“The government of Gustavo Petro is being a victim of its own ambition”

This Monday the 7th, Gustavo Petro completed his first year as president of Colombia. An election that at the time was considered historic because it was the first left-wing president in the country’s political history, which filled a good part of the population with hope due to the large number of changes that he promised since his arrival but that with the passage of time Time seems to have slowed down.

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The most notable aspect of his administration so far is the economic management he has had of the country, since he has not only appeased the fears that accompanied his election, but also Colombia has shown robust growth during the year.

The other side of the coin has been the political instability caused by the differences that arose in the motley coalition that brought him to power and the increasingly frequent scandals that are affecting his administration, the last of which is carried out by his eldest son, Nicolás Petro, accused by the courts of receiving money from various sources, including a drug dealer, for his own benefit and his father’s campaign.

Trade spoke with Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir, a professor at the Universidad del Rosario (Bogotá) and a doctor in Political Science, about Petro’s first year in power, his successes, debts and the challenges that lie ahead.

How would you describe this first year of Petro’s government?

In general terms, it is a government that has had a very marked will to do a lot, but a reality in which progress has been rather modest. It is a government that is too eager, stubborn or stubborn to introduce change but has so far achieved very little of that ambitious agenda.

—Your coming to power aroused great enthusiasm in Colombians, do you consider that the public continues to see it as a hope for change?

The government is being a bit of a victim of its own ambition. He proposed a backbone of the social agenda to change the health system, the pension system, a labor reform. That is tremendously ambitious but very difficult to achieve, especially in a country that is so little used to change. So, we have seen a disappointment from people who thought they would see a more marked change. But it must also be said that in part of the agenda, as in foreign policy, there has been a very evident change, such as in the relationship with the United States, Venezuela, Cuba or Latin America. So there has been a disenchantment, but what has marked the agenda is the constant desire for change that, depending on the issue, has been demonstrated or remained behind.

Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir is a professor at the Universidad del Rosario and a doctor in Political Science.

—On the economic front, despite the region’s own fears when it comes to the left coming to power, it has done relatively well. He even approved the tax reform in record time, a point that on balance has been positive. What do you highlight in that plane?

Yes, in fact one of the great assets of the government, for many people the main one, has been economic performance. Unemployment today remains in single digits, there was no massive outflow of investors or foreign capital, the dollar has receded, inflation has dropped. From the economic point of view there was not the catastrophe that was feared. In addition, with the tax reform he had a double purpose: to calm foreign investors by showing that they are fiscally responsible and he obtained resources for social programs. Just as there are people on the left who are disenchanted with Petro, on the center right there are people who are relieved because we did not suffer the paralysis that many feared.

What do you think are the challenges that will mark your second year in office and perhaps the rest of your presidency?

The first will be the sudden changes of cabinets, which he has experienced due to scandals such as those of Laura Sarabia, Armando Benedetti or Irene Vélez, or for making concessions such as the departure of the Minister of Health. There were also cabinet changes by ministers who did not follow Petro’s line, such as the case of Cecilia López in Agriculture or José Antonio Ocampo in Economy. Here every day they say that there will be a new ministerial shock, there is much speculation. In Colombia it was not so common to have cabinet crises, that has been hard for Petro. The first challenge is to stabilize in that sense. The second has to do with concretizing some of the reforms, that of Education, Health, Pensions, Work or the Submission Law, which is key in Total Peace.

His agenda is so ambitious that we know that it will not be fulfilled in its entirety, it is impossible, but it can remain as the programmatic base of the left and for that the challenge is to pass one of the great reforms. In third place is the issue of peace, for the first time a government opens three fronts: with criminal gangs, with FARC dissidents and with the ELN. There the challenge is to show results in a short time. Juan Manuel Santos, when there was still re-election, needed practically seven years. Petro has almost half the time and must negotiate with three sides.

Source: Elcomercio