BOGOTÁ, Colombia.- This Sunday, thousands of Colombians began to take to the streets of Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla and other cities in the country to demonstrate their opposition to the Government of President Gustavo Petroespecially the management of health sector and his intention to call a constituent to reform the Constitution.
The mobilization, called ‘March of the white coats‘, was summoned by the Colombian Association of Surgery and then they joined Colombian Association of Scientific Societies (ACSC), which represents 69 specialist medical organizations, as well as thousands of people from different sectors.
One of the cities where the concentrations first began was Barranquilla, where a crowd dressed in white or with the yellow shirt of the soccer team gathered in front of the Joe Arroyo Transmetro station.
Protected from the sun with umbrellas, the protesters sang the national anthem and began the journey towards Parque Santander, in the center of the city, shouting “Petro out”.
Defense of democracy
One of the most critical of the country’s political leadership is the former vice president German Vargas Lleras (2014-2017), who called on people to take to the streets this Sunday because he considers that the constitutional reforms that Petro proposes are a “coup” because he wants to do them outside the constitutional framework.
“In my view, there is nothing left (for Petro) but the path of a call by emergency decree or internal commotion to a constituent assembly that reflects the ‘feelings of the people.’ A Maduro-style constituent, whose main objective will be Petro’s permanence in power,” he wrote in a column published this Sunday on his social networks.
In Bogotá, the beginning of the demonstration has been threatened by the rain that began to fall in the morning in the National Park, where protesters gather to head towards the central Plaza de Bolívar.
However, from early on, transporters began to arrive with their trucks and buses at 26th Street, sounding their horns, to express their rejection of the increase in fuel prices and the Government’s policies that negatively impact sectors such as coal production. and construction, where they have part of their clientele.
“No to the increase in fuel prices,” say the banners of some transporters, who also demand more security from the Government on the roads where gangs of robbers proliferate.
In Medellín, Colombia’s second city and where Petro faces the greatest opposition, the crowd, with Colombian flags and green and white flags from the department of Antioquia, began to gather at the intersection of Oriental and La Playa avenues.
In Bucaramanga, capital of the department of Santander, some avenues also began to fill with people dressed in yellow and carrying Colombian flags expressing their rejection of the Government with bugles.
health first
Although the Colombian opposition has demonstrated before against the Petro Government, this Sunday’s demonstration seems to be one of the largest because it is based on the rejection of the Government’s intervention in the health system.
On April 2, one day before the controversial bill that sought to reform the health system was sunk in the Senate, the Government intervened in the health provider entity (EPS) Sanitas, which has 5.7 million affiliates, due to alleged insolvency in the crisis they face, and other companies.
For this reason, medical organizations decided to take to the streets this April 21, with the support of different sectors to express their rejection of the Government.
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2024-05-01 07:53:39