An unexpected debate on the Constitution opened in Colombia with the proposal of President Gustavo Petro to convene a national constituent assembly in the face of the difficulty of getting Congress to approve its reforms.

This was recognized this Saturday by the president himself on the social network X where he referred to the proposal he presented on Friday in Cali (southwest), which has been criticized by politicians of all currents, including some who supported him in the presidential elections of 2022.

“The proposal of the Constituent Assembly will unleash a national debate. It’s good that it is so,” said the president when sharing the speech in which he made the controversial announcement, described as a “globe” of distraction by various sectors because Petro’s legislative and popular support is diminishing.

According to former left-wing senator Jorge Robledo, Petro’s idea of a constituent only seeks to distract “because he does not have enough votes to approve it in Congress or to approve it among the citizens.”

“That he mentions it, rather than proving his political strength in Colombia, what he demonstrates is his weakness,” Robledo said in X, and assured that Petro’s maneuver is a sign of “despair.”

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On Friday, at an event in Puerto Resistencia, a sector of Cali that was the epicenter of the 2021 social protests, Petro argued that the constituent national assembly is necessary if the institutions that the country has “are not able to live up to the reforms” proposed by his Government and that are bogged down in Congress.

The protests were the starting point of the nonconformity that led Petro to win the 2022 elections and in them, the protesters, mostly young people, demanded profound social changes in the country, a flag that the current president took.

Petro’s statement has not been received by politicians, who consider it impertinent to change a Constitution that was promulgated in 1991 and in the drafting of which the demobilized of the M-19 guerrillas, of which the current president was a part, participated, among others.

Senator Humberto de la Calle, a member of the Esperanza Center Coalition and who was the only representative of the Executive in the National Constituent Assembly of 1991, described the president’s argument as “weak.”

“The cause that the president alleges to convene a constituent is the impossibility of complying with the Constitution, according to his own saying (…) If it were true, it is not the Constitution that must be changed but the way of governing,” the congressman added in a statement.

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De la Calle recalled that to approve a constituent, a bill is required, which must go through a Congress in which Petro no longer has majorities, and “two calls to the people,” first to say if he wants a constitutional reform and, if so, to approve any changes.

The president was reminded on social networks of a campaign promise he made in 2018 when he allied himself with a faction of the Green Alliance party – led by the former mayors of Bogotá Antanas Mockus and Claudia López – not to convene a constituent.

In the photo, today’s president appears carrying a marble plaque in which he signed a decalogue of commitments in case he wins the elections, which he ended up losing with the Uribe Iván Duque.

The second point said: “I will not convene a constituent assembly.”

Claudia López, who was mayor of Bogotá between 2020 and 2023, said in X: “Gustavo Petro deceived Colombia, ended his incapable government, and decided to devote himself to chaos, the distribution of subsidies and polarization. Serenity and firmness Colombia. In democracy we will protect the Constitution of ’91, which was the result of a national and citizen agreement.”

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“It does not have a majorities even to approve an ordinary Law, much less to convene a Constituent Assembly. He knows it, but he says it to sow chaos, division and polarization that are the tools with which he will maneuver the remaining period. Gustavo Petro doesn’t care about change, the people, the economy, security, or the country. The only thing that matters to him is to feed his vain megalomania,” he added.

Analyst León Valencia, director of the Peace & Reconciliation Foundation (Pares), assured that he understands “Petro’s frustration” because “social reforms, as necessary as they are urgent, do not advance” and “the resistance of the traditional elites is enormous.”

However, he considered that “perhaps the environment is not there to embark on a constituent process.”

“The best thing is to go to the presidential faculties to make the possible changes through decrees and directives and concentrate efforts on executing the approved development plan and advancing peace with the ELN (National Liberation Army),” Valencia added.

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