NewsLatin AmericaThe Colombian opposition shows its muscle in the street: "This time we beat Petro"

The Colombian opposition shows its muscle in the street: “This time we beat Petro”

The opposition is still searching for its leader but already has a sizeable number of disgruntled citizens ready to show their anger. Thousands of Colombians demonstrated against the government of Gustavo Petro in 12 cities of the country this Wednesday, protests in which discontent was widespread against the economic and social reforms of the president. The demonstrations occur one day after the pro-government marches that the Executive had called, and which failed to mobilize the same number of people. In the country’s capital, for example, anti-Petro protesters filled three-quarters of the Plaza de Bolivar, the main square in the historic center, while the previous afternoon the number of pro-government people hardly filled half of the same square. The street, it was shown, does not belong only to the president of the left.

“This time we beat Petro, we beat him in the streets,” the right-wing representative Miguel Polo Polo told EL PAIS, who took the lead in calling for this march, with the support of businessman Pierre Onzaga. “According to our internal calculations, Petro was not able to take out 60,000 people and we took out around 500,000,” adds the representative. “Today we show that citizens are free, because they come out without pressure, and that we did not have to pressure citizens to take to the streets to demonstrate,” he comments. According to the National Police, 28,000 people came out in the Petro march, while some 47,000 mobilized on Wednesday. In other words, according to these official figures, almost twice as many people participated in the opposition march than those who came out to support Petro.

An upper-class young woman in downtown Bogota agrees with Polo Polo as she waits for all the opponents to fill the Plaza de Bolivar. “This march does not belong to any political party, this march belongs to us, I came here because I wanted to and nobody paid me,” she said, enjoying the midday sun. Although there were some politicians who actively promoted this demonstration, the majority of those present were citizens who had come to the center of the capital motivated by their anger with the Government, and not because they were called by a party or union. That was a stark contrast to the crowd the day before, which was mostly called by teachers’ unions or the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT).

In the anti-government march, there were few logos of parties that have made opposition, such as the Democratic Center and Radical Change. While some politicians were welcomed when they blended into the crowd—such as Uribista senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, who received a wave of hugs and selfies that prevented him from walking calmly—they were not considered the leaders of the march.

That does not mean, however, that it was not an opportunity for opposition congressmen to campaign against mayors aligned with the Petro government when there are local elections in October. Senator Maria Fernanda Cabal, for example, demonstrated in her hometown of Cali, where the local government is close to Petro. “This is the beginning of Cali’s recovery,” Cabal said at the rally. Representative Polo Polo, on his side, decided to demonstrate in the city of Medellin, where the right wing hopes to recover the mayoralty from Mayor Daniel Quintero, also an ally of Petro.

“We marched in Medellin because that city has historically been the home of the right in Colombia,” explains the congressman. “Recently the radical left won there, as they later won in Colombia, so what happens in Medellin ends up having much more repercussions at the national level than in Bogota. We had already marched in Cali, and in other cities, but Medellin is very important to us, ”he adds.

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Another politician who appeared at the march was Diego Molano, former Defense Minister during the government of Ivan Duque and now a candidate for mayor of Bogota. Although he spoke to El PAIS about his opposition to the reform of health and the penitentiary system, recently presented by the Executive, he clarified that he was also going to the march due to the “blackmail” of the president not to finance the capital’s metro if it does not go Underground. “We want Metro Now!”, said a banner next to his head all the way to the Plaza de Bolivar.

The pro-government and anti-government marches, as expected, were never about healthcare reform. Although the president had initially said that he was calling a march to “socialize” and discuss his reform, and the opposition initially mobilized against it, the protests were a motley collection of emotions in which doctors and nurses were almost absent. . In the opposition there were several women collecting signatures against abortion, for example, since the Petro Government regulated the voluntary interruption of pregnancy last January. “They allow 14-year-old children to decide without their parents. They say they want the world power of life, but they promote the murder of babies in the womb,” said one of the militants.

In the opposition march, the policy of “total peace” was one of “total impunity”. There the president was not a leader but a “guerrilla”. His labor, health or pension policies are seen as a path towards Castrochavism, and his energy transition policy is seen as the main cause of inflation in Colombia. “And no, and no, and I don’t feel like it, a dictatorship like the Cuban one” was the most popular harangue during the entire demonstration.

They are marches without middle points of dialogue and a lot of polarization, which could be exemplified in a fight that broke out in front of Congress between two young women from different ideological corners. “You are drug guerrillas” the one on the right yelled at him. “For you rich people, privilege clouded your empathy,” replied the other, from the left. Her friends mediated between the two, the shouting match only ended when they were enough meters away to stop hearing each other.

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