They are not one, nor two nor three. There are six congressmen from the bowels of Petrism who could lose – by judicial decision – their seat in the Capitol in a matter of months. This, from the outset, has the Casa de Nariño on alert because it would take away part of the most notable spokespersons that President Gustavo Petro has in Congress.
The seats of senators María José Pizarro, Wilson Arias and César Pachón are hanging by a thread – in fact, the latter is already temporarily out – due to the double militancy lawsuits that are underway against him in the Council of State; some of the files also include possible irregularities in the campaign.
Pizarro is from the heart of the president and, since Thursday, a peace negotiator with the ELN. She is the daughter of the late M-19 commander Carlos Pizarro Gómez, she was the one who put the presidential sash in possession of August 7 and was in his campaign for the House of Nariño from day one. However, against her election there is a pending lawsuit that alleges that she and her sister, the representative María del Mar Pizarro, cannot be active in the same political movement as they are blood sisters.
Pachón’s case also touches on the rules that detail the operation of the policy, but that apparently the senator would have forgotten in the middle of the campaign. The peasant cacique was suspended from his seat due to a lawsuit for double militancy. This, because he had the endorsement of the Mais party (which had its own presidential candidate, Arelis Uriana) he decided to support Petro in the campaign. He betrayed the female leader of his party?
That same irregularity is the one that Wilson Arias is being investigated against, against whom there is also a process that reviews whether there were irregularities in his candidacy because, although he belonged to the Polo, he supported the campaign of the Historic Pact for the Presidency.
Everything indicates that the combination of left-wing political movements that the president achieved to form his Pact for the Presidency is what has the seats of his main allies reeling. However, in this risk that the Executive assumed there are also health issues that get out of hand for the House of Nariño.
The president of the Senate, Roy Barreras, announced that he will retire from Congress in a matter of months. What’s more, the congressman prepares his retirement from politics to focus his time on his health care, since he is currently receiving treatment for cancer.
Petro’s number two in the Senate, Gustavo Bolívar, is also going to step aside to return to the telenovela market and promises that he will make a film called Amor a primera línea, related to the history of the strike protests. National and, possibly, the expulsion of a German citizen during these.
The president of the Chamber, David Racero, assured this week that “they want to take away” the seat from him and the rest of the congressmen of the Historical Pact. “What they could not do through political means, at the polls; now they intend to do it with legal tricks. They want to take away the seat of most of the congressmen of the Historical Pact, because of ‘double militancy’, when we campaigned within a coalition”, Racero questioned.
Whether that happens, or not, will depend on the determinations made by the Council of State. Does Petro have all his teammates at risk?