"It is already possible that the rains will begin in Colombia; we do not have to deepen any type of rationing," he said. "This April 19 is a civic day in Colombia," he added. The president decreed a civic day on April 19, to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of former president Marco Fidel Suárez.
The president did not waste the opportunity to draw a parallel between his Government and that of Rojas Pinilla, who created the command whose anniversary was being celebrated. He said: "We commemorate a Public Force capable of removing its society from self-destruction and leading it towards peace to build a great nation. That is the message of those years." It was common for mayors to celebrate anniversaries of June 13, the day Rojas came to power in 1953, as a local civic day. It was only after making that context explicit that the president announced the civic day in the first place, he said.