A nondescript official ceremony of the military leadership, the 73rd anniversary of the creation of a general command of the military forces, was the audience chosen by President Gustavo Petro to make an unprecedented decision with strong symbolic content: decree a civic day this Friday 19, with less than 12 hours notice. The president presented the measure, which essentially consists of giving a day off to public employees who are under his hierarchy, as an essentially environmental measure, to reduce water consumption in Bogotá, a capital that has been experiencing rationing for a week, and that of energy in every country. “This April 19 is a civic day in Colombia, with these characteristics and towards these objectives: taking care of water, simply taking care of water, and being able to do it for millions. And ensure that at this moment, where it is already possible that the rains will begin in Colombia, we do not have to deepen any type of rationing,” he said.
That initial meaning, that of helping the national effort to avoid the precipice of a blackout, is not the only one that Petro, his defenders and his critics have given him. The chosen date, his call to the population to leave Bogotá on the weekend in which a march against him is being prepared and the auditorium in which Petro presented the measure have also been indicated.
One of the most visible voices of the effects of the declaration has been the influencer Walter Rodríguez, better known as Wally Opina, who has been a defender of Petro for several years and was hired in March by the public media system RTVC. A few hours after the presidential announcement, he gave an opinion on the matter that reflects those facets that go beyond water: “With the civic day, Petro makes a difference: 1. Helps reduce Bogotá's water consumption, prioritizing the reservoir issue. 2. Commemorates the birth of M19 and his birthday. 3. Sabotage the Uribista march,” he wrote in his X account.
With the civic day, Petro makes a big difference:
1. Helps reduce Bogotá's water consumption, prioritizing the issue of reservoirs.
2. Commemorates the birth of M19 and his birthday.
3. Sabotage the Uribista march. They will have to do it in Mesa de Yeguas.
Conclusion: Wonderful… https://t.co/plrJbf2rRg
- Wally. (@MeDicenWally) April 18, 2024
The first issue that Wally notes is the one that argues for the decree issued by the Government. However, the former Minister of the Environment and former member of the board of the Bogotá Acueducto company, Manuel Rodríguez, has indicated that the measure will not have major effects because it is an isolated day and was announced late and suddenly. Beyond the discussion of water in the midst of the water crisis, the digital activist remembers that there are more effects.
The second point he highlights is a symbolic one, that of the date. April 19 is not just any day for Petro, since he was born on that date, in 1960. But, above all, it has a deep meaning in Colombia: it is the day of the controversial presidential elections of 1970, when the rehabilitated former dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, who had become a populist politician, faced the conservative Misael Pastrana, candidate of the bipartisan agreement called the National Front. In the first results reports, Rojas had a narrow lead. The government of liberal Carlos Lleras Restrepo ordered the disclosure to cease; When it was resumed the next day, the winner was Pastrana. Rojas denounced fraud. That date became a symbolic milestone of criticism of the National Front as an exclusive pact, which was later taken up by a guerrilla in its name: the M-19, a Bolivarian group with a leftist tendency but without a clear ideology. Petro was active in it, and that is why Wally talks about it commemorating the birth of the M-19.
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That nod to the political history of Colombia and the president himself is something that he himself highlighted in his speech on Thursday. Before announcing the civic day, he spoke of Rojas, who created the command whose anniversary was being celebrated and whom he called “a rather interesting general.” “In my opinion he won the elections and they did not let him govern, on April 19, tomorrow. There will be theories that yes, yes or no, and what would have happened if he had governed, etc. But that general managed to summon the popular majorities. In my opinion, it was the poor people who accompanied him in those exploits,” he said before the assembled generals. He did not waste the opportunity to draw a parallel between his Government and that of Rojas: “We commemorate that, we commemorate a Public Force capable of removing its society from self-destruction and leading it towards peace to build a great nation. That is the message of those years.”
It was only after making that context explicit that the president announced the civic day. Among what he did not mention is that in a country in which few presidents have decreed civic days (this has not happened since 2003, when Álvaro Uribe did so to try to promote his constitutional referendum; in 2014 Juan Manuel Santos decreed a Friday afternoon for the unprecedented presentation of the Colombian National Team in the quarterfinals of a soccer World Cup), Rojas Pinilla did it twice. The “Supreme Chief General”, as the head of State signed, decreed a civic day on April 23, 1955 to honor the centenary of the birth of former conservative president Marco Fidel Suárez and a women's civic day on August 25, 1955 to commemorate the first anniversary of female citizenship, which women were only able to enjoy after its fall. Furthermore, as historians such as César Ayala Diago explain, it was common for mayors to celebrate the anniversaries of June 13, the day Rojas came to power in 1953, as a local civic day.
In addition to this symbolic background, Wally highlights a more pragmatic facet. Not that of saving water, nor that of the day of rest for thousands of public officials who work in entities that depend on the president. The activist pointed out a more political point, of a probable negative effect of the civic day on the marches promoted by the opposition for this Sunday. This is because, in addition to the decree, Petro called on people to leave the capital to consume water from other sources: “I ask the Bogotá population voluntarily and to the extent of their abilities, to go out this weekend to places in other basins. hydrographic," he said in
This potential impact has produced responses from opposition politicians, especially from the right-wing Democratic Center. “On the eve of marches against the Government, he intends to decree a bridge via decree so that citizens do not go out to march. We will march anyway, saving water and electricity,” says Uribista senator Paloma Valencia.
But the strength of the impact depends largely on whether the mayors and governors join the civic day, to the call that the president made to them for it. However, the mayor of the capital, Carlos Fernando Galán, refused. “The need to change our habits and reduce our water consumption is not a matter of one day, it is a long-term effort and must be sustainable over time. More than a civic day, Bogotá needs all its public servants dedicated to achieving a reduction in water consumption and citizens doing their part,” he wrote in X. His colleagues from Medellín, Federico Gutiérrez, have also preferred to pass; Cali, Alejandro Éder; Barranquilla, Alejandro Char; or Bucaramanga, Jaime Andrés Beltrán, all from political positions distant from Petro. Of the large cities, only Cartagena, the liberal Dumek Turbay, has joined, so only the public schools in that city will be closed, apart from the handful that depend directly on the Nation.
With schools open, fewer families will be able to go out. The same happens with other sectors that have not joined, such as companies or private universities. Finally, the impact will be especially symbolic, something usual in a Government whose first official act was to bring Simón Bolívar's sword to the stage where Gustavo Petro had just taken office. The same sword that M-19 stole from a museum as the first act of insurgency.
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