Despair in Colombia

A general view of the Colombian Congress Daniel Garzón / GETTY

It does not mean that clarities do not emerge from despair.

But the actions that make it visible deserve an analysis.

Colombia is going through a pre-electoral year.

In the last week everything was tried: to change the presidential period, to unify the dates of the elections to make the electoral calendars coincide with the argument that there would be savings in campaign expenses and that the articulation of local development plans would be improved, and regional with the nation.

The purpose lasted 24 hours and died.

The possibility that this will take place implied extending the current terms of the president and the heads of the control bodies.

The current regime supposes both presidential and congressional periods defined.

This constitutional reform project can be rehearsed for the future, that is, for those who are not elected.

Doing so to extend the term for which the president and congressmen, among others, have already been elected, is a legal, political and constitutional obscurity.

The congressmen who had signed the bill were stealthily withdrawing their signatures.

The citizens, the media and the politicians (those of the opposition and even some of the party that was of the Government) made a common front and it was withdrawn.

But it has not been the only legislative act or despair.

Another course is underway.

The one that seeks that the largest parties such as the Democratic Center, the U Party, Radical Change and the Conservative Party and possibly the Liberal Party can make alliances that today are only allowed for minority parties or movements when their vote does not exceed the 15% of the votes.

Which would mean they can come together and make colorful lists for the congressional elections in March 2022.

The reasons are clear.

Those who pursue these changes are desperate.

First before Gustavo Petro and his historical pact and now clientelist with the arrival of figures such as Armando Benedetti and Roy Barreras;

second, because of the increasingly clear distance from the Democratic Center of the government that they elected and that forces them to seek alliances with those other parties that they despised three years ago;

third, by the atomization of political forces due to the deterioration of the parties, which is imposed as an electoral reality;

and fourth, because the center has not found a north, but it may have a covered rooster that they cannot beat.

The analysis goes through recognizing that there is a positive aspect.

In Colombia, the proliferation of trends with historical names, of hope, of regionalisms, behind which are the politicians of always and now, opens a scenario of democratic exercise that will end up revealing positions, country models, arguments or gaps, to choose or discard among a range of ideologies or populisms.

The consequences.

Many and serious.

We end up witnessing a Colombia without parties, with a governance that will be sustained only to the extent of almost always bureaucratic alliances and without possible oversight mechanisms over a single government program.

With the risk in the corner of later living the impossibility of forming majorities to govern.

A little is the case of Spain and Madrid, especially when in search of a great coalition they end up without agreements or in Italy and so many other nations, not to go any further, Peru with more than 12 organizations and political movements.

Without parties, it is not possible to avoid authoritarian populisms, one ends up working for causes and not in the construction of public policies and, therefore, the possibility of addressing the naked and painful realities of the territories with violence in Colombia, for example, will be Campaign issues to collect the votes of the most we need those who, as always, are later left at the mercy of the recruitment of minors without opportunities and of illegality as a means of survival.

This time, right-wing groups were prevented from twisting the constitution's skeleton, but it does not seem that they will remain calm and the vigilant eye is imposed on attempts to destabilize the electoral process.

Citizen pedagogy is mandatory to empower members of societies that do not feel represented in the current leaderships and force them all to commit to the reform pact proposed by the Fedesarrollo think tank: tax, pension and labor in the post-covid era , if we can call it that, and when it becomes urgent to generate at least one million jobs if we do not want Colombia to go back decades in its basic indicators of education and economic growth.

What happened this week prompts the parties or groups in the center to reach an early consensus around the name of a candidate who will build a route that will return us along the path of a truly democratic vocation, lest the electoral despair I ended up causing an institutional mess without setback or increased violence.

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