Petro prepares to start a new legislative phase for his mandate

The shadow of the constituent assembly

He has even suggested calling a constituent assembly to change the 1991 constitution, if the people so request, he said, a possibility that he could even announce in his speech tomorrow.

“A national agreement necessarily requires ethical respect for those who think differently; for example, those who oppose the proposal for a constituent assembly with different arguments,” said Alejandro Gaviria, who was the first Minister of Education and is now one of the most implacable opponents.

On July 11, speaking before the UN Security Council in New York, Petro said he would present Congress with a shock plan to accelerate the implementation of the peace agreement signed in 2016 with the FARC guerrillas and total peace, one of the flags of his government.

The plan includes fiscal changes to finance peace programs, the release of coca-producing peasants from prison, the acceleration of agrarian reform, the creation of a “single system of truth, justice, reparation and reconciliation for all parties to the conflict” and the extension of the implementation period of the agreement with the FARC, initially agreed to for 15 years, by seven years.

Difficult relationships

Petro, however, will not find it easy to reach agreements in Congress, where he does not have a majority and the Historic Pact, the governing coalition, has shown cracks in some decisions.

The first hurdle will come this Saturday when the Senate and the House elect their boards of directors, whose composition will determine the daily legislative agenda, crucial for the processing of bills.

In the Senate, all indications are that the conservative Efraín Cepeda Sarabia will be the president, while in the House of Representatives there is a dispute between allies of the president and opponents to keep that post.