Thousands of Colombians take to the streets in support of the reforms of President Petro

Thousands of Colombians who support the proposals of President Gustavo Petro held demonstrations in different cities of the country on Tuesday, after the president called his followers to take to the streets to support the reforms that will be studied in Congress.

At the end of the afternoon, the president spoke from a balcony of the Presidential House, where he had summoned his followers to share a statement in which he reviewed some of his government policies.

“We are not presenting business made from the State, we are not deepening that path that did not bring social justice and that led us to be one of the most unequal societies on the planet,” said the president, noting that his reform projects “seek the real guarantee of fundamental universal rights for Colombian society”.

The reforms to the health, pension and labor systems are some of the initiatives that should be approved in the Colombian Congress and that have caused controversy among the opposition.

“The reforms mean pretending that a young man or woman can go to university, if they want. It means that an old man or woman can have a pension and a plate of hot soup in a decent place to live,” said the head of state. , who insisted that his country must have democracy and “a government of the people.”

After the followers clamored “yes we can”, Petro pointed out that they will allow “a worker to have job stability and not be harassed neither at work nor sexually” and that a child “can have a glass of drinking water on his table”. in addition to the fact that a farmer has “a piece of fertile land” and that any Colombian family “can have a permanent routine visit” from a doctor.

Earlier, the president wrote, through his social networks, that he summoned his followers to all the public squares of the country because “the one who won was the people and the people want change in Colombia. We are going for the changes towards a democratic country and at peace.”

José Santamaría, who says he belongs to a trade union organization, told the voice of america that supports the pension, health and labor reforms proposed by the current government, because “everything has to do with a social and collective purpose”.

He also considered that the demonstrations “help to build a government for total peace, a government for democracy, for social care.”

Another Colombian who marched near the center of Bogotá told the VOA that his wife, with the current pension program, is not enough to retire and, therefore, he says that “the march to support the reform” related to this issue is fair.

According to the authorities, there were more than 30,000 members of the Police who guarded the streets, and 1,500 of them focused on protecting the citizens of Bogotá.

According to Carlos, another of the thousands of demonstrators, “Colombia needed a government like this one that, at least, would raise the needs of the people to the traditional ruling class and the rich who have run the country.”

“We have been doing the same for many years, and we have been dealing with a social problem that has overwhelmed us and it is time to change,” another protester told the VOA.

The opposition, led by the Democratic Center, a political party in which former presidents Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque limit, also called to take to the streets, on Wednesday, to ask precisely to disapprove the reforms of the head of state. The demonstrations will begin at approximately 10 am in the main cities of the country.

Other political sectors have also criticized the fact that the president, the first of the left in Colombia, summons the community to march in favor of his plans.

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