Colombian Congress freezes discussion of Petro reforms due to “external factors”

The president of the House of Representatives, David Racero, announced this Monday that the discussion of the reforms of the government of the president “is frozen” Gustavo Petro in the midst of the scandal over the audios in which Armando Benedetti, former ambassador to Venezuela, threatened to reveal secrets from the last presidential campaign.

racerwhich is part of Historical Pactthe government coalition, assured journalists that the discussions are halted until it is possible to “rebuild the government coalition”which had already lost the support of the U party and the conservatives in recent weeks.

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“Precisely (we must) stop the process of discussions as important as those that involve or project the transformation of these agendas that are so important for the country, which cannot be mediated by external factors that could lead to a non-positive outcome for the country. ”, added racer.

The Government of Petro is currently promoting health and labor reforms in Congresswhich are two of the promises of change promoted by his Government.

CONTROVERSIAL REFORM

The health reform This is being one of the great difficulties for the Government, after the U Party withdrew its support for the coalition in mid-May after showing its rejection of this proposal, as did the Conservative Party, which declared itself independent.

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This loss of support led to a ministerial crisis which caused the departure of the then head of the Ministry of Health, Carolina Corcho, as well as six other ministers, some of them very close to the president.

The reform was presented on February 13 and aims to bring health care to all corners of the country and strengthen primary care and disease prevention.

However, this proposal It has caused a deep controversy in the country because, according to its critics, it will jeopardize the sustainability of a system that, despite its numerous flaws, works.

CRISIS DUE TO STATEMENTS BY BENEDETTI

Last night, the weekly magazine published a series of audio messages sent by the former ambassador to Laura Sarabiaformer Chief of Staff, to express her disagreement with the delay in Petro in receiving it in the middle of the scandal of the telephone interceptions of a babysitter.

Benedetti also threatened to reveal secrets of the financing of Petro’s presidential campaign, who assured last night that it did not receive money from drug trafficking and that the Government has not done anything illegal.

He said Petro In his Twitter account, in his Government “neither have blackmail been accepted regarding public offices or contracts, nor have money been received in the campaign from people linked to drug trafficking, much less have figures such as 15,000 million pesos (about 3 .5 million dollars) out of our accounting”.

“I do not accept blackmail, nor do I see politics as a space for personal favors”, the president said in a lengthy tweet.

In the audiowhich have caused a stir in the country, the former ambassador also reminded Sarabia that he raised those “15,000 million pesos” for Petro’s campaign and tells him that if he speaks up and tells who financed his campaign on the Atlantic coast, they will all end up in jail.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.