By Ángel Guerra Cabrera on August 18, 2022
Gustavo Petro-Francia Márquez
The government of Gustavo Petro-Francia Márquez has started off at a very good pace in its very important task and has already shown firm progress 11 days after taking office. It has already registered before Congress its flagship measure, the tax reform, without the approval of which it could not fulfill the social programs to carry out the comprehensive rural reform, make education and health a universal right and fight hunger head-on in the second most unequal country in Latin America.
These are commitments made by the president and vice-president to the voters and the Colombian people. Above all, with the workers, the poor and young people of both sexes protagonists of the fiercely repressed social rebellion between 2019 and 2021. In 2021 alone, more than 70 protesters have been reported dead and hundreds missing. Likewise, in the interest of ending rampant corruption and savage human rights violations by the military and police forces, Petro has already appointed a new leadership for both forces, after sending 55 generals into retirement.
It should be emphasized that Petro has already appointed the vast majority of the members of his government, who, in general, enjoy prestige and national and international recognition in their spheres of competence, has taken important steps towards the achievement of “total” peace, with the resumption of the peace process with the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Cuba, which amounts to a very friendly normalization of relations with the island. At the same time, and without wasting any time, it has advanced in the full restoration of diplomatic and commercial relations with Venezuela, as well as the opening of crossings on their extensive common border of 2219 kilometers, closed since 2015 as a result of the feverish participation of the government of Iván Duque as a fundamental piece of Washington’s multidimensional war policy against Caracas.
An example of the suitability and consensus enjoyed by the main members of the new government, beyond the raging and rabid outbursts of Uribism and its satellites, are the appointments to the Foreign Ministry and the Treasury portfolio. In charge of the former, Álvaro Leyva, a man with a straight track record of commitment and active participation in all the peace efforts of the different Colombian governments, who, in addition, enjoys, due to his seriousness, the confidence of international organizations and of the different guerrillas or former guerrillas. The same can be said of José Antonio Ocampo, a finance expert and economist of solid national and international endorsement, who will have the support of competent specialists at the head of the other economic sector agencies.
The resumption of the dialogue with the ELN was finally decided by a verification mission sent to Havana by Petro to corroborate the willingness of that organization to continue the process. Headed by Foreign Minister Leyva, it was able to verify the pacifying will of the ELN negotiators, refugees in Havana since 2019, when President Duque, sworn enemy of the peace accords, took advantage of a deplorable action of that guerrilla to blow up the dialogue and poison relations with Havana. In a gesture consistent with the peace phobia of his patron Álvaro Uribe, he demanded the extradition of the ELN envoys to the government of the island, something that Cuba could not accept due to its status as guarantor of the process under international law. Havana rejected Bogota’s unworthy request and gave asylum to the ELN representatives. Ironically, the totally legal and legitimate presence of the guerrilla negotiators on the island was impudently used by the government of Donald Trump as a pretext to include the island again in the spurious list of countries sponsoring terrorism, with the economic hardships that this imposed on it, on top of those it already suffered -and continues to suffer- due to the cruel reinforcement of the blockade by Trump and its maintenance, kept mostly intact, by Biden. Foreign Minister Leyva was in charge of doing justice to Cuba when he affirmed that his country rejects the qualification of the island as an alleged sponsor of terrorism “with which it has been intended to disregard its commitment to peace in Colombia and the world”. This was reinforced by his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla reiterating Havana’s commitment to peace in Colombia.
Petro, who has given great importance to the unity of Latin America and the Caribbean, has rightly said that Mexico and Colombia can make a great contribution to this noble endeavor. At this moment, by the way, that unity inevitably passes through the return to Venezuela of its plane hijacked by a judge in Buenos Aires, which depends on an order from President Alberto Fernandez, which many of us will be grateful for.
Source: La Pupilia Insomne