leading the discussions that the world needs”.
Support in hours of fragility
The extended speech was followed with expectation, especially by the possible mentions of the situation of his son, who has obtained probation in exchange for collaborating with justice in the investigation of the illegal financing of the campaign that brought his father to power. Although Nicolás Petro and his ex-wife denied that the current president was aware of what they were doing, among other things receiving money from characters of dubious reputation and keeping part of it for personal benefit, governability, estimated the newspaper The vieweris going through “a moment of fragility”.
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Before speaking to the country, Petro received the support of all his ministers. “The president we know is transparentthey said.Those who bet that Gustavo Petro will not finish his term are wrongor those who think that he or his campaign may be linked to money from a bad source or not reported,” said Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva. Labor Minister Gloria Inés Ramírez recognized, for the time being, that the scandal could hinder the ambitious reform program in Congress.
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