Iván Duque assured that he had nothing to hide before the IACHR’s visit to Colombia

On May 27, President Iván Duque spoke of the controversy surrounding the visit of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to Colombia as part of the national strike that began on April 28. During his participation in a discussion organized by the Inter-American Dialogue and the Wilson Center, the president stressed that his government has never closed the doors to speak with international entities that protect human rights.

“We have nothing to hide”, was the key phrase of President Duque in his statements, in which he indicated that the entities concerned are investigating possible abuses and that the information has always been open for consultation.

“To date we have 80 investigations into possible abuses committed in the last four weeks and this is done with the Office of the Prosecutor, the Office of the Prosecutor and the Office of the Ombudsperson and We have shared this information with all the institutions that want to know how we behaved. Even in possible investigations that may be presented later and in the absence of a response from the Colombian authorities, we can also share this information openly. “said the president in his speech and added at the same time that Colombia is a democracy and is a country based on its institutions.

On the other hand, the Head of State also urged to understand the context that the country is going through, about which he assured that to be in the pre-election year there are political forces that want to use this chaos as a platform to come to power.

Meanwhile, on the national territory, they advance dialogues between the national government and the Unemployment Committee amid the uncertainty of a worsening social, political and economic crisis. The social epidemic which was initially a manifestation of disagreement with policies the national administration was proposing, like the tax reform which was withdrawn on May 2 and the health reform which fell in Congress in the middle of that month, c ‘has become a sum of requests that the different sectors have accumulated and without solution since 2019.

A light at the end of the tunnel reached out to see the past Monday, May 24, when the parties announced that they had reached a preliminary agreement, where they set minimum standards, however, to make it official, Duque must approve them as soon as possible.

For this reason, Francisco Maltes, director of the CUT, one of the spokespersons of the Committee, in the form of a reminder stressed in the last hours that the promoters of the demonstrations are waiting for the signing of the document.

“Since Monday, May 24, the preliminary agreement on guarantees for the exercise of social protest in Colombia has been in the president’s office”, said the union leader of El Heraldo, then added: “We are waiting for the President of the Republic to call for the signing of the document.”

For his part, the president has so far not mentioned the subject of the document, because he has visited the various territories where the greatest number of demonstrations have been presented to dialogue and find solutions.

Likewise, the union leader also referred to the message issued by the presidential advisor for stabilization and consolidation, Emilio José Archila, who was appointed new head of the negotiating table on Monday, May 31.

“With the arrival of the new Commissioner Archila, whom we also understand will be in charge of negotiating the emergency document, we believe and hope that this process is accelerated, that we start negotiating the emergency document as soon as possible, that seven and that each study the points of the document and that we can quickly reach an agreement, if there is the political will of the Government“Maltais concluded.

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