According to a poll released on Wednesday, 62 percent of Colombians believe The country’s radical leftist President Gustavo Petro will likely try to amend the country’s constitution to remain in power beyond his presidential term.
of investigationThe survey, conducted by Colombian research institute Invamar, was conducted in major Colombian cities between June 15 and 23. According to Invamar, Rejected His approval rating hit 62% in June, up 2 percentage points from April. The most disapproval was in the inland city of Medellín, where 77% of respondents disapproved of his job as president, while the least was in Cartagena, at 48%.
Among several other questions asked in the poll, Invamer asked respondents whether they thought President Petro would seek another term in office, which is currently unconstitutional in Colombia. found 67 percent of respondents believe President Petro will try to amend the Colombian Constitution, and 62 percent believe he will do so in order to stay in power.
Colombia’s current constitution Implemented In 1991, as a result of a constitutional process that included the participation of the Marxist M19 terrorist guerrillas, Petro repetition He also proudly boasted that he had been a member of M19 when he was younger.
Historically, the South American country has not allowed the reelection of its president. From 1910 to 2005, Colombian presidents could only serve one term without the possibility of reelection. In 2005, the Colombian Constitution Modified The government allowed presidents to run for a second four-year term, and former conservative President Álvaro Uribe Velez was re-elected to a second term until 2010. Uribe’s successor, Juan Manuel Santos, also Re-elected In 2014.
The Colombian Constitution is back Modified In 2015, he reversed the changes to presidential term limits, reinstating four-year term limits.
Gustavo Petro, who took office in August 2022 as Colombia’s first leftist president, spent nearly half his term trying to introduce left-wing reforms to Colombia’s health, economic, political, labor and social systems, but none of them were passed by Congress. The reforms were unpopular, with 60% of respondents to an Invamar survey saying that “the reforms are unpopular.” The latest opinion polls show opposition to Petro’s reforms.
Peter in March Announced He plans to convene a Constituent Assembly to write a new constitution for Colombia, which would allow him to introduce leftist reforms that would not be passed by Congress at the constitutional level. Other leftists in the region, such as the late dictator Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Rafael Correa of Ecuador, have used similar tactics over the past two decades to ignore public and congressional opposition to their policies.
“If the possibility of a popularly elected government in this state under the Colombian Constitution cannot be applied because the Constitution is surrounded and prevented from being applied, then Colombia must appeal to the National Constituent Assembly,” Petro said. Said March.
“The Constituent Assembly must reform the institutions to comply with the people’s mandate for peace and justice, but that is easily achievable in Colombia,” he added.
Recent calls for a parliament to change the country’s constitution December 2022 And it failed 2018 During the presidential campaign, Petro denied that he would seek to reform Colombia’s constitution.
But before that, interview In 2017, Petro said that if elected president, his first step would be to call a national referendum to ratify a Constituent Assembly.
Petro claimed in early June that he was not seeking reelection, “and I don’t think voting is the right tool yet,” he said, without ruling out the possibility of running for reelection in the future, because, he said, “voting is a way of expressing one’s will.”
#notice | “I am not going to re-employ the skills that the electorate already has, but the skills that they have expressed are not likely to be available in the future”: President Gustavo Petro (Petrogstavo) regarding possible future re-election. pic.twitter.com/nubO2sO8Q3
— W Radio Colombia (@WRadioColombia) June 4, 2024
Petro has maintained he is “not interested” in the prospect of reelection, but Colombian Senator Isabel Zuleta, a member of the ruling Historic Pact left-wing coalition, said: Said Local media reported in late May that the ruling party was pushing the initiative.
“It’s not President Petro who is talking about reelection. We are many activists. We want reelection. And we are advocating for it in advance and we are pushing for it,” Zuleta said.
According to the Invermeer poll, 66 percent of respondents believe President Petro’s “total peace” plan, which includes peace talks with Colombia’s Marxist terrorist groups, is the “wrong direction.” A further 54 percent believe Colombia could one day find itself in a similar situation to neighboring Venezuela. And more than half (51 percent) said they have considered the possibility of withdrawing from Colombia.
Additionally, 69 percent of respondents said they believe the situation in Colombia is getting worse, while only 23 percent believe the country is moving in the right direction. A majority, 85 percent, said security in the country is getting worse, and 82 percent said the cost of living is also getting worse.
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan author documenting life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter. here.
