Forum “Vision 2024: Colombia Trends”, organized by Prisa Media, in Bogotá, on November 27, 2023.PRISA
Colombia is unveiling for the first time the new political map that emerged from October’s regional elections, at a time when Gustavo Petro’s government is preparing for a year full of major challenges on several fronts. Interior Minister Luis Fernando Velasco said this Monday that this is a favorable scenario to seal the great national agreement that the President has referred to several times. This expectation dominated all conversations at the “Vision 2024: Trends Colombia” event organized by Prisa Media in Bogotá, bringing together some of the most important figures in the country’s political and economic life.
The conditions for concluding the agreement are in place and the government is practically obliged to achieve it, said Velasco in his conversation with the director of content and special projects of Prisa Media Colombia, Alejandro Santos. “Economic strength is too important,” admitted the political minister, who appeared conciliatory and open to dialogue with various sectors. “If this government wants to carry out its reforms, it needs a national agreement and that has already been proven,” he explained, taking into account that there are already at least two specific points in education and in the national economy.
“The observations of the opposition must be viewed with respect,” Velasco said of the difficult passage of the health care reform, which is the most opposed in various parts of society and is currently stuck in the House of Representatives. The reform has even led both the Green Alliance and the Liberal Party, partners in the governing coalition, to consider the possibility of declaring independence. This doesn’t seem to worry the Interior Minister too much; he was optimistic: “I’m confident that we can rebuild these majorities.” He also recalled from the stage that he had already spoken to the elected mayors of Bogotá and Cali, Carlos Fernando Galán and Alejandro Eder, other speakers at the forum, discussed agreements to improve security in these cities. “We will talk to everyone,” he assured.
This openness was echoed by other officials in the various forums held throughout the day. “The national agreement is real, it is a presidential commitment,” said Housing Secretary Catalina Velasco. “We didn’t want this to remain just a photo and a statement,” confirmed Laura Sarabia, director of Social Prosperity, referring to the meeting that Petro held last week in Cartagena with major businessmen, of which he was the architect. “Dialogue is not necessarily about agreeing on everything, but it is about working,” said Sarabia, one of the people closest to the president.
Amid renewed efforts to acclimatize this great agreement, which also involves business people, economic trends have also taken center stage. “There are many things in the economy that we don’t know and that worry us. “Uncertainty is the word that runs through everything that happens,” said Bruce Mac Master, president of the National Association of Businessmen, ANDI, at the beginning of the panel, where he was accompanied by Fabián Hernández, president of Telefónica Colombia . and Carlos Enrique Cavelier, President of Alquería. “I wish we could change the word uncertainty to create confidence,” shouted Mac Master – who praised the fuel price adjustment policy as a responsible decision.
“One of the indicators of uncertainty is the investment rate, and we have seen it fall,” Cavalier lamented. Private investment fell by 11% in the third quarter of this year, leading to talk of crises from various quarters. Capital wants to have clear rules in the medium and long term. The beginning of the talks should help to regain trust, noted the President of Alquería with a dose of optimism, among other things with regard to the meeting in Cartagena. Hernández, in turn, pointed out that the social reforms proposed by the government, which also include labor reform and pension reform, need to be widely discussed. In his opinion, the most urgent thing is to have a reactivation agenda. “It is important that we speak with concrete facts about economic reactivation,” said the president of Telefónica in each sector.
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Among other things, there was also a lecture on the major challenge of the energy transition, one of the topics to which the government is devoting the greatest attention. Colombia is on the path to gradually reduce the share of fossil fuels, but “natural gas is part of the energy transition,” clarified María Fernanda Arango, energy manager of Ecopetrol, in the panel moderated by Inés Santaeulalia, head of the EL office. COUNTRY for Colombia, Venezuela and the Andean region. When asked about the joint exploration of gas and oil fields in Venezuela between Ecopetrol and PDVSA, recently raised by Petro and Nicolás Maduro, Arango pointed out that it is considered “one of the existing options to have sufficient natural gas.” “The country should become”.
Why bring royalties to other countries asked Juan Camilo Nariño, president of the Colombian Mining Association, who focused his interventions on a call to organize the conversation on the energy transition and asked for leadership from the government to bring all actors together. He also pointed out the need to at least explore the national territory in search of the minerals necessary for this transition. “Then we will agree whether to take them out or not,” he said. “Colombia has a very clean matrix,” 70% hydropower and 30% thermal, recalls Patricia Aparicio, sustainability and public affairs manager at AES, recognizing that today it is very difficult to think about building hydroelectric plants. Colombia not only needs to clean the matrix, but also grow in technologies such as solar and wind power, with enormous potential in the department of La Guajira.
Although the agenda was varied, uncertainty soon emerged as one of the main concerns. In the discussion that opened the forum, the country’s attorney general, Francisco Barbosa, said the government’s total peace policy had “become a criminal peace.” “What is happening today is a national catastrophe,” added Barbosa, one of President Petro’s harshest critics, in his conversation with Roberto Pombo, editorial director of Prisa Media Colombia. “The Constitution allows the prosecutor to speak about public policy,” defended the official, who will be replaced early next year by a woman from the short list already presented by the president.
In the following security forum, María Victoria Llorente, director of the Ideas for Peace Foundation (FIP), regretted this divorce. The obvious and clear break between the prosecutor’s office and the government makes the matter even more difficult, he assured, “harmonious cooperation is necessary.” The presence and voice of armed groups in the country has increased, said the expert, who nevertheless “alternates from the local ones Governments see a “very big opportunity” to avoid and contain the security crisis. He also pointed out that the departure of Peace Commissioner Danilo Rueda and the assumption of office of Otty Patiño give a new face to the entire peace policy. While Rueda focused on obtaining humanitarian aid in the numerous simultaneous negotiations with various armed groups, Patiño’s goal was to ensure that there was no criminal government in any corner of the country, he explained. “It is an important change of vision,” he concluded.
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