Faced with President Gustavo Petro’s speech on May 1, the official said that “in my opinion, the central part of the president’s speech was the call for consultation: he analyzes what happens in society when they get stuck on reforms. And in the end he makes a very interesting invitation, he says that we have some proposals, that we want to change something, that we can make mistakes and that we are ready to correct them”.
Regarding the opposition’s warning that the executive would seek a Constituent Assembly, Velasco claimed, “We’re getting into a Constituent Assembly and the government is running out; what we want is to consolidate some reforms that I’m sure Congress will eventually will approve.”
With regard to how the government will ensure that Congress approves the reform package, the minister explains: “There are parties that have shown that they are bigger than their heads. (…) We will talk to whom want to join the conversation We will look for the parties and the congressmen, and we will have this debate not only in Congress, where the vote is held and we are clear about it, but also on the streets because we have to help society convince the goodness of our proposals, we have already convinced more than half of the Colombians in the elections and we have to convince the rest by saying “let’s think of the peasants who are two or three hours, two or three days away of a health post and let’s bring them health care too. The president likes to talk to people, we have made a Development Plan with binding dialogues, we are making a government that listens.”
And on how to deal with the sanctions warned from the directories of the communities, the head of the political portfolio explained: “We are going to look for the votes as they are, if we have to speak representative for representative and senator for senator, I will present my arguments to you and I hope to convince them (…) The directors of the parties must follow something called the Constitution, and this says that the statutes of the parties are laws and that there are conscientious objections due to central conceptual elements, but also the possibility of being a majority and at least in the Chamber there is already a majority that wants to join us in the reforms”.
Before the debates, some 200 members of the Cauca Indigenous Guard formed and demonstrated this Tuesday in Plaza de Bolívar, in front of the Congress of the Republic, in support of Gustavo Petro’s government.
Members of indigenous communities, in particular, cheer in support of total peace and the social reforms proposed by the executive and being incorporated into the legislature.
This is one day after the head of state called from the balcony of the Casa de Nariño at the May 1 commemoration for social mobilization of citizens in support of labor, pension and health care reforms, in addition to agrarian reforms. related to the National Development Plan.
Source: El Heraldo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
