Petro toughens his speech and warns that he will not bury the health reform under any circumstances

The blow was hard, so when the president went out in public he adopted a deep voice and a serious countenance.

His classical rhetoric was saved for other, less solemn occasions.

Hours before, some opposition congressmen had smilingly shown a document that threatens to sing the requiem of a reform that he considers basic and essential for his government, that of health.

Gustavo Petro wants to eliminate public or private companies, known as EPS, that act as intermediaries and insurers between patients and hospitals.

In his opinion, this mediation is a black hole through which millions of dollars slip.

Since he was in Congress he advocated for universal public healthcare in the manner of other Western countries, without private companies involved.

Upon coming to power, after so much effort, he understood that this was one of the struggles that he had to fight at any cost.

And he is giving it.

The problem is that he has become the molten lead of his rule and he is paying for it.

The president, who is always aware of social networks, had to be pained to see Alejandro Gaviria, an intellectual who had in his first Cabinet as Minister of Education, celebrate the decision of the congressmen on Twitter, but with whom he clashed for having a diametrically opposed vision of the health system.

Gaviria, with Juan Manuel Santos, led the health portfolio and defends the current model.

He doesn't consider it perfect, of course, he needs tweaks to the way he sees it.

He argues, however, that in the current version it covers the majority of the population and resisted the pandemic better than most Latin American countries.

Petro fired him from the Government when he understood, according to Palace sources, that Gaviria was conspiring against him from the chair next to him.

They said goodbye on apparently good terms, with a lunch in the presidential office in which Petro hardly said anything, which was not entirely uncomfortable because Gaviria – writer, philosopher, economist – is a professional conversationalist.

Senators José Alfredo Marín, Alirio Barrera, Norma Hurtados, Miguel Pinto Hernández, Lorena Ríos Cuéllar, Honorio Enríquez, Berenica Bedoya and Nadia Blel Scaff with the document in which they propose shelving the health reform project. Seventh Committee of the Senate

Since then a chasm has opened between the two.

Gaviria has become one of the fiercest opponents of the Government, just take a look at his Twitter account.

The dangerous thing is that he is not an exalted person, like many of his enemies, but rather an accurate and brilliant thinker capable of influencing circles of power through words.

Petro values ​​him as an intellectual, but disdains him as a politician.

He has been able to move masses, to ignite people's hearts, to provoke emotions, something that Gaviria, beyond achieving it in a small elite group, has not achieved so far.

One sees politics in a more rational way, the other from emotionality and the appeal to the will of a people that he is going to channel through institutions that he considers in the hands of an establishment, even a

deep state

if you will, who opposes those changes.

In the councils of ministers, the two clashed more than once.

Petro, who knows the functioning of the State well, spoke about the poor functioning of the health system, the child deaths it causes, its inability to reach the entire territory, while Gaviria, at first in silence and then raising his voice, He corrected them in front of everyone, he refuted their statistics from memory.

Gaviria left the Government with the conviction that Petro is the most dangerous type of connoisseur, those who know a little about everything and nothing in depth.

Petro doesn't have much regard for his former ally right now either.

The fact is that the president's efforts to change the health system have bogged down governance, in general.

He has lost many of the alliances that he forged at the beginning with the other groups in Congress, which approached him willing to reach agreements to implement urgent reforms that the nation needs.

He quickly carried out a tributary, which was an achievement when compared to the one that his predecessor, Iván Duque, tried to process, which cost him a revolt in the streets that put a fatal end to his last stage in government.

Duque now records videos giving opinions with which he tries to reinforce his image as a great statesman, but his ability to influence public debate is practically nil and he is considered a transitional president, very far from figures who have left a true mark such as Santos. and Álvaro Uribe.

The point is that Petro has had difficulty giving rise to the other reforms, such as agrarian reforms, pension reforms and an education proposal.

He even passed a law to give a legal framework to total peace dialogues with non-political groups.

A high price, which, based on what he said this Tuesday with an air of gravity, he is willing to pay.

“We are not going to withdraw it at all,” he said about the health reform in a press conference.

“Congress knows what the consequence of sinking it is.

The current system is not sustainable, period.

Most of the EPSs failed to comply with the regulations and there are billions of pesos in the so-called technical reserves lost.

So the Government takes action.

The INRI is going to remain on top of Congress, which was not capable of carrying out health reform when it was most needed.

There he.

But the health reform is absolutely essential because there are at least 35 billion pesos lost and this Government is not going to let public money be lost.”

In other words, this is not going to stay like this.

What's coming on the horizon?

The president, or rather his team, can convince some of those congressmen to propose an alternative reform to that of the Government that avoids sinking it and that has majority support.

That text would walk a very thin line, since Petro has said more than once that he wants a drastic change and not small, irrelevant modifications.

In parallel, the Government is waging a silent battle against the EPS with the idea of ​​controlling them for the irregularities that have been detected, such as the fact that they have much fewer funds saved than required to face a contingency.

In fact, it has already assumed control of several of these companies and the threat of intervention hangs over the rest.

The level of confrontation between the companies and Petro is absolute and there are no gaps in understanding.

The president is going to put his efforts into dismantling a system that he considers pernicious and an important opposition party, a political and business entity, is going to try to stop it because they do not want to see the current model reduced to ashes, according to his interpretation.

In any case, Petro is going to fight and has made it clear that he is not intimidated by the image of some happy congressmen holding in their hands an archival presentation of his reform, with a painting by Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in the background, the politician in the one who inspires and with whom the president sometimes compares himself.

Petro understands politics as an exercise in resistance and pride, the qualities of Colombian cyclists.

He is not going to stop pedaling and we don't know who will exhaust himself first, him or the mountain.

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