Aida Avella: “This reform is one of the most controversial because we are touching on privileges”:
The public is still waiting for the President, but among the citizens some personalities of Petrism are already sneaking in, waiting for Gustavo Petro. Among them is Senator Aida Avella of the Patriotic Union party, who unreservedly supports the health minister. The reform, he says, must be defended because it will be the path to improving health in the country’s most remote areas, where there are no health centers to be built or trained.
“This reform is one of the most controversial because we touch on privilege and we touch on a very large corruption in Colombia,” Senator Avella told EL PAÍS. “Of course there are also good people who oppose the reform, such as the education minister,” he adds, referring to Alejandro Gaviria, who was health minister in Juan Manuel Santos’ government for six years and made contributions to the reform.
“He has the experience of being well cared for in a clinic when he had a serious illness, but not every citizen has that, so we have to be tolerant and think of those who don’t have anything. When I think of the small towns where there isn’t even an ambulance and people are dying on us, I think of places like Urabá in Choco or El Roble in Sucre where people are praying for an infirmary,” she says, while watching some her admirers embraced the public.