Insisting on the idea of a coup and warning of “greater violence”, this Thursday again President Gustavo Petro he referred to his constituent and denied that implicitly That translates into a re-election of his mandate.
In a lengthy message released through his X account, the head of state acknowledged that there is tension due to his call to the constituent power, that is, the Colombian people, with a view to “produce the changes and transformations that the country needs.” However, he claimed that this call has been fought “from the extreme right” and what he called the “union of the past” with the “lying figure of the presidential re-election.”
Thus, He asked to “strip” the debate, criticizing that there are those who claim that peace can be achieved without any change: “Without modifying power, nor the economy, nor territory, nor inequality”. The above coincides with the proposal launched by the former chancellor Álvaro Leyva versus summoning a National Constituent Assembly, removing Congress based on a section of the Peace Agreement signed with the extinct FARC.
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Along those lines, sending a indirect message to figures such as former president Juan Manuel Santos, Petro criticized that there are those who now “they denounce their own signed agreement” and assured that the same thing happens with the pact reached in the 90s with the then guerrilla ofl M-19, “who is now prohibited from even displaying his flags, “They are so afraid of him because of his popular attraction.”
Petro even rejected that there was also fear of the 1991 Constitution itself or to first agreement reached at the table with the guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (THE N) –related to the participation of civil society–.
“Who They reformed the Constitution on more than 50 occasions, removing rights and getting themselves re-elected, now they claim to defend it. This bipolarity of the ‘union of the past’ actually has to do with the fact that all the peace agreements mentioned, including the main one: that of the Constitution, They propose agreements to change, not to leave things as they are. The problem is change, not reelection,” he said.
In that sense, he recalled that in the last four decades, “The word peace has been constantly repeated.” The above, according to his thesis, after a proposal of Jaime Bateman Cayón –co-founder and top commander of the M-19–, who in 1982 asked for “a national dialogue from the jungles of Caquetá.”
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“Peace has been an idea fundamental force of the Colombian people, a constituent idea of the nation. But at the same time, in the oligarchic and anti-democratic mentality of the country, the same fact has been repeated in practice: breach of peace”alleged the head of state.
Petro listed several facts that, in his opinion, they “clearly” show the ‘morronga’ slogan typical of oligarchic culture in the country: “to deceive, to betray one’s word, to fail to comply.”
Among others, he referred to the murder of Carlos Pizarro; the non-compliance with the Constitution of 91 “which led them to build an unconstitutional neoliberal business model with the public” instead of a social rule of law, or the entrapment of the peace of the FARC “with the leadership of the Prosecutor’s Office promoting it.” Furthermore, he maintained that points of the Peace Agreement signed in 2016 have been breached, such as “the agrarian reform, the transformation of the territory and judicial truth.”
On the other hand, it drew attention to the “blitz” by some unions against “the stammering” first agreement with the ELN, “including the filibustering activity of the ‘union of the past’ to sink the reforms proposed by the government program elected by the people.”
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According to Petro, with deception that “oligarchic culture” even won an “irrational plebiscite. A sector of the people voting against peace, voting against themselves and their children (…) They achieved a first constituent moment of the people after 1991 against peace and for violence. Now the results are collected.”
For the president, “be that as it may,” it is a fact that it was the same right that “convened the constituent power against which they are now shouting for a coup d’état (…) Of course after the referendum and Duque’s dubious victory, the constituent power finally expressed itself in favor of the change. That’s why now they don’t want the people, but the coup.”
Therefore, he insisted on the breaches of peace “so that there are no changes and can remain in the privileged positions of power, the business, public procurement and inequality”. However, he maintained that the only thing that is caused by keeping things as they are “is not peace, but greater violence.”
