After several days of talking about possible coups and persecutions against him, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro will return this Saturday to his favorite stage to be received by his bases and social movements in the National Assembly for Social Reforms, Peace and Unity.
(See here: National Government resubmits health reform bill)
On Saturday and Sunday, at the National University in Bogotá, under the premise ‘Yes to democracy, no to the coup!’ The sectors related to Petro will meet to discuss the axes that “They will strengthen the ‘Government of Change’ in the time that remains” and how “to confront the right-wing coup d’état.”
“This meeting will set the roadmap for local, regional, national and international mobilization for the remaining period of the ‘Government of Change'”the organizers said in a statement.
Petro, who assumed the Presidency on August 7, 2022, half of his four-year term has already passed.
(Continue here: Were health sector stakeholders taken into account in the new reform?)
According to the organizers, this weekend’s assembly will be “a scenario of articulation and strengthening of popular power that contributes to a national project that gives guarantees to Colombians, a country at peace, without fear and with rights.”
This assembly is convened by the National Unitary Command, the National Coordinator of Change, the Historical Pact (Petro’s coalition) and the Minga Social Indígena, All of them are aligned with the president and have been joined by other social organizations, unions and guilds.
“I will be at the National Popular Assembly this Saturday at noon. The coordination of popular forces is essential today. Saturday. National University,” The president confirmed on his X account, where he did not give further details.
Gustavo Petro
Presidency
Coups and conspiracies
Beyond the agenda, the organization assures that the event “seeks to counter the coup d’état by the right,” and that they will establish a “roadmap for local, regional, national and international mobilization.”
The coup theory has been fueled several times in recent weeks by the president himself, who even went so far as to say last Saturday: “Are you complaining about Venezuela? A coup against the president is underway in Colombia.”
Petro indicated that the National Electoral Council (CNE) is taking steps towards “a coup d’état” wanting to investigate him for possible irregularities in the financing of the electoral campaign that led him to the Presidency.
(Read here: These are the three pillars of the Petro government’s financing law)
This is because last week an investigation by the CNE was revealed, revealed by journalist Daniel Coronell on W Radio, which concluded that the electoral campaign of In 2022, Petro violated the spending limits established by law and resorted to prohibited sources of financing.
Throughout this week, the president has been feeding this theory and yesterday he insisted that there is a plan to assassinate him or to “knock him down” through a coup d’état and assured: “the order is given.”
“They want that on the last day, when they remove the president, as they did in Bolivia, as they did in Brazil, as they did in Peru, killing people, then the careless people will allow the next president of the republic in this presidential period (2022-2026) to be Mr. (Efraín) Cepeda, president of the Senate,” he added.
The constituent assembly
This national assembly was scheduled for July 20, when the legislative period began, and then there was talk that it could be the stage where Petro launched his proposal for a Constituent Assembly.
The first time that Petro spoke openly about the constituent assembly was on March 16 in Cali, justifying that the institutions that the country has “They are not able to keep up with the reforms” proposed by your Government and which must pass through Congress.
The discussion of the National Assembly this weekend will revolve around nine points, the same ones that the president considered should be addressed for the eventual convening of a Constituent Assembly, although the organization assured EFE that the Constituent Assembly is not on the agenda.
In fact, Petro’s speech on the Constituent Assembly, which brought criticism from former presidents and multiple sectors, has been toned down since then and has not been mentioned again since the president appointed to the new Minister of the Interior, Juan Fernando Cristo, who was part of the Government of Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018).
Christ assured when he was appointed that his purpose was “to see if we finally reach a national agreement that may or may not eventually – and that will emerge from the talks – end in the Constituent Assembly that would not be convened or elected, it would be a process that begins now and if we reach a national political agreement it would be elected in the next Government, not in this Government,” he pointed out.
EFE
