The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petroassured this Monday that he did not make the proposal of a national constituent assembly to be re-elected or extend his mandate, which ends on August 7, 2026.
“I am not seeking presidential re-election. “I have no intention of re-electing myself and I will not promote reforms or a constituent assembly in that sense, that is what I have always said,” the president expressed in an interview with the Bogotá newspaper El Tiempo.
In 2005, Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) managed to approve a constitutional modification for immediate presidential re-election, something that was not contemplated in the Magna Carta and which allowed him to be in power for two consecutive terms.
The last president who managed to be re-elected was Juan Manuel Santos, who governed between 2010 and 2018, but once he won his second term he promoted a constitutional reform that ended with immediate presidential re-election in 2015.
Initiative criticized
The head of state opened an unexpected debate on the Constitution on Friday by proposing the convening of a national constituent assembly given the difficulty in getting Congress to approve his reforms.
That initiative has been criticized by politicians of all stripes, including some who supported it in the 2022 presidential elections.
The president was reminded with a photo on social networks of a campaign promise he made in 2018 when he allied himself with a faction of the Green Alliance party – led by the former mayors of Bogotá Antanas Mockus and Claudia López – not to call a constituent assembly.
In the photograph, the current president appears carrying a marble plaque on which he signed a decalogue of commitments in the event of winning the elections, which he ended up losing to the Uribista Iván Duque, and whose second point read “I will not call a constituent assembly.”
“The photo they took of me with Mockus was in 2018, we lost and that is the reality. Then Duque took office and his government represented the handing over of executive power to the mafias. In such a situation, it is imperative to take action. “In any area that I look into, that I get involved in, I find plundering and theft,” explained the head of state in the interview.
The process, according to Petro
When asked what the process will be to carry out the constituent assembly, the Colombian president explained that the first step is “organize municipal committees”, convene “to the people to mobilization, to the streets, to debate” so that they come to “open town halls, which are current citizen participation mechanisms.”
“That is why I say that we begin a constituent process, and it begins at the base of society and in all places in Colombia. The first geographical scenario, due to the organizational scenario that exists, is the southwest. That is why I was in Cali (where he made the constituent’s proposal)”, he added.
On Friday, Senator Humberto de la Calle recalled that to approve a constituent assembly a bill is required, which must pass through a Congress in which Petro no longer has a majority, and “two calls to the people”, first to say if he wants a constitutional reform and, if so, to approve any possible changes.
However, Petro assured that there are “several paths” and to carry out this initiative “It is not a problem of majorities, it is a problem of popular strength.”
“It is the people deciding, the constituent moment is always. If the people decide, the established power has to accept it, it cannot ignore it. “The constituted power is subordinate,” the president explained.
Finally, the president, when asked if he believes he has enough time to carry out the constituent assembly before his term ends on August 7, 2026, responded: “The constituent process can end sooner or later. It is not tied to 26, it can be decisive for 26. I cannot predict that.”
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Source: Gestion
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