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October 05, 2020 – 6:58 pm
Newsroom of El País
A strong confrontation occurred between Senator Paloma Valencia, from the Democratic Center, and Senator Gustavo Petro, from Colombia Humana, when the virtual session began this Monday in the First Committee of the Upper House.
The event occurred at the beginning of the day, when the congressmen were presenting their points of view on the return to the face-to-face sessions which, in the case of this commission, is scheduled for Tuesday, October 13.
After the president of the commission presented the map of how the room will be adequate to advance the return to the presence, Senator Petro demanded that it still continue to hold virtual sessions since, he assured, “it is deeply illegal because there is no quarantine “.
“There is no legal reason for this same session this Monday not to be in person. What we are doing today is not legal, it is not constitutional,” protested the former presidential candidate.
For Petro, “the Congress of the Republic went through the ‘belt’. The Congress was annulled as an institution and that is very hand in hand with the wishes of some of the generation of the dictatorship.”
The congressman affirmed that the opposition “was deprived of its right to hold real debates, not these virtual ones because this is useless (…) the reality is that the Congress of the Republic was silenced, it is a self-silenced congress in favor of the dictatorship “. He asked, then, that the opposition and independent banks attend face-to-face sessions from Tuesday.
Also read: Process against former senator Álvaro Uribe will continue by accusatory system: Supreme Court
“You are not president nor will you ever be”: Paloma Valencia
After Petro’s intervention, and two interventions, Senator Paloma Valencia asked for the floor to respond to the opposition congressman.
“It does not seem acceptable to me that the democratically elected government of President Duque comes to be questioned by a senator. I believe that Senator Petro has to accept that he lost the elections and lost them because he did not win the favor of all Colombians,” were the first words of Valencia.
The uribista congresswoman pointed out to Petro of “raising” figures such as “coups d’état” to delegitimize the Duque government, something that she described as “absolutely undemocratic.” “That would be, Senator Petro, the attempt to lead this country to a dictatorship,” he added.
Valencia ended his speech by inviting Petro not to “threaten”, regarding the invitation of the leader of Human Colombia to attend a face-to-face session so that the virtual session is classified as illegal.
“I am very sorry that you want and long for a dictatorship, where you are the one who says how the sessions are held and also defines what is legal and what is illegal (…) for that there are cuts Senator, you cannot supplant either. Do not impose your dictatorship on us because in this Congress you are neither president, nor will you ever be president of Colombia, thank God, “he said.
See also: 61.9% approve of the government’s handling of the pandemic, says survey
Final Crossing of Accusations
Senator Gustavo Petro asked for the floor again after the intervention of Paloma Valencia and, although the president of the commission reported that the ‘reply of reply’ is not allowed, he opened the microphone of the opposition congressman.
“I am a free man and then no one here is going to scold or intimidate me for what I say, and less Senator Paloma Valencia,” said Petro, who also assured that it was not a ‘replica of replica’ because he did not make direct reference to the congresswoman.
The former presidential candidate argued that he believes he is going “on the way to a dictatorship” because, he assures, the ruling party “made the candidates that suited them choose” in the Constitutional Court, the Attorney General’s Office and the Prosecutor’s Office, in addition to having “intimidated” to the Supreme Court of Justice.
“They have concentrated public power just as Maduro concentrated it in Venezuela. Those who lead this country to a dictatorship are not us, the opposition,” he said, while speaking about the deaths of young people in protests, social leaders and former combatants and denounced that his brother was threatened by the Black Eagles and the Police “did nothing.”
Finally, Senator Valencia intervened again and assured that she had “the right to answer the accusations that you make to the Government and the Government parties.”
He assured that “whoever tries to intimidate is you (Petro); I have never incited this country to violence, nor am I using my Twitter to set fire, nor have I been part of illegal groups.”
“You scare me, but I overcome fear, because I am not going to let this country fall into the hands of a person who only wants to destroy and promote violence,” he added.
The senator of the Democratic Center also denounced that she “did not see” Petro “talking about the Santos dictatorship” and blamed the negotiation between the past government and the then FARC guerrilla for the “atmosphere of violence” in the country.
She pointed out, telling Petro that she and her party “are not afraid of you or the violence you represent.”
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