▲ Supporters of the Colombian president displaying posters in support of the president’s reforms during a demonstration in Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá.Photo Ap
AP, Sputnik and Prensa Latina
The newspaper La Jornada
Friday, September 20, 2024, p. 24
Bogotá. Colombian President Gustavo Petro yesterday reiterated an alleged plan to remove him from power or attempt on his life, without providing evidence, before thousands of his supporters and various social organizations who gathered in the historic Plaza de Bolívar, in this capital, as well as other points in the country, in response to the government’s call to defend his administration.
They want to kill and overthrow the president (…) Here begins the first day of a general mobilization of Colombian societyPetro warned, while his supporters chanted: They shall not pass!referring to the government’s detractors. The president recalled that on July 20, the day he participated in a public event, he could have been at risk of being attacked, as reported by his Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez.
He also insisted on another alleged plan to kill him, in the coming months, with a dump truck loaded with dynamite.
What they want here is to erase the possibility that a progressive government can exist in Colombia and win elections and govern.said the Executive from a platform on the public road.
The protesters echoed Petro’s own complaint of an alleged Colombian-style coup d’étatwith which his dissidents would try to remove him from office using state institutions, which are conducting investigations into the financing of the electoral campaign with which he came to power.
The National Electoral Council is evaluating whether or not to open a formal administrative investigation into the election campaign with which Petro came to the presidency in 2022, for allegedly exceeding the financing amounts allowed by law. The electoral body imposes economic sanctions.
We came to reject the coup d’état that they want to give to the president; here, in Colombia, the corrupt right has been doing what it wants.Freddy Martinez, a 42-year-old construction worker, told the AP news agency.
Petro recalled that after the accusations against him They have said that these marches are a pressure on the Constitutional Court, but no congressman can think that if the people speak it is a pressureand This government will never pressure any magistrate in Colombia to approve the pension reform, detailed the report of the Colombian media The Republic.
Under the relentless sun that warmed the stones of the historic square in the heart of the country’s capital, Bogotá, the crowd also gathered to defend pension reforms with slogans that were repeated like a mantra: They shall not pass, Petro, the people are with you.
According to local authorities, some 10,000 people gathered yesterday for the demonstration in front of the square, while other mobilizations, such as marches and rallies, took place in other cities, such as Cali, Medellín, Manizales, Barranquilla, Ibagué, Santa Marta and Valledupar, to name a few.
In contrast, the Colombian media Week reported that the General Confederation of Workers, one of the most important union organizations in the country, did not call its thousands of members This September 19th in defense of the government.