EL PAÍS offers the last hour of the mobilizations in Colombia free of charge as a public service.
If you want to support our journalism, subscribe.
Gustavo Petro measures his strength in the streets after six months of government.
The marches called by the president in support of his health reform and, in general, his policies, began this Tuesday morning in various parts of the country.
The president will participate in the one in Bogotá, as part of a strategy to reinforce direct communication with citizens.
The mobilization is held one day after the Government has presented the text of the health reform and one day before the marches called by some opposition figures against the reform.
The interior minister and government spokesman, Alfonso Prada, referred to the rallies on Tuesday as a "democratic exercise" to publicize the reforms.
He added that the Government welcomes the marches that the opposition will carry out on Wednesday.
“All the guarantees for the opposition in Congress and in the public square,” he said.
Petro summons the public
new posts
camila osorio
A skirmish while waiting for the president
While the public awaits President Petro, small groups affiliated with the government rotate to confront the Uribista representative Jose Jaime Uscátegui who came today with a small group of people and banners of "Petro dictator."
“Don't be provoked”, an older man told a 40-year-old woman who was asking them loudly why they were against social change.
Another man repeated to them the massacres in which the military have participated, since the Uribista group is in defense of the public forces.
"Go and read what happened in Mapiripán!" He told them.
To make them a little less visible, a group of trade unionists from the CUT, a unitary union of workers, put up their flags in front of the banners of the Uribistas.
ACT.14 FEB 2023 - 22:31
santiago torrado
Three security filters to access the main square
The Plaza de Armas, where the speech of "socialization" of the social reforms of President Gustavo Petro is expected this afternoon, is gradually filling up with the crowd that awaits its entrance from the Plaza de Bolívar.
There are three security filters, which slows down the arrival of the public, who are given bottles of water and Colombian flags when they pass the perimeter of the presidential palace.
The mobilization through the streets of downtown Bogotá was made up of a diverse series of groups that included unions of teachers and workers, the indigenous guard or nursing students.
The president will speak from a balcony of the Casa de Nariño, as he used to do when he was mayor of Bogotá from the Liévano Palace.
It is the first time that Petro has summoned to the streets as president, barely a day after filing the health reform, the most resisted so far of his ambitious legislative agenda, and the eve of the protest marches called by the opposition .
ACT.14 FEB 2023 - 22:18
SOCIAL SECURITY IN COLOMBIA
The EPS survive very weakened in the health reform of the Government of Gustavo Petro
Santiago Torrado Lucas Reynoso
The long-awaited health reform of the Government of Gustavo Petro, filed this Monday before Congress, maintains the figure of the Health Promotion Entities, or EPS, although it strongly transforms their role, one of the main points of the discussion that has preceded the controversial project led by Minister Carolina Corcho.
In addition, the reform aims to create thousands of primary care centers -public, private and mixed- throughout the country and also speaks of a gradual and orderly transition process to the new model.
ACT.14 FEB 2023 - 22:06
Sally Palomino
The places are starting to fill up.
Squares and parks in several cities in the country begin to fill up a few minutes after, according to the announced time, President Gustavo Petro appears on the presidential balcony.
"We are here showing our support for President Petro, for the reforms and for all his government policy that goes in favor of those most in need and of the entire country," Juan Carlos Londoño, from the Unitary Union of State Workers, told EFE this afternoon. .
With the country's flags and t-shirts and caps in support of the "Government of Change", the citizens show their support for the Petro Executive in this day where they measure the pulse of their popularity on the street.
“He must feel the support of the people.
There are humble people here who say: 'I'm supporting you.'
That is part of democracy, the ballot box, but also in the streets.
This march and many more are necessary”.
The Government of Gustavo Petro seeks to transform the health system and improve public care.
ACT.14 FEB 2023 - 21:46
The country
Alfonso Prada: There will be guarantees for the opposition marches
The interior minister and government spokesman, Alfonso Prada, referred to Tuesday's rallies as a "democratic exercise" to publicize the reforms.
He added that the government welcomes the marches that the opposition will hold on Wednesday.
"All the guarantees for the opposition in Congress and in the public square," he said.
ACT.14 FEB 2023 - 21:22
camila osorio
Chained against the EPS
Marlon has put on some chains as a protest against the EPS, but at the same time he considers that the Government should have given citizens more time to analyze the reform before calling a march.
The young man from Bucaramanga believes that the EPS are not responding quickly to citizens' emergencies, and for this reason he would prefer that they be eliminated.
However, he says that he fails to understand why asking for more time to analyze the health reform caused some people to brand him as an uribista.
ACT.14 FEB 2023 - 21:23
santiago torrado
Waiting in front of the presidential balcony
From this balcony of the Casa de Nariño, on the Plaza de Armas, Gustavo Petro is expected to deliver his speech in about an hour on the day of mobilization in support of the reforms that his government is proposing.
At this time vallenatos and rap are heard and the crowd is just beginning to enter.
ACT.14 FEB 2023 - 21:10
The country
Petro's supporters are arriving at the Plaza de Bolívar
Supporters of President Gustavo Petro are arriving as far as the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá for the meeting in which the president will speak about his health reform, which will be debated in Congress.
The mobilizations have taken place from different routes of the city with normality.
ACT.14 FEB 2023 - 21:02
The country
The opposition is present at the government concentration
Although the march of the opponents of the Executive of Gustavo Petro will be tomorrow, this Tuesday some have appeared at the concentration of the center of Bogotá, where they meet summoned by the Government.
In the image, by Juan Carlos Zapata, a group of people who oppose Petro's policies are present in Plaza Nuñez, in front of Casa Nariño.
ACT.14 FEB 2023 - 20:45
camila osorio
Armando, a license plate vendor in downtown Bogotá, supports the government.
camila osorio
Shops remain open in the center of the capital
Unlike the marches in the past government, for this call in favor of the management of Gustavo Petro, the establishments did not close and commerce in the center of the capital is carried out normally.
Some street vendors, like this man who sells plates, joins the support of the president.
The man remembers when Petro, then a senator, opposed the tax reform of former President Iván Duque;
he says he understands that the health reform will end the EPS, and he believes that the protesters should sit with the president.
But the protesters are supporting the government.
ACT.14 FEB 2023 - 19:40
Sally Palomino
More than 600 officials from the Ombudsman's Office will accompany the event
The Ombudsman, Carlos Camargo Assis, has called for the concentration this Tuesday and the mobilization on Wednesday, called by the opposition, to pass peacefully.
"Violent incidents or attacks against the fundamental rights of people who are part of said demonstrations, as well as those who do not participate in them, must be avoided, and the destruction of public assets and blockages or paralysis in the supply of goods and services must be prevented" the official warned.
At least 633 officials and public defenders will be throughout the country accompanying the marches and receiving complaints about possible violations of human rights.
ACT.14 FEB 2023 - 19:18
camila osorio
Teachers mobilize through the center of Bogotá
The march in the center of Bogotá, led mainly by the teachers' unions, goes up Calle 19 towards Carrera Septima, where there are posters calling on people to mobilize.
ACT.14 FEB 2023 - 18:56
santiago torrado
Students and unions advance towards the center of Bogotá
At noon this Tuesday, the hundreds of protesters who gathered in the National Park advanced along Carrera 13 with Calle 26, heading to the center of Bogotá for the concentration in the Plaza de Armas, between the Casa de Nariño and the Capitol.
There, a speech by President Gustavo Petro is expected around 4:00 p.m.
The crowd includes assorted groups such as nursing students, the workers' union of the Pedagogical University and other groups of teachers or the Banking Union.
Another large group of marchers goes up Calle 26 and the two crowds are expected to meet on their way to the Plaza de Bolívar.
ACT.14 FEB 2023 - 18:52
Catalina Oquendo
Supporters of President Gustavo Petro join the demonstrations of support for the Government.
/ JOAQUIN SARMIENTO / AFP
The mobilizations promoted by the Government begin
Hello, I'm Catalina Oquendo and I welcome you to this direct where the journalists from EL PAÍS América Colombia will be telling you the details of the rallies promoted by President Gustavo Petro.
Although the meeting where the president will speak was announced for the afternoon, from 11 in the morning social organizations and government supporters met in the Bogota National Park.
Around noon they began to march towards the center of the city where the president will speak about the health reform, which he filed before Congress on Monday.
The meeting will take place in the Plaza de Armas.
Also in cities like Medellín and Barranquilla, concentrations of supporters are advancing to show support for the Petro administration that has been in power for 6 months.
ACT.14 FEB 2023 - 18:39
Subscribe here
to the EL PAÍS newsletter on Colombia and receive all the latest information on the country.