The country is facing a storm that, if not addressed with sensibility, generosity and sanity, can lead to an institutional crisis of major proportions. This has several protagonists: President Gustavo Petro, who has serious governance problems. Some, due to the resistance of some social, economic and political sectors to accept and recognize a left-wing president in the presidency; others, for disagreeing with his policies. But also because there are those who consider some of the change initiatives that he has proposed to be correct and pertinent, but they do not agree with his governing style and his resistance to conciliating and accepting criticism. The risk that this entails is isolation and the growing closure of the president around a circle of advisors and collaborators close to him, who tell him what he wants to hear and prevent him from listening to other ideas and opinions. Furthermore, it may happen that in the selection of officials ideological coincidences prevail over experience and knowledge of the issues.
Nor has the Government been fortunate with its actions regarding decisions of judicial, control or administrative bodies. For example, the CNE has the obligation to investigate possible irregularities in the financing of electoral campaigns. This is what it has been doing to corroborate or dismiss complaints about the possible entry of illicit money, or from legal entities to candidates, as well as the violation of limits or the concealment of information about the income and expenses of the campaigns. No one is exempt from being investigated for these facts if there are merits to do so. That is why it is striking that the president describes as persecution the investigation of officials appointed by him and eventually him if that were the case. Likewise, by stating that “a progressive president cannot be overthrown here, the first in a century, because legally a workers’ union contributed to a left-wing party,” he fails to clarify that this fact is under investigation. There is also no excuse for the president to delay several weeks in complying with the Attorney General’s order to suspend the Minister of Foreign Affairs for his actions in the case of the passport tender, and for him to continue issuing decrees.
On the other hand, the president’s apprehension regarding the investigations carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office is understandable. And here other protagonists of the storm come in. Prosecutor Francisco Barbosa, who has no room for his ego, considers himself the best prosecutor in history and, therefore, feels entitled to use his position to campaign for the presidency. He shares with prosecutor Margarita Cabello a selective and obsessive persecution of his critics and the president, and the speed with which they advance some investigations and delay or shelve others when they involve co-partisans, friends or friends of their friends.
All of these behaviors fuel a perfect storm to weaken citizen trust in institutions, put democracy and the rule of law at risk, and in this way create an institutional crisis with unpredictable consequences.
2024-02-08 11:05:58
#perfect #Storm
