The labor unions and unions of Colombia will take to the streets of the main cities of the country this Wednesday to express their support for the health, labor and pension reforms presented by the Government and bogged down in Congress and in support of the president Gustavo Petro.
The president announced that he would attend the demonstrations in Bogotá but his participation has not been confirmed at a time when he is facing a crisis due to the political storm unleashed by the former ambassador to Venezuela Armando Benedetti, who in some audios released by the press threatened to reveal information about the past presidential campaign.
In Bogotá there will be several concentration points but the main one will be in the National Park, from where the march is expected to go to the Plaza de Bolívar.
Former senator Gustavo Bolívar, from the ruling Historical Pact, considered that the demonstrations are an opportunity to reaffirm the proposals for change and support the head of state.
“Yesterday something wonderful happened. The attacks on Petro have brought the country that wants change closer together. Even those who are dissatisfied because things are not going as fast as we would like, closed ranks to defend a victory that if we fail, we will not see again for decades, “Bolívar wrote on his Twitter account.
The demonstrations are called by the Unitary Central of Workers of Colombia (CUT), the Confederation of Workers of Colombia (CTC) and the Colombian Federation of Education Workers (Fecode).
PRESSURE ON CONGRESS
Fecode said on social networks that they will support the fight “for the social transformation of the country” and to “strengthen the social rule of law and democracy.”
“We call for the promptness of the salary increase of state workers in the face of inflation and the lack of the cost of living due to the lags of the bad management of the previous Government that today we citizens still feel in our homes and pockets,” says Fecode in a release.
For his part, the president of the CUT, Francisco Maltés, assured that the objective of the march is to confront what he has described as “delaying strategies” to start the discussion of the labor reform in Congress; especially by parties that have distanced themselves from the government coalition.
The president of the House of Representatives, David Racero, announced on Monday that the discussion of the reforms of the Petro Government “is frozen” due to the scandal caused by the Benedetti audios.
Racero, who is part of the Historical Pact, assured journalists that the discussions will stop until “the government coalition” can be rebuilt, which had already lost the support of the U party and the conservatives in recent weeks.
However, in the Council of Ministers held on Monday night at the Casa de Nariño, Petro ordered his Cabinet to speed up the execution of more than 500 construction projects in the regions and advance with the health, pension and labor reforms in Congress, as reported today by the Minister of the Interior, Luis Fernando Velasco. EFE