A tense debate over the role of the “street” in the democratic process reverberates through the divided city of Bogotá this week following Colombian President Gustavo Petro's call for Colombians to mobilize in support of his plan for social reforms.
In a speech delivered on Labor Day from the balcony of the Casa de Mariño in Bogotá's Plaza Bolívar, Petro announced: "The people need to be mobilized as they were with Bolívar (...) It is not enough to win at the polls, social change implies a permanent struggle”.
Petro and his vice president, Afro-Colombian Francia Márquez, paid homage to the 2021 protest movement, led by a new generation of malcontents, which, in gigantic demonstrations over the course of months, paved the way for the first left-wing government in Colombian history.
Márquez traveled this week to Cali, the epicenter of the protest where a multicolored monument was erected in homage to the young street fighters who suffered police repression and the death of 40 protesters. “Long live the front line!” Márquez announced, referring to the vanguard of the protests. Without the social outbreak "I would not be president now," Petro said in Bogotá.
This comes at a time when Petro's popularity has fallen six points since February and Márquez's considerably more. Although the government has reaped some important achievements, such as a tax reform that for the first time raises the taxes of those who collect the most, other reforms in areas such as health and work have run up against the conservative opposition.
The leaders of the centrist, liberal and conservative benches, and the U party of former president Juan Manuel Santos, formerly allied with Petro's broad front, have crossed over to the ranks of the uribista opposition, that is, followers of former conservative president Álvaro Uribe.
The end of the ephemeral unity around Petro's social transformation project is not a surprise. Colombia is a country of savage inequality ruled for centuries by an immovable oligarchy that took advantage of violence and fear to exclude and demonize the left. Changing it was never going to be easy.
In this sense, Bogotá sometimes recalls an expressionist painting from Weimar Berlin. In the dilapidated center: war mutilated, deranged homeless people and desperate flea market traders mingle a few meters from the Gold Museum.
In the north of the city, BMW 4x4 vehicles with tinted windows and blaring reggaeton, Armani and Carolina Herrera, mega gyms and faux French bistros. "You can't record videos; it's a private space!" said a security guard on a street outside the Andino shopping center, which is lined with luxury brand stores. There in the Chicó district, the presidential call for mobilization is considered the definitive proof that Petro wants to be Hugo Chávez. “He defended the street as an alternative to Congress and the insurrection as an option (…)”, the newspaper El Tiempo wrote in horror. "The speech is of immense gravity, dictatorial rhetoric," tweeted German Vargas Lleras, the president's grandson.
“We knew that Petro's goal was to end democracy; now an excuse will be invented to convene a national constituent assembly,” said Fico Gutiérrez, the conservative candidate defeated in the first round of last year's elections.
The alleged presidential support for a constituent assembly is hard to believe because the M19—Petro's guerrillas who were always more symbolic than violent, famous for stealing Bolívar's sword from Parliament—helped draft the 1991 constitution. “We have no problems with this constitution; there is no support for a constituent assembly," said William León, a member of Petro's party.
The ultra-conservative congresswomen had to go after Francia Márquez. "She applauded barbarism and terrorism," said María Fernanda Cabal, an uribista deputy who is an admirer of Bolsonaro and Vox. “I have denounced the vice president before the law,” added Senator Paloma Valencia, who once proposed creating an apartheid system in the Popayan region in the south to protect whites from indigenous people.
Valencia, Cabal and Marquez are all daughters of El Cauca, whose capital is Cali. The difference is that Cabal and Valencia were born in dynasties of large landowners and oligarchs. Márquez, on the other hand, was born into a community founded by runaway slaves who managed to survive panning for gold in the Cauca River.
After seeing disunity in Congress, Petro stunned even many of his own voters last month by firing eight ministers, most of his government. Among them was the Minister of Finance, the respected economist José Antonio Ocampo, author of the tax reform. “I don't understand Ocampo's departure; it was the best he had,” said Daniel Garcia Peña, an academic who worked with Petro when he was mayor of Bogota.
It will be difficult to achieve a large enough parliamentary majority to pass the reforms. "He's going to have to go looking for votes one by one," said García Peña during an interview in a bakery-bistro behind the bullring. They have achieved something, the government has obtained the support of both chambers these days for the strategic National Plan developmental.
The paradox of the conservative indignation with the call for Petro's mobilization is that the Colombian right-wing uribista takes to the streets on a regular basis. Uribe joined a demonstration against the mayor of Medellín in February. A series of demonstrations have been called against the Petro reforms in which people carried banners with phrases such as “Freedom and order” or “Petro no”.
Another irony is that Petro's social reform plan, despite its revolutionary language, is quite pragmatic.
The health plan does not propose a universal public health system, but rather a mixed system that guarantees that patients in rural areas do not die before reaching the hospital. According to official data, almost 60% of Colombian municipalities, mainly rural ones, do not have first aid health services.
The labor reform is limited to establishing basic rights, such as extra pay for hours outside the working day and the regularization of some informal jobs.
The plan to redistribute three million hectares of land among small farmers may seem radical at first glance. But 80% of the land in Colombia belongs to 1% of the population.
The last irony is the most troubling for Petro. Even if the president is forced to ask for the "mobilization of the people", the social outbreak would hardly be repeated to defend the government. "In Colombia people demonstrate against, but never in favor," summarized García Peña.
