A mixture of patriotism and indignation is trying to take over the streets of Colombia, a territory where Gustavo Petro was king for years. “We love the military!”, “We defend democracy!”, “We support the prosecutor!”, a man gave a speech in downtown Bogotá this Tuesday. The audience, carrying national flags, responded to every sentence with a resolute: “We are the majority!”. It was a march that saw hundreds speaking out against the president’s social reforms and in support of the conservative magazine Semana, and in which there is still a degree of anti-“Soviet dictatorship” paranoia. “Colombia is not from the left, Colombia is from the right,” said a woman at the march, which participants dubbed “We are the majority.” “Get out, Petro” was heard again and again. There were many right-wing politicians in the mobilization, but those from the center were few, as seen in several cities across the country.
The opposition failed to win a majority in either the 2022 presidential election or in the first year of having a legislature without a majority party, but as of this Tuesday it already seems to be taking to the streets at least as much as the crowds that the opposition president had moves. According to the National Police, 30,000 people demonstrated in Bogotá and 90,000 across the country. It’s a victory for this group of citizens who want to feel like they are in the majority and are optimistic of defeating pro-government forces in October’s regional elections. There they will in fact test whether they have the majority, although these elections are usually defined by different local logics and by candidatures only secondarily linked to the major parties.
“The party is gaining a lot of strength,” says a smiling Felipe Borda, 24, mayoral candidate from the Uribista Centro Democrático party, who hopes the balance in Bogotá will shift to the right. It’s a sunny morning, ideal weather for a demonstration, and Borda joins the militants who are carrying a giant poplar elephant along Carrera Séptima. The pachyderm recalls the so-called 8,000 trial, the scandal that practically froze the government of former President Ernesto Samper (1994-1998) when it was revealed that his campaign had received money from the drug trade. Borda and the public at the time are convinced Petro’s campaign received something of equal value, according to a leaked audio recording by former ambassador Armando Benedetti. “Samper is 8,000 / with Petro 15,000 / tired of the left / let’s save the country,” chanted the protesters heading to Plaza de Bolívar.
Demonstrators at the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá. Santiago Mesa
The most serious political scandal Petro has ever faced was the focus of this march. “Either we unite or they commit suicide,” read a poster, referring to the police colonel involved in the scandal, who was found dead in his car less than two weeks ago. “The money belonged to Petro,” says another poster, who believes the version of a confidential source who assured Semana magazine that the colonel told him that the president gave him 3 billion pesos (about $720,000) at the time Chief of Staff Laura Sarabia. “There are 3,000 million reasons for the end of this government,” said another poster. This is the march where for many the President is corrupt and little else.
Unlike the mobilization organized two weeks ago in support of Petro, this one did not feature large unions or student groups. Some anti-abortion groups collected signatures for a referendum, while some militants from right-wing opposition parties (Democratic Center and Radical Change) addressed the crowd. An exception was Alejandro Ospina, a union leader. “These other unions are just applauding the government,” says this man, who is president of the Union of Oil and Energy Workers of Colombia (UTIPEC), a union in the hydrocarbon sector that has about 3,000 members. He doesn’t like labor reform, hydrocarbon policy, or the president’s attacks on the press. Nearby, another trade unionist is making a speech: “Petro has sold us the version that there is a soft coup against him, and that is a fiction of 21st century socialism.”
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Milena, Mónica and Adriana take part in a march against Petro for the first time. On previous occasions they believed that not many people would attend and were not encouraged to do so. But this time, Milena decided she had to do more than complain on social media. After receiving a call via a WhatsApp group, she convinced her colleagues. “We don’t want our children to emigrate” or “All scandals come from people who work with him” are some of the sentences you hear. They reiterate that they don’t want Petro to go, they want him to listen to the opposition and change his discourse. Although they later qualified: “It’s not that we want it, it’s that if Francia Marquez leaves, that would be the total end.”
The three recognize that young people are relatively absent from the march compared to pro-government mobilizations. They point out that their children and nephews were excited about the move to the left, even though they had told them not to trust Petro because they knew him from when he was mayor of Bogotá. For her, young people are “calmer” at family gatherings, although they still do not openly admit that “they were wrong”. “Why can you go out and I can’t?” Milena’s daughter told her mother this morning, referring to the ban her mother had placed on her from going out to protest during the 2021 national strike. “Because we don’t do that, we attract.” “We don’t destroy the Transmilenio or the shops and we don’t take action against the police or the army,” says Milena, who answered him.
Demonstrators wave the flag of Colombia and the national police in Bogotá. LUISA GONZALEZ (Portal)
The march is not for those who regretted voting for Petro but for those who never supported him. Many comment that they know people who are repenting, but those who are in are the ones who keep replying that they never supported it. “When he was mayor of Bogotá, we saw what he was like,” says a man who distributes banners against the reforms and wiretapping that are part of the scandal troubling the government.
However, there are some more moderate ones. Speaking to this newspaper, Senator David Luna (Cambio Radical) differentiates between the first months of government and the last few weeks. He compares the ‘statesman-president’ and dialogue at the outset to the current ‘activist-president’, while holding a sign denouncing that the executive branch is ‘taking away the freedoms’ of Colombians. For him, Petro has radicalized out of frustration at not being able to push through his social reforms: “The idea of a soft coup is a strategy. He blames others because the reforms aren’t working for him.”
When you reach Plaza de Bolívar, there is a large stage in front of the Palacio Liévano, the seat of the Bogotá City Hall. Several politicians and representatives of civil society go there. Among them are Uribist senators Miguel Uribe, Ciro Ramírez and Paloma Valencia; two former ministers in the government of Iván Duque, who are also politicians from the Democratic Center Diego Molano and Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez; former mayor of Bogotá Enrique Peñalosa; Representatives Carolina Arbeláez (Cambio Radical) and Marelen Castillo (League of Anti-Corruption Rulers); and businessman Pierre Onzaga. Politicians played a bigger role than in the February march called by the opposition. However, supporters began to back off while they were still speaking.
The messages from these opposition leaders were varied, even without a clear point of reference. “I would like to ask President Petro to govern with generosity and without the arrogance that characterizes him,” said Senator Valencia. Meanwhile, Molano has called for progress on the construction of the Bogotá Metro and Peñalosa has criticized that he believes environmental goals take precedence over poverty reduction. Castillo, a former vice presidential candidate, differed from Francia Márquez: “I’m African American and I’m happy, I’m African American and I’m not a victim.”
Absent from the march, as from the daily political stage, was former President Álvaro Uribe, the voice many in Plaza de Bolívar miss when they call themselves the majority. “He will have his reasons,” says the crowd.
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