The balance of Petro's mandate after 100 days in power 4:18
(CNN Spanish) --
A new week of demonstrations in support of the Government of Colombia and protests against it will live the country, due to the reforms and new policies that President Gustavo Petro has announced, when he is close to turning 200 days of his so-called “Government of change”.
The first demonstration, called by the Colombian president himself through his Twitter account, will take place this Tuesday.
Petro will give an open speech to the public from the Plaza de Armas of the Casa de Nariño.
The Government hopes to bring together some 10,000 people, and a giant screen will be set up in the Plaza de Bolívar, so that those who cannot enter the place where the president will speak can listen to his message.
The key points of Petro's health reform in Colombia and its criticisms
In his invitation through social networks, Petro called on Colombians to go out to the main squares of their cities to listen and discuss their reforms, especially the health system, which Congress will debate in special sessions.
"Come with me this February 14. May health be for all the Colombian people, may health be for Colombia. From the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá I will speak to Colombia gathered in all the public squares of the country. Change and its reforms have arrived" Gustavo Petro pointed out in his tweet.
In the Colombian Congress, meanwhile, members of the government coalition, the Historical Pact, have joined the president's call, also inviting the public to take to the streets this Tuesday the 14th.
One of them, David Racero, who chairs the House of Representatives, told CNN that they expect a massive response throughout the country and mainly in the capital.
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“We have decided to support the call made by President Petro, rather than the mobilization of some meeting spaces in the public square to give an agenda to this idea of change.
We demand the space in the street, the public agora, so that the citizen can express himself.
In this way, people will mobilize in various places at the national level.
In Bogotá, we are going to meet at the Casa de Nariño because it is the expression of a citizenry that is going to talk with its president and that will be the meeting point,” said the legislator.
the protests
On the other hand, a sector of the opposition from the Legislature is calling for marches on Wednesday in the main cities of the country to protest against the policies and management of Gustavo Petro.
These opposition protests were initially scheduled for Tuesday, but since the president called his followers to the streets for the same date, the call was rescheduled.
In Bogotá, the march of the opponents will leave the National Park and the point of concentration will be the Plaza de Bolívar.
In Medellín, the appointment is in the Parque de las Luces;
in Cali, in the Plaza de las Banderas and the march will reach the headquarters of the Mayor's Office, and in Barranquilla there will be a sit-in in the Plaza de la Paz.
Residents outside of Colombia are also being summoned to demonstrate in front of embassies and consulates.
Right-wing congressman Miguel Polo Polo, the main promoter of these protests, told CNN that these mobilizations, whose motto is "Firm and berracos", will be joined by the union of taxi drivers and drivers of digital transport applications, workers in the hydrocarbons dissatisfied with the energy policy announced by the Colombian Minister of Mines, some truckers and members of Catholic and Christian churches, among others, who feel that the Petro government is not doing things well or sufficiently socializing its reforms.
“We will all be in white and with the Colombian flags.
We do not want improvisation, we do not want more embedded reforms, we want the reforms to be shown, debated and the people can question them and based on all this debate, reforms that the people want can be reached”, Polo emphasized.
According to this congressman, the idea is to keep the demonstrations in the streets and that the protest is not a matter of a single day.
“The protests do not have an end date.
It is something that cannot be quantified, it is unpredictable: 700,000 people may leave throughout the country, or 2 million people may leave”.
For the political analyst Andrés Segura, the demonstration in the streets is a field that the groups in favor of the Government dominate in Colombia, for which the opposition has to lose.
"For this reason, this opposition group was forced to move its mobilization to the one called by the Government a day after, avoiding the comparison where they will surely be outnumbered, given the logistical strength of the groups that support the Government, and they also avoid any possible confrontation for which they can be blamed”.
Additionally, Segura considers that Petro seeks —with his invitation to the public— to transfer the conversation from the technical debate to a political and emotional scenario.
“By getting people out into the streets, Petro wants to show popular support that opposes the technical position of 'institutionality'.
The regional elections in October and the fall in the image of the Government in the recent surveys are the background framework on which Petro wants to create the perception of a majority people that supports the change”.
Gustavo Petro