Twitter users witnessed a new confrontation between President Gustavo Petro and Senator María Fernanda Cabal, who is one of the most visible faces of the opposition to the national government.
It all started because on the morning of January 31, the uribista senator criticized the provisions proposed in the draft bill (which will ultimately no longer be presented) of the Transportation Superintendence regarding transportation platforms such as Uber and Didi, among others. The problem was that, in the midst of her criticism, she brought up another issue: the release of young people imprisoned during the 2021 protests to designate them as peace managers, something that the national president apparently did not like.
“A government that pays criminals and appoints them peace managers, while punishing citizens who work in their cars without harming anyone (many after losing everything in the criminal strike that the first ones made), does not deserve support or respect,” Cabal wrote on his Twitter account.
Not even an hour passed before President Petro responded to the senator, referring to “his favorite president”, who according to him, “negotiated with the worst criminals at that time.” Although he did not mention it, it is believed that the president was referring to former President Álvaro Uribe and his negotiations with paramilitary groups in the so-called Justice and Peace process.
“Senator, I only used a law from your favorite president with one difference, he used it to negotiate with the worst criminals at that time and I used it to get some young people out of jail because they protested the measures of another of his favorite presidents” wrote Petro in response.
Cabal, for the moment, has not replied to the president’s trill. However, a few hours later, he retweeted a tweet by journalist and columnist Diego Santos that is also aimed at criticizing the draft resolution of the Transportation Superintendence.
“Uber drivers: terrorists. Uber users: criminals. Terrorists and drug traffickers: peace managers. Frontline members: victims. The government of life and change”, wrote Santos.
Government assured that it will not present the project without reconciling with the drivers
The Ministry of Transportation confirmed that on the afternoon of Wednesday, February 1, a dialogue table will be held in Bogotá with the drivers of individual transport platforms and the Superintendence of Transport for the construction of the law on the sanctioning regime for transport that will be It will go to the Legislature.
“This Wednesday afternoon, Minister Guillermo Reyes will meet at a work table with the union of drivers and representatives of Apps, to advance in the construction stage of the bill on the sanctioning regime for transport, which will be brought to the Congress of The Republic ”, was written in the official account of the Ministry of Transport.
The decision by the Ministry of Transportation was made after the mobilizations of the platform drivers’ union upon learning of the type of sanctions that would be proposed to those who use this type of service, either as a passenger or driver, since it was pointed out that there could be a sanction of more than 10 million pesos.
The mayoress of Bogotá, Claudia López, expressed her disagreement with the mobilizations that have been taking place in the city. First it was the taxi drivers, at the beginning of January, when they blocked the roads that led to the El Dorado airport, and this Monday night the demonstrations of the drivers of the apps.
“Bogotá cannot resist the fact that each disagreement or announcement by the national government ends in anxiety and blockade,” said the mayoress of Bogotá, in turn pointing out that the path of progress should not be prohibition, but regularization. with Infobae