A senator bursts into Congress on horseback: "It's my pet"

Congressman Alirio Barrera, senator for the Democratic Center, outside the Congress headquarters with his horse 'Pasaporte'.RR.

H.H.

The senator of the Republic Alirio Barrera has arrived this Tuesday at the Congress of Colombia mounted on horseback.

This has been the response of the congressman from the Democratic Center, former governor of Casanare, to the gesture that the president of the Senate, Roy Barreras, had last week to declare the enclosure

that is, friendly with animals.

Thus, mounted on a large white horse, called

, Barrera began by explaining: "My pet is my horse."

But the gesture hides something else.

For Barrera, taking his horse to Congress has been a way of vindicating the immense help that these animals still provide in the Colombian countryside: “In Colombia there is a different country, beyond the big cities.

The field is the rancher, the horseman, the traditional peoples”.

The senator has recalled in this regard that at this time there are more than 19 bills that seek to prohibit the use of animals.

“This is very unfair because it will hinder the development of any work.

The horse is the only means of transport that families have in many regions”, he commented.

The horse is also, explained Barrera, an important economic engine: “Thousands and thousands of families live off a horse, taking out their market with it, their products.

With them they can even take the children to school.”

The opposition senator wanted to make it clear, on the other hand, that his intention was not to cause discomfort, but rather to make known a traditional reality before which the political class based in large capitals such as Bogotá remains alien.

It is not Barrera's first claim of these characteristics.

Originally from Aguazul, in Casanare, he was governor of his department between 2016 and 2019, and his name began to be heard in September of last year when he wanted to be a presidential candidate for Uribismo.

It was then that he became known to public opinion as "the horse tamer": the congressman was a tamer of these animals before and after his term as governor.

He inherited his trade from his father and has built his image as someone who has always been close to the countryside and these animals.

During his childhood, his family was forced to move to Yopal after several attempts by armed groups such as the FARC and the ELN to recruit him and his siblings.

A pet-friendly

conference

The initiative to make the congress friendly to animals has been a project of the animalist congresswoman Andrea Padilla (Green Alliance).

On September 20, the president of the Senate took

, his dog, which receives this name for having been rescued during the pandemic.

He did it to tell the rest of the senators that starting this week everyone could bring their pets.

“The administrative management has done what is necessary to have cleanliness, vaccine and prevention conditions here.

As it happens in almost all first world airports and shopping malls.

In this Congress, little friends like

, sentient beings, will have a space,” Roy Barreras said then.

As a consequence, after the initial stupor, this Tuesday, Barrera was able to access the Congress on horseback, take a short walk and, finally, leave the facilities with the satisfaction that the message had already been given.

In the absence of a vote, in the Plaza de Bolívar the animals take center stage.

However, some congressmen such as Juan Carlos Losada (Liberal Party) commented on their social networks that what Barrera had done in the Senate was a mockery of animal advocates in Colombia.

"There are people who believe that there should be spaces where pets can be with their owners," he said.