Neither Uribe nor Petro, and of course not Duque

COLOMBIA - In Brief 27 Apr 2022 by Andres Escobar

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In a text called “Today's Colombia”, former President César Gaviria set out to “paint the court” where he believes the government starting on August 7 will play. He starts out by admitting that his Liberal party made historical mistakes in the second half of the 1990s that led to a right-wing phase starting in 2002, that has been in power for 12 out of the last 20 years. Nowadays, the Liberal party recovered its majority in Congress and needs to embrace a reformist agenda.In his opinion, the main problems in Colombia are illegality, inequality, and informality, and the Liberals must give absolute priority to equality. He admits the need for a broad programmatic agreement but, to avoid confusion, he distanced himself from the Duque administration.In his opinion, the current crisis is comparable to the worst moments of XXth century, which originated with the murder of Gaitán (1948), Pablo Escobar's drug terrorism (eighties and nineties), and the assassination of Galán (1989).We face a multi-headed crisis: inflation, corruption in public contracting, fiscal irresponsibility, inequality, and a dramatic lack of authority. The phrase that has made the headlines is: “We are concluding a government that leaves us little. An administration infected with the imperturbable serenity of a president who is more like an actor for whom someone writes the script”.What does he propose? A basic family income for all those left behind; expand the "Youth in Action” program from 0.5 million to 3 million youngsters; a minimum tax for companies; reforming the police and justice; and defending pension savings from possible confiscation.He concludes: “We cannot let authoritarianism take over Co...