The Senate of the Republic has denied on Wednesday afternoon the popular consultation proposed by Gustavo Petro’s government. With a vote of 49 votes for the NO and 47 for the yes, the opposition led by the Democratic Center, Radical Change and the Conservative Party has endorsed Petro a hard political defeat in the legislative and denies the possibility of bringing to the polls his 12 questions about the rights of workers. However, minutes before this vote, most of the plenary decided to revive the labor reform of the president, which had sunk in March this year. Now, the Board of Directors must send this project to a new commission to resume its third debate. However, the senators of the historical pact and the government ministers believe that time will not reach so that the reform ends the procedure and approves. Therefore, the opposition celebrated the victory with shouts of “Yes could!”, While the senators of Petrism left the enclosure disgusted.
President Gustavo Petro denounced fraud in the election. “The popular consultation was not sank. They sank her with fraud, as in April 19, 1970,” said the president from China. The message in his X account continued with an accusation to the president of the Senate. “Senator Efraín Cepeda Sabedor who entered the votes that made a majority, closed the vote. We are facing a fraud and the people must decide. “The president called for popular mobilization.” I immediately propose the meeting of the workers’ centrals, the peasant coordination, the communal action boards, the neighborhood youth committees and the indigenous movement to take the next step. “Petro called on the army and the police to protect people who go out to demonstrate.“ Now it corresponds to the coordination of the popular movement. The steps to follow, according to the Constitution. The people are not silenced with trap. I am ready for what the people decide. ”
Interior Minister Armando Benedetti questioned the decision of the president of the Senate, Efraín Cepeda, and supported the idea that the consultation sank for fraud. “Cepeda and the Secretary General incurred crimes, in the absence of ethics and morals to sink the popular consultation.” In the midst of insults and screams of all the sides, Benedetti was about to go to the hands against the Secretary of the Senate, but Senator María José Pizarro interposed and contained it. What the government alleges is that a radical change senator had voted yes and then changed his vote. “There was fraud in the vote. Senator Edgar Díaz had voted yes. The record is closed. Once the record has been closed, the vote cannot be changed. And then the vote appears saying that he supposedly voted no,” said the representative David Razo. Senator Diaz clarified that his vote was always for the No. “My public vote and by decision of the bench, it was always no. Although some try to confuse public opinion, the legitimate and democratic decision that we take in the Senate will not change, sinking this unnecessary consultation. The consultation was simply sinking by majority,” he said when leaving the plenary.
The Ministers of Labor, Antonio Sanguino, and Health, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo, present throughout the debate, also increased the board of directors for allegedly receiving a vote for the not after having closed the discussion. “Cepeda Efraín and Senate’s Board of Directors must process the fraudulent vote of the popular consultation,” said Sanguino. In another message, he insists that the vote was not legal. “Bochorous trap of the president of the Senate Efraín Cepeda, who manipulated the vote of the popular consultation in the plenary to force a result closely 49/47 in favor of not squiring popular sovereignty. The vote was appealed by the government coalition.”
Senator Paloma Valencia, from the Democratic Center, celebrated the defeat of the Government: “We won. The consultation sinks. God with us! It is a real miracle.” María Fernanda Cabal, from the same party, joined Victoria’s voices: “Today the future of workers in Colombia was decided. Petro, little by little, will be a bitter memory that endured this democracy.” The radical change senator, Carlos Fernando Motoa, also celebrated the fall of the consultation: “The Senate managed to reject the populist consultation by little. An inconvenient and inopportune proposal that would have allowed the government to deceive the working class, anticipate the 2026 campaign and disregard its functions.”
In the end, government accounts did not leave as planned. To the negative votes of the Democratic Center, Radical Change and the Conservative Party, several votes were added for the NO of the U party, the Liberal Party and the three senators of the Christian party Mira. In favor were only the coalition of the left Historical Pact, members of common, and some of the Green Party, the U, and a few liberals.
Senator Angélica Lozano, of the Green Alliance, one of the main promoters of the resurrection of labor reform, urged Congress to discuss the bill as soon as possible. “This second opportunity for reform represents a possibility of building a project that benefits Colombians,” he said in the plenary. “It is likely to pass the labor reform in third and fourth debate, we have 38 days,” he said. Every second account now to June 20, when the legislature ends.
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