César Gaviria accuses the Government of having intervened in the electoral debate in the US – Government – Politics

Former presidents César Gaviria Trujillo (1990 – 1994) and Ernesto Samper Pizano (1994 – 1998) rejected the invitation of the Iván Duque administration to attend the first meeting of the Advisory Commission on Foreign Relations, scheduled for this Friday morning. Former President Andrés Pastrana Arango (1998 – 2002) did not attend either, although in his case it was justified by an agenda item, as well as former President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010). For his part, former President Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018) did not attend either.

Instead, Gaviria and Samper were vehement in their arguments. “It is not useful to attend meetings when it is clear that the convener does not want to hear different opinions,” said Gaviria.

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“In these circumstances, although I understand the Government’s interest in complying with the aforementioned judicial mandate, it would have been desirable that the first meeting of the Advisory Commission on Foreign Relations This government would have been consultative and chaired, as it has always been, by the President of the Republic ”, Samper said.

Furthermore, in a letter addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Claudia Blum, Gaviria tells her that “taking into account that the summons is made in order to comply with the order given by the Council of State, I am very cordial my decision not to attend a meeting that, in my opinion, denatures the reason why it was created several decades ago ”.

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And in line with this position he says: that “It is not useful to attend meetings when it is clear that the convener does not want to hear different opinions, nor is he at all interested in sharing his ideas about what our foreign policy should be.”

“Nor am I interested in receiving information on foreign policy decisions already taken and with which I have great discrepancies, not publicly expressed, such as intervening in multiple ways in the recent electoral debate in the United States or those of putting our country in a situation of subordination, in matters related to confronting the national and international trafficking of narcotics and other substances ”.

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Gaviria was categorical: “When there is a government that wants to build national consensus on the direction of our foreign policy, I will be attentive to contribute what I can in that direction.”

“I excused myself from attending CARE for various reasons,” Samper said. “Because the president should have presided over it. Because an “informative” meeting with a confusing and diffuse agenda does not make sense. Because the government called it under pressure from the
@consejodeestado and not like the usual friendly gesture “.

Samper, in addition, regretted that this call has been given more than two years after the Duque government began, when it enters its final stretch.

And, also, the former liberal president recalled because it was a requirement of the Fifth Section of the Council of State to convene informational meetings once every two months.

As if that were not enough, Samper revealed that in the last two years, he had asked Duque, without any response, to convene the Commission to examine foreign policy matters of enormous importance, such as the position regarding Venezuela.

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Pastrana, for his part, thanked the invitation in a letter in which he took the opportunity to throw darts at former President Santos.

He regretted, according to his version, that the Santos government allowed the commission to “wither”.

“Deliberately, the Santos government desecrated the commission’s inclusive and deliberative democratic exercise and chose to substitute state policy for a government strategy,” said Pastrana.

The Foreign Ministry convened the Foreign Relations Advisory Commission for this November 27, after a court order that ordered it to do so within ten days and after a lawsuit filed by some congressmen.

At this meeting, it was planned to discuss issues that have to do with Colombia’s relationship with the new president of the United States, Joe Biden, and the political situation in Venezuela and the coronavirus.

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POLITICS
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