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With the installation of Congress 2018-2022 last Friday, a new chapter was created for the history of Colombia. President Juan Manuel Santos said in his last speech to the National Capitol: "A truly unique Congress, the most diverse, the most plural, the most participative and the most inclusive of more than two centuries of republican life. The Congress of Colombia finally enters the 21st century. "In the end, a sui generis legislative power has been installed that is taking the first step towards political openness after more than 50 years of war.
There are 280 people elected by popular vote who will represent in the Senate and the House of Representatives a country that carries with it the shadow of polarization and which, paradoxically, has increased due to a peace process with the oldest guerrillas on the continent. Thus, the responsibility of those who have taken office begins by healing the wounds, honorably assuming the dignity they have, and ensuring that Colombia is moving in the right direction, now in command of party which has exercised its opposition to the outgoing government for four years: the Democratic Center
Perhaps this explains why the speech of the elected president, Iván Duque, was qualified after his victory in the second presidential run of June 17 was known. No longer represents one of the most stubborn voices to reform the main flag of the outgoing president, but a voice of unity and, as he has said since he was candidate, look "in the future". His main task will be to spread this tone of reconciliation to his caucus in Congress, which does not seem to work in the same language.
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Friday, while Santos was cheered by those who remain loyal in his last weeks, his predecessor, former president Alvaro Uribe, issued a parallel speech via Twitter with which he questioned his eight years of management. "The country recedes," was the slogan of the senator of the Democratic Center, which confronted the outgoing president, mainly, to the financial state that Colombia is going through. But now, without a Santos to attack, the real task of uribism will be to materialize the proposals that the future government of Duque promised in the campaign.
From this point of view, his caucus, now the majority in the Senate with 19 seats, is prepared to settle the initiatives of right and left as before, but in the face of the priorities of the new president. In that sense, on July 20, they did not arrive with bills under their arms, as was announced at one point, to contravene the peace agreement. They decided to take the time, talk, and until tomorrow there will be a meeting between Duque and his parliamentarians to discuss the situation.
"It is clear that it is one thing to be an opposition and a government bench.In the opposition, there is the freedom to introduce bills and legislative acts. It is obvious that every member of Congress retains the freedom to present initiatives, but they must coincide with the agenda of the executive, "said an important voice from Uribe to El Espectador Thus, the first meeting between the cabinet up here delegated by the elected president and his legislators will be to "throw a line", as one senator said around this meeting.
However, what is expected on the side of Uribismo, is that one of Duque's pre-Congress priorities will be to promote a major tax reform, as he has been announcing for several years. weeks. "The goal, said the future head of state, will be to lower taxes and improve its In addition, given Duque's first meetings with newly elected high court judges, it is clear that another of the initiatives that will be filed by Uribe in this first year will be a reform of the labor market. justice.
Regarding the changes to the Peace Agreement, it is not so clear that the Democratic Center wants to address the initiatives via legislation. For if it is the majority and for the second round elections its presidential candidate had the support of the parties of the former National Unity (Liberal, Radical Change, U and Conservative), the truth is that these same communities endorsed in the Congress of the Colon Theater Agreement. And this context indicates that, despite the aforementioned support, all would not agree to give the green light to the reforms proposed by Duque. Not in vain, Congress members Paloma Valencia, Paola Holguín and Álvaro Hernán Prada have anticipated this reality and are promoting a referendum to change the agreement with the already disarmed FARC guerrillas.
But all of these proposals are just a draft of what needs to be arranged with the president-elect this week. In contrast, the government, already exhausted and a few days from the Casa de Nariño, has released his last letter. Interior Minister Guillermo Rivera left the legislative branch with three framed initiatives in the implementation of the Peace Agreement: the draft land law, which had not been filed because the prior consultation had not been processed. ] In addition, he will make a new attempt to obtain the approval of the 16 special constituencies for the victims of the conflict, and a bill has been drafted that creates the Agrarian Jurisdiction, included in the commitments acquired at The Havana.
Read also: We ask the new Congress to advance the peace reforms still in progress: Mininterior
The so-called "peace bench", of which the list of decency is part of it – which will lead the ex-candidate and now Senator Gustavo Petro-, members of the Democratic Pole, FARC, Mais and some of the Green Alliance, have also put in place their package of initiatives. There are 14, in which an annual readjustment of pensions is envisaged, to ensure priority attention to early childhood in a life – saving emergency situation in dispersed rural areas, to grant allocations to debtors of all types. Colombian Institute of Educational Credit and Technical Studies Abroad (Icetex) and reduce the monthly contribution to the contributory health plan of retirees.
The other block of projects, which concerns the exercise of politics and the development of peace per se, proposes amendments to the law. victims, which would include more teeth and legal instruments to ensure the implementation and regulatory development of the Peace Agreement. In addition, this bench will seek to create a social service for peace in institutions, and to criminalize the express fight against "organized illegal armed groups of all kinds, including so-called self-defense groups; According to the initiative, security groups that carry out illegal acts, paramilitary, as well as their support networks, their structures or their practices or other equivalent denominations.
At the same time, the Green Alliance has left 16 more initiatives to legislators, and they are supervised in the environmental, social and protection sectors. For example, seeking to make water a fundamental right, regulate beekeeping activities so that bee education, honey production, transhumance of hives or pollination of entomophilous crops are responsible practices. This community will also seek to establish territorial planning councils that guarantee the participation of citizens in the environmental authorization process or the mining agreement so that the national and municipal authorities coordinate the delimitation of the zones where the realization mining activities are possible. [19659003EnmatièresocialelesvertsproposerontdeuxinitiativesquiàpartirdemaintenantpromettentunelargediscussionEnpremierlieul'éliminationduservicemilitaireobligatoire-proposéeégalementparlegouvernementsortantmaisnonconforme-etremplacéeparunservicesocialouenvironnementalCeprojetiraitdepairavecunautrequiviseàréduirelessanctionspourlesjeunesColombiensquiontlaconditiondelanégligence"L'initiativeestnéed'uneprofondeinquiétudeàproposdelasituationdeprèsd'unmilliondejeunesColombiensquitraversentunesituationinexplicabledansleuravenirquimèneàlaconfusionl'insécuritéetl'abandonment"affirmelacommunauté
Thus, a number of bills and & # 39 Legislative acts are those that are beginning to take shape to receive the approval of the new, historic Congress, with unprecedented responsibility and with a true representation of the ideological nuances in Colombia. More than ever, the opposition, the independents and the government have a duty to reach a consensus amidst the obvious differences for the country and the leadership exercised by Ernesto Macias, recently elected president of the Senate by the Center. . Democratic, it will be essential to materialize this intention.
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