Senators Paloma Valencia, María Fernanda Cabal and Paola Holguín during a speech against the Petro government on August 8, 2022. AFP / CENTRO DEMOCRÁTICO
María Fernanda Cabal, Paola Holguín and Paloma Valencia, the three most notable senators of Colombia’s right, have spoken on behalf of the opposition against Gustavo Petro’s government. A day after the inauguration of the new president, the Democratic Centre, the party of former President Álvaro Uribe, defended the armed forces and again rejected the report of the Truth Commission, which President Gustavo Petro had assured his government to comply with to the letter.
Uribismo has made clear what the tone of the opposition will be, in which they say they feel the more than 10 million Colombians who didn’t vote for Petro as their own. In the intervention, broadcast on social media from the Democratic Center headquarters in Bogotá, Uribismo spokesmen acknowledged that despite being a minority in Congress, they will not withhold criticism of the Petro executive. “The new administration is mistaken if it thinks it can deal with crime, because at $153 a gram of cocaine on the streets of the United States, promoting a capo will give birth to two new heads because the Mafia likes the mythological Hydra, the two heads grew for every cut off,” asked María Fernanda Cabal, who also spoke out against the new government’s proposal for “total peace”. “As the opposition, we will reject adventures of social forgiveness and refuge for criminals and corrupt people, which is disrespectful to the millions of Colombians who obey the law unconditionally.”
His speech was followed by Paola Holguín’s. In a less impassioned tone, he defended the armed forces who, like the cabal, see them threatened by the arrival of the new government. “They cannot be equated with criminal structures, nor can their capacity be undermined,” said Holguín, who also questioned any possibility of dialogue with an armed group. “Colombia must put an end to the revolving door of the demobilization and disarmament processes where it is the state that submits and gives in to the criminals who do not pay for their misdeeds, re-victimize the citizens and end up committing crimes again.” “We reiterate to the Colombians that we know that today there are two diametrically opposed visions of the country that require a democratic, intelligent opposition without ideological radicalism,” said the senator, calling for unity in defense of democracy.
Paloma Valencia opened and closed the opposition intervention. First, she read a statement released in the morning by former President Álvaro Uribe, and her speech was the last of the three senators. “We don’t want to be an opposition like the ones we’ve been suffering from and count on the government not becoming viable. We want to be serious, goal-oriented, respectful of people, but decisive and open with the arguments. We have built and will continue to contribute. The Democratic Center is constituted as a democratic opposition. We are very few in Congress, but we know that millions of Colombians look to us for capacity and effectiveness. And that is our commitment.”
Valencia spoke of poverty as a common concern of the new government. “Colombia’s first and most urgent effort must be to end poverty. In a middle-income country, extreme poverty is unacceptable. Concern about poverty unites us, it hurts us. Society must be coherent; Nobody can be forgotten. For this reason, subsidies that prevent every Colombian from going hungry are essential. But the subsidies that are not accompanied by economic policies are a sham,” said the senator, who also referred to Petro’s plans in the field of energy mining. “If Colombia doesn’t produce oil, it will simply import derivatives from another country, to keep our economy going we will continue to use vehicles and machinery. Our emissions will be the same. Stopping exploration and exploitation will only end our energy security. Decarbonizing our economy is an excellent goal. However, the transition to a more complex economy will be achieved by developing the other sectors so successfully that they make oil unnecessary or irrelevant, rather than banning it.”
He asked for “caution” on the tax reform that the government presented this week. “Excessive taxes drive companies away. Our country loses twice: they stop paying what they pay today and they stop creating jobs. Understand the delicate balance between taxes and productivity, and the weight of the myriad processes that choke entrepreneurs and businesspeople.”
The senator concluded with a direct message to President Gustavo Petro: “This democracy that you once challenged, our democracy, today allows you to be President of Colombia. You must commit to defending it alongside our institutions and our armed forces; and continue to preserve it so that others may be elected after you by the sole will of the people”.
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