Experts consider that Petro, in principle, would not have the institutional and regulatory means at hand to approve the mechanism, but they warn that his government “can generate any factual situation that helps it desperately make a decision.”
“Democracy in Colombia is at absolute risk and even more so when Petro has launched an attack against the Supreme Court of Justice, the previous prosecutor (Francisco Barbosa), and the judges who make decisions that do not favor him,” says Hernán Cadavid, lawyer. and deputy for the Democratic Center party to the Colombian Congress.
“What is the normal exercise of balance of powers, he assumes it as a coup d’état, which is why it is a threat to democracy. Even more so when he now belittles the electoral system that allowed him to be president and says that Venezuela’s is more effective than Colombia’s, when we know what is happening there (in Venezuela), “says the House representative.
Threat to stability
Petro’s idea of the Constituent Assembly generates intense concern not only within Colombian society, involved in unusual violence, but also outside the nation.
“The proposal to establish a Constituent Assembly without national consensus, through appropriate institutional channels, could threaten the stability and cohesion of the Colombian political system,” warns the former president of Colombia, Iván Duque.
The IDEA group, made up of former presidents of Spanish-speaking countries, warned about the consequences of an “authoritarian drift,” while the Hemispheric Front for Freedom, a coalition committed to democracy, rejected Petro’s claim, citing the examples of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.
Petro launched the Constituent Assembly in the midst of low acceptance of his government and intense debates over his proposals for reforms to the health and pension systems, some of which were denied in Congress, where dissidence reduced his majority.
Furthermore, nine days before its announcement, a massive protest of thousands of Colombians filled several cities in the country, with the slogan “Petro out”, against the reappearance of hitmen and insecurity, while peace negotiations are being carried out. according to the country’s media report.
Wants Constituent
President Petro, who began his government in August 2022, spoke publicly about his constituent plan, for the first time, on March 3 in an interview published in Time. There he privileged “popular force” and constituent power over democratic institutions. And he explained that the first geographical scenario chosen is the southwest of the country, which he called “organizational scenario,” and which is currently the scene of violence by the FARC (Armed Forces of Colombia), according to the deputy.
The president justified in principle the intended Constituent Assembly to advance legal reforms that Congress rejects, although he later said that he sought to promote “structural” changes.
Congressmen refute it. They cite the controversial reform in the health area. “The health system in Colombia is a mixed regime, but Petro’s objective is to eliminate private management and the consequences of that would be tremendously harmful to the population,” says deputy Cadavid Márquez, adding that this reform has caused the departure of several government ministers for opposing the reform.
And he adds: “Other proposals have been approved for Petro, but since this one is denied, he comes out in a threatening manner to say that if Congress cannot, the Constituent Assembly can, and that is the most risky attitude in a democracy. I think it is a precedent that must be immediately reproached in Colombia.”
In other statements, Petro ruled out that with the initiative he seeks re-election indefinitely, but that he will carry it forward despite the legal and political questions, since the mechanism is contemplated in the Constitution.
“That’s just the presentation, the purposes are much more than that,” says Cadavid. “One objective is justice in the midst of permanent unrest,” he says, after remembering that the approach occurs while there is a major corruption scandal due to unrecorded contributions, admitted by his son, in his presidential campaign.
“Petro now presents the idea that the entire justice system in Colombia has a mantle of corruption, of a mafia type, but he does not define specific cases, but rather makes general statements in order to justify an institutional imbalance like the one he is precisely causing.”
Chavez patron
Faced with this context, Cadavid considers that the Constituent Assembly’s intention “is absolutely similar” to the model that former President Hugo Chávez advanced in Venezuela in 1999 to impose the Bolivarian revolution, and whose relationship between both left-wing men cannot be lost sight of.
“The person who incorporates Chávez into the ideological forums is precisely Gustavo Petro, who has declared himself an admirer of the Venezuelan’s ways and politics, and now that he has power he is not going to give up making a large part of that film that he aims to create.” artificial scenarios of attacks on the government in order to justify a Constituent Assembly as a solution. But given what happened in Venezuela, in Colombia we could hardly fall for that, even though he may be acting in good faith.”
He points out that, unlike Venezuela, Colombia has an independent institutional fabric that can address the risks that the proposal implies for the country.
It mentions the Judiciary as the “great barrier of control” whose autonomy allows it to shield institutions, political classes and the private sector, and favor “a balance that must remain.” And also to Congress, which “has shown signs of its capacity for independence,” he says. “Standing up and saying that this health reform is not advancing any further is a characteristic that must be preserved to the extent that those purposes do not advance.”
But he highlights the integrity of the media and freedom of expression in Colombia, in the face of attacks, and that “it must be defended tooth and nail.”
“If these values are preserved, we could think that the dark night of Petro passes,” he says..
And he assures that the nation is prepared for that hypothetical scenario.
“The entire country has rejected that constituent call and in that awareness we must remain, shield the judicial branch and in that way preserve or annul decisions, as has already happened with completely illegal matters that the government has attempted to take.”
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Source: Interview with Congressman Hernán Cadavid, and with information from IDEA, Hemispheric Front for Freedom, France24, Infobae
