The Minister of the Interior of Colombia, Luis Fernando Velasco, spoke in an interview with the Voice of America about the legislative initiatives with which President Gustavo Petro seeks profound reforms to the health, labor and pension systems, as well as how the president's goal of total peace would also positively impact Venezuela.
The official also referred to the implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement, the measures to protect the lives of social leaders and peace signatories. In addition, he delved into the impact of the ambitious “total peace” plan, with which the government seeks through different negotiation processes to disarm illegal groups.
Velasco also described the failed attempts to legalize recreational marijuana in Colombia and explained the situation of violence in the country and the presence of the Aragua Train criminal gang.
VOA: President Gustavo Petro, the first leftist in the country, has an ambitious reformist plan with changes to the health, pension and labor systems, however he has clashed with Congress where his legislative procedures have become bogged down. Why has it been difficult to find the necessary support?
Velasco: I enter the ministry the day the president tells the country that the government coalition broke up and it is my turn in 12 months to build the strength and support of the government in Congress. It is evident that in the House we did it much faster; Our reforms have come out. The education reform has just come out there. In the Chamber they are accompanying us, there is an opposition that we respect that is democratic and of course we listen to it and also talk to them.
The other reforms have had their progress. Yes, we would like it to be much more agile, much faster, but we must understand that our proposals are not to dress up the institutions, but rather to transform the institutions, and that there are some traditional sectors with which we have to talk many times to achieve the agreements that we allow these types of transformations to be made.
VOA: President Gustavo Petro has insisted on his idea of calling a Constituent Assembly. How would this process be convened?
Velasco: I have always believed in the constitution as a citizens' pact and in the citizens' pact we all have to listen to each other. If in Colombia there are some things that have not been developed from the '91 constitution and need to be reformed, I would be a friend of calling all the economic, social and political forces and tell them this is happening, let's make an agreement to do it and it is likely that this will end in a constituent, but a constituent that you do not make overnight, even in a statement from the president he says well, let's talk about that (constituent) and it may be in two or three years when I will no longer be president and it is interesting, so I would rather take up your question by saying that in Congress there is room to make the maneuvers and the transformations that this country needs .
VOA: One of President Gustavo Petro's main flags has been the peace policy, which seeks to disarm the different criminal structures that operate in the country. What future awaits Total Peace?
Velasco: If we are able to change the economy of the territories we will have total peace. Dialogue is necessary, it is a path that should not be abandoned, but I believe that if we are not able to understand the logic of the current conflict, what is the influence of cocaine trafficking, what is the influence of illegal mining in the conflict, we are lost.
“We have lacked more audacity as a society to make legislative decisions”
We have to change that, but we also have to make bold decisions, a bold decision that hurts me that we have not continued to be able to make, that we lost by one vote in the Congress of the Republic when it was about to be approved was, for example, the legalization of marijuana for recreational use. It is not justified that in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and in the north of Cauca people are killing themselves and our people for the control of those marijuana crops when you are on Fifth Avenue in New York, or in Denver or in Los Angeles without any problem a marijuana cigarette, I believe that there we have lacked more audacity as a society to make legislative decisions.
VOA: The presence of the Aragua Train in Colombia is known. How has it affected the security and coexistence of this criminal gang?
Velasco: Every presence of an illegal organization hits us. The Aragua Train is a reality and it is an organization, but it must also be understood. I do believe that when one sees those Venezuelan boys uprooted from their territory, humiliated in a foreign land, violence begins to become a mechanism of expression.
Of course we reject it and we have to protect all citizens, but it also seems a little unfair to me that in a country like ours, the Aragua Train is like the brand of Venezuelans. Many of those Venezuelans come, they help us, they are with us and it hurts me that the news that always comes out is that of the Aragua Train.
Of course, I believe that action must be taken against the Aragua Train and police action is being taken.
VOA: Finally, President Gustavo Petro has said that the peace of Colombia is the peace of Venezuela. Exactly what can the president be referring to? Is it related to the massive Venezuelan migration or to the presence of Colombian irregular groups in Venezuela?
Velasco: The peace of Colombia is part of the security of many cities in the world, not only of Venezuela, because the peace of Colombia is reducing the supply of illegal narcotics in other places.
So if we begin to control this issue with a peace exercise, then we are going to reduce violence in those countries, I am not saying that drug trafficking is going to end, I am not saying that drug addiction is going to end, but I am We are going to reduce a lot of violence to that business that evidently affects security in the streets of New York or in other places in the world.
Now, in Latin America, of course it is the peace of Venezuela because those organizations that are outside the law often use Venezuela as a place of refuge when they feel attacked by our military and police force. Now, of course, Venezuela is needed much more, something that is needed and that it seems that in America we have not learned yet is not to block that country because if we block it we end up blocking its citizens and we end up hurting Colombia itself .
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