President Iván Duque has just two and a half weeks before stepping down, but he doesn’t want to leave without throwing a few darts at his successor. “This is the last time I address this Congress as President of the Republic,” he said Wednesday afternoon when the new Colombian Congress was installed. He leaves office with a 68% rejection and a parliament now ruled by the party of his rival, President-elect Gustavo Petro. However, Duque proudly entered the venue and assured: “We have fulfilled!”. The public didn’t agree. Congressmen opposed to his government began booing him. “Liar!” they yelled at him several times.
The first moment the shouting started was when the President spoke about his first point in the speech: “Peace with legality.” According to Duque, 1.3 million hectares have been legalized for landless farmers under his mandate, “the government that has made more land available to Colombian farmers in our recent history”. The arrow to Petro came when he added that this process “demonstrated that social justice can be achieved in the countryside without dispossession.” The word expropriation has been used repeatedly by his allies against Petro, who has repeatedly promised that expropriating the owners of the field is not on his agenda. It doesn’t matter how many times you repeat it. However, the President decided to provoke the Petristas with this charged word during the campaign.
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Duque went further than that. “We have provided all necessary support to the Special Justice for Peace (JEP) and the Truth Commission,” he said seconds later. Both are institutions created by the 2016 peace deal, and Duque was elected in 2018 by voters who wanted to “tear the deal to pieces.” During his tenure, he attempted to review the JEP with reforms that stripped it of powers (although he failed in the attempt), and recently he was absent when the Truth Commission presented the country with its final report, a titanic document listing several commissioners Interview with thousands of war-affected citizens across the country.
Echoing criticisms of the report from the military and right-wing sectors, Duque said he would like “a national debate to be installed in society that will allow us to arrive at a truth with an open mind.” Later, speaking about the army, he reiterated: “We repeat to the heroes of Colombia that we are and will always be by your side and by your side because you are the pillar of democracy.” The boos continued.
Duque was a president who repeatedly turned his back on the institutions created by the peace process, which is why many of the regions hardest hit by the war voted for Petro. The President raised the tone of his speech, adding that “there is no objective reason justifying a crime, let alone false theories that have tampered with the word revolution”. Another implicit arrow for those who criticize these institutions of peace. But neither the JEP nor the Truth Commission justified the use of guns.
On the other hand, he spoke of military achievements, for example that he had managed to attack FARC dissidents, alias Uriel, alias Iván Mordisco or alias Rodrigo Cadete. “While others like Otoniel pay for their international crimes without this preventing them from facing the Colombian justice system and repaying the victims,” he added. Several organizations asked him not to extradite Otoniel to the United States so that he could confess to his crimes in Colombia.
“This government has implemented structural reform that ensures the well-being and integrity of the National Police and promotes a military and police institution that is closer to the citizens,” the president said. However, the police have a 58% disapproval, which increased after police violence failed to stop the government during the social protests. Facing the anti-government protests that began in 2019-2021, Duque described them as “waves of violence trying to block the country” despite “valid social demands for historical debts that have never been paid.”
In his speech, the President also spoke of the crises that were not under his control and that were complicating his presidency: the coronavirus pandemic, the migration crisis in Venezuela with millions of people “seeking refuge from dictatorial ignominy”, or Hurricane Iota of 2020 that destroyed the Colombian islands in the Caribbean. He stressed that despite the challenges, he had managed to increase the reach of free education for the youngest and create new platforms to access employment. He added that he had managed to have a joint cabinet for the first time (although it did not last his entire tenure) and that under his administration the country had begun the transition to renewable energy – a process that Petro promised to speed up. He added that under his government and during the crisis in Ukraine, Colombia managed to be accepted as a strategic ally rather than a member of NATO.
“We wish the next government every success in their leadership,” said Duque towards the end of his speech. “Next August 7th, when I regain my citizenship status, my voice will always be intent on building and building solutions for our nation.” He said it between shouts, boos and slaps on desks.
Duque is about to say goodbye to the government, with very few willing to listen carefully, and the President seems unwilling to listen to his critics either. He described his opposition as those who promoted “violence”, “dishonest attacks”, “fake news”, those “trying to divide society”. He left Congress without even hearing the reply from the opposition, which had the right to speak after the President. He said goodbye while he was reigning: with many protests and without listening to those who wanted to answer.
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