Colombia: Uribe accepts dialogue with Petro, his opponent

After decades of political opposition, the former president Colombian Álvaro Uribe Vélez agreed to meet with Gustavo Petro, the first elected president of the left in the country, within the framework of a national agreement that aims to bring together broad sectors to reach consensus in a polarized nation.

The day before, the call “national agreement” of Petro he only had allies or related sectors, however, upon receiving the credential as president-elect, he invited Uribe as a gesture “symbolic” of his opening to dialogue with almost half of the country that did not vote for him, but for the real estate tycoon Rodolfo Hernández.

Look: Petro and the challenge of the war in Colombia: what will happen to the armed struggle after the arrival of a former guerrilla to the presidency?

Uribe, who governed between 2002 and 2010 and remains active in politics, agreed to the meeting in a brief message on Twitter, where he usually speaks and even gives a political line to his party, the Democratic Center. “I appreciate the invitation from President Gustavo Petro. I will attend the meeting on behalf of the Democratic Center. They are different visions of the same country”assured.

Petro thanked through the same social network the positive response of the former president Uribe to the meeting that does not yet have a public date: “Welcome to the era of dialogue that is the basis of all humanity… I am sure that Colombia will appreciate that we find common ground for a common homeland.”

During the tense presidential campaign, Uribe He constantly criticized Petro, who in his youth was a member of the extinct M-19 guerrilla, promoting the idea that an eventual government of his would be similar to that of the late Hugo Chávez in Venezuela.

“Venezuelan brothers who live in Colombia and can vote… since Chavismo expelled them from Venezuela, help Petro not win, a bold version that tries to hide and is full of hate”, warned Uribe on May 27, alluding to the 2.2 million Venezuelan migrants who are in Colombia after the social and economic crisis in their country.

In his years as a senator, Petro pointed to Uribe of allegedly promoting paramilitary groups. Which has always been denied by Uribewho in 2008 as president extradited several of the paramilitary chiefs to the United States so that they could serve sentences in that country.

The meeting of political antagonists in Colombia has been read by some as an important political gesture in a country that lived through five decades of internal armed conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who laid down their arms in 2016 after signing a peace agreement. peace with the state.

“Without a doubt there are going to be new or old tensions that reappear. No one is expecting there to be some sort of comprehensive agreement between Gustavo Petro and Alvaro Uribe, but I think that the mere availability to talk is already symbolic, important. Many times the great changes begin with the wordsCenter Senator Humberto de la Calle, who was part of the government’s negotiating team in the peace process, told The Associated Press.

Petro promised in the campaign that he would comply with the peace agreement signed with the extinct guerrilla, it is then one of the points of tension with Uribewho has always been critical of what was signed, considering that ex-combatants will have “impunity” by not paying jail in exchange for confessing their crimes publicly and going to a court of peace.

Colombia was divided after the signing of the peace agreement. In a plebiscite called to endorse them, the sector led by Uribewhich was opposed to its implementation as it was on paper.

“It is very likely that the doctor Uribe keep your reservations, but I think that at this point the route is clear, I have the feeling that those initial reservations of many Colombians (towards the peace process) have been diminishing, they understand that it is time to turn the page”, De la Calle said.

Uribe has been a protagonist of the political scene in Colombia during the last two decades. She was very popular during his two governments and then promoted the first presidency of Juan Manuel Santos in 2010 and then the candidacy of the current president Iván Duque, whom he won in 2018, which ends with high unpopularity.

“These four years of the Duque government were fatal for Uribismo and the figure of the same Uribe it has faded, although it has not disappeared”, Sandra Borda, a political analyst and professor at the Universidad de Los Andes, told the AP.

Even in that position, Uribismo will be a fundamental political force in the opposition to Petro, since it retains a large bench in Congress. Petro He has said that in his government he will guarantee the exercise of the opposition and that he will not prosecute his political opponents.

Source: Elcomercio

Ronald Payne

I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.