'Armando Benedetti's case generates resistance in the Senate': Carlos Fernando Motoa

In an interview with EL TIEMPO, the senator of the Cambio Radical party, Carlos Fernando Motoa, spoke about the atmosphere in the legislature for the discussions of the reforms in this period. He also spoke about Armando Benedetti's meetings with some of the government benches. The congressman referred to the summit of the bench and the candidacy of Germán Vargas Lleras.

The Government is increasingly losing its ability to maneuver in the Senate of the Republic and I think that these ministerial crises make it even more difficult for its own parties or factions in the House of Representatives to support it. We also see, of course, that there is an argued distrust regarding what are being called the 'Petro reforms' and that the general atmosphere is one of little convenience or the harmful effect that these reforms could bring to the country and to Colombians.

It is the repeated way in which the Government does not recognize that what is being questioned in the country are its own policies regarding security, regarding an erroneous anti-drug policy, regarding the drowning of the health system, what is happening with the issue of infrastructure and housing. The president, that is his attitude: he always assigns responsibility to third parties in a speech that no longer generates confidence or credibility in Colombians. It has happened with several episodes, he blames the Courts, he blames the media, he even blames his own ministers, when the disaster he is generating is the lack of clarity in public policies and the poor functioning and design of his strategies for Colombia.

We believe that this reform is inappropriate at this time. A country that is not prepared for higher labor costs. I have been questioning that this labor reform is a proposal from unionism from the last century and that it is not limited to productivity, economic growth and the same protection of workers. There are serious questions and we will demonstrate this with arguments in the discussion, taking into account that Cambio Radical has no presence in the Seventh Commission of the Senate.

If there is coherence in the Senate, this health reform should be shelved. It already happened the first time with the reform promoted by Dr. Corcho and Dr. Jaramillo. What one analyzes is that they are the same variables of the article. If it was already shelved once, the logical thing would be for the same to happen in the Senate of the Republic. We have proposed an alternative proposal, the statutory law, which has already had its report approved; the article needs to be approved, which we hope will be discussed in March, which is when the approval of statutory laws is allowed. What we know from the Government, or the trailer that we have now seen in terms of health, is frightening, it is macabre and harmful. Why do I say this? Because of the experiment they have had with teachers, what has been catastrophically happening in Fomag, what is happening with the interventions of various EPS, what is also happening with the shortage of medicines. We already have some approximation of what this health reform is and it is a disaster for Colombians.

If the contributions we have made from the opposition are maintained, the country knows well that the agrarian jurisdiction could be balanced by the judicious arguments we had from the opposition, eliminating those figures of express expropriation and other issues that went against private property. If they maintain that line, I believe that it could be discussed with some modifications also in the respective plenary sessions of the House and Senate. Let us remember that this was already approved in the first joint commissions. And the reform to justice, which is a project that is more the authorship of the Supreme Court of Justice, in this specific case, I led that reform in the Senate and I believe that a good document has been constructed that allows not only to decongest justice, but to reduce the rates of impunity. Let us hope that it is also supported in the House, as we are going to do in the Senate.

After the month of June, when this legislature ends, the campaigns for Congress and even the presidential campaigns will begin . Until now, all the parties are concentrating on some of them seeing how to process the reforms, how to try to approve them, and others on seeing how we can avoid this disaster from continuing to lead Colombia to the crisis that has been announced and that we are seeing more and more.

I think that with the false independents who are always limited to the U party and the Liberal party, their majority, they will continue to support the Government's reforms, but with the opposition of the Centro Democrático party, Cambio Radical and also of that strong line of the Conservative party, they will not be able to convince, nor offer to change the positions in the parties that I have just mentioned. It is one of the tasks that we also have to do in the opposition: to expose and make visible those parties that claim to be independent and that are supporting the 'Petro reforms'. Armando Benedetti's situation within the Government benches also generates resistance in the Senate, so I think that it can also hinder some maneuverability in that corporation.

Definitely, in the First Commission, with the entry of León Freddy Muñoz, of course the Government party is further strengthened. Although Humberto de la Calle was not strictly an opposition member, he sometimes had an independent line that accompanied us in the opposition, we will not have this with León Freddy. With Temístocles Ortega, although he has shown closeness to President Petro, priority is given to the caucus regime and the coherent position that Cambio Radical has had, which, among other things, was just ratified in the national meeting that we had. We will have to continue on that roadmap and I will be very attentive to the behavior of the caucus, both in the First Commission and in the Senate plenary.

One of the important points at the convention was precisely the unanimous request of the House and Senate to ask Germán Vargas to start the presidential campaign, because the territories are asking for it, because the Colombians demand it and because we believe that he has the track record , experience and character to recover what has been lost or what has been destroyed in the government of Gustavo Petro in terms of health, housing, infrastructure and security. We are enthusiastic as a party and we hope that Germán Vargas makes the decision in a timely manner to be able to carry out that campaign.

Maria Alejandra Gonzalez Duarte