Massive protest in Colombia against the reforms of President Petro

First modification: 02/16/2023 – 18:59

The largest demonstrations were registered in Bogotá, Medellín and Cali, where people expressed their opposition to the reforms that Gustavo Petro plans to present in the coming weeks to Congress, with an official majority.

According to the correspondent for RFI in Spanish, Paula Carrillo “The fight for who called more people to the streets this week had a winner since one day after President Petro called his supporters to support his reform programs, the opposition came out to show their discontent with the changes that the Executive raises the health, labor and pension system.”

Also read: Demonstrations in Colombia in support of the reforms of the Petro Government

We protest “against the policies of Petro who believes he is the absolute owner of the truth and does not take any opinion into account,” pensioner Ricardo Escobar told Agence France Presse in the capital’s Plaza Bolivar. “This government wants to take our savings and he wants to avoid them, put them at risk (…) this month we can have a pension, but next month we don’t know,” complained Olga Sandoval, a 60-year-old retiree. “Every time he (Petro) speaks, it seems to me that he wants to being a dictator, he is threatening us every hour,” Rodrigo Victoria, a 65-year-old ex-military officer and merchant who was marching in the capital on Wednesday, told AFP.

The government seeks to remove the function of managing resources from private entities to give it to the State, but the text has generated discord, even among cabinet members such as the Minister of Education, Alejandro Gaviriawho exposed his objections to the health reform proposal in a document leaked to the press.

From the balcony of Casa Nariño, Gustavo Petro had asked for support for his reforms on Tuesday, “but without the conciliatory tone that had helped him so far to have majorities in the legislature – Carillo underlines – which perhaps motivated greater attendance for the opposition protest. If Congress does not approve his initiatives, Petro announced that he will continue to call marches.

Petro came to power on August 7 with an ambitious battery of reforms with which he aspires to do a 180-degree turn to the health, labor and pension systems, in addition to trying to put an end to the conflict that the State maintains against guerrillas and drug traffickers. which in half a century has claimed nine million victims.

Late last year, Congress passed a tax bill that raises taxes for the wealthiest. The opposition criticizes that the resources of the State will not supply enough for the multiple reforms of the government.

with AFP