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The representative to the House Angela María Robledo is overloaded by her return to Congress. At this stage, after a guardianship allowed him to return to the Legislative, he shows his disagreement with Gustavo Petro, whom he accompanied in the 2018 presidential election, and said that his opposition to the mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, is “similar” which he did to former President Álvaro Uribe.
(Read also: Opposition announced demands for profiles from the Army)
In dialogue with EL TIEMPO, Robledo explained what his agenda will be once he is reinstated to his seat.
What does your reinstatement to Congress mean for the opposition?
This seat is of peace and opposition. This was the condition that was recognized as essential to protect it in guardianship. That makes me very happy, for me, for the democratic opposition in this country and for peace. I have been a builder of peace and this country needs all the efforts to continue searching tirelessly for complete peace.
What will be your agenda on this return to the House of Representatives?
The truth is that Congress has had many restrictions to work. This should be a conference dedicated to work one hundred percent in the political control of the regulations issued in the first state of emergency and now in the second.
That would be the fundamental task of Congress, but it is not being able to do it due to the conditions in which it is working, due to the very nature of the sessions. One doubts if they are debates of political control, hearings. Democracy is lacking the presence of a congress that can be mixed.
(You may be interested: What will the blended sessions be like in the Chamber?)
The debate in the Senate and House on how it should be done has greatly worn out. There are countries in the world that assumed the mixed modality with the presence of spokespersons and the virtual presence of others, but with a rigorous and forceful task.
And I think that is what the Iván Duque government has wanted, that the Congress of the Republic is not operating. Well, that was said by the representative to the Chamber of Antioquia about three weeks ago when he asked the President to intervene in Congress, close it, because that democracy hinders him, hinders the emergency. I think that on the government side they are very comfortable that Congress is operating with extremely high difficulties and in sessions that for me are not clear about its nature.
I have been a peacemaker and this country needs all the efforts to continue searching tirelessly for complete peace.
In other words, are you friends with face-to-face or blended sessions?
I think that after the debate this Tuesday in the Chamber, which was eternal, and in which there were very interesting arguments, the modality that was approved is interesting, it is mixed and lIt allows those who would have to come from regions, especially, what constitutes a risk, to continue meeting virtually, with a presence that makes it more solid being there, especially for the opposition that we have so many difficulties in opening spaces for us in Congress.
That mixed modality seems interesting to me. They say that the full Senate would begin face-to-face next week, but we have not seen any provision either, because this democracy so curtailed, which case resembles a dictatorship, at a time like these, does not suit anyone, not even the government of Ivan Duke.
In your opinion, has the pandemic emergency put peace on the national agenda?
Well in this government peace has not even had a secondary place. He won a proposal that did not believe in the peace agreement and all the time, in Congress, they remember that the plebiscite for peace was lost and so we have a government that does not believe in peace or in the agreement.
In addition, since it disrupted what was with the Eln, then the issue of peace or life has never been central. Let’s see the hundreds of murders of leaders, 196 ex-combatants killed in recent years. Of course, everything is focused on the pandemic and on what we can do to save and protect lives, get ahead, with many changes, but get ahead.
Last year, before the mayoral elections, Gustavo Petro and Claudia López sought an agreement that ultimately failed. Angela Robledo was in some meetings with that purpose.
Twitter: @angelamrobledo
What is the opinion of the way the mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, has handled this emergency?
For me the woman protagonist in this process, not only for Bogotá, but for Colombia, is Claudia LópezI have no doubt. She was the one who reacted first hand in what was happening with the arrival of hundreds of flights from countries where the contagion was already absolutely visible and dangerous.
It was the person who called us to the drill, the one who, in some way, invited President Duque, with his actions, to declare quarantine. It keeps us fully informed with that information system that is public and with which we know minute by minute what is happening in the city.
The local rulers, who have been four months, have been the example of how to act in this case. It seems to me that there are things in which Duque, as they would say at school, has copied these local rulers and has understood that, above the economy, is life, at this time. Later, balance will have to be found, but at this moment the greatest effort has to be put in life, in the health system, in the way we are taking care of ourselves. For me the balance of the way Claudia has handled this pandemic is very important.
Petro is in opposition. I am in a constructive deliberation with the Claudia López government
And why do you think Gustavo Petro, who you accompanied in the presidential candidacy, questions some of Claudia López’s decisions?
I come from a tradition that recognizes that democracy is also deliberation and is not unanimous. That is why, in the midst of everything, the differences between the President and Claudia seem stimulating; or between the President and the Mayor of Cali, or the positions of Governor Carlos Caicedo, esO Colombia needs it, the debate, the deliberation.
From there, there is also the position of Petro, which is in a very tough position. I am not in that position, I am in an independent place. Petro, it seems to me, is in an opposition similar to what he did to Uribe, he does to Duque and he is the one he is doing to Claudia. I do not agree with the opposition that Petro is making to Claudia, but it is his attitude, his arguments and it is the way he sees the city.
I see it from another place and I think it is a time to hopefully seek by 2022 that all this leads us to a great progressive alliance, in which are all these expressions of those who think that this country cannot continue in the hands of neoliberals , that dismantled the social state of law and that today blessings are given with what is happening.
I have a very different position from Petro’s. I respect your deliberative exercise, critical. Petro is in opposition. I am in a constructive deliberation with the Claudia López government.
JUAN FRANCISCO VALBUENA G.
POLITICAL DRAFTING
