The constituent power that President Gustavo Petro has been proposing had its brief moment this Wednesday during a hearing in the US Congress where the Secretary of State, Antony Blinkenyour opinion on the subject.
Blinken He attended an appointment at the House of Representatives Foreign Operations Appropriations Committee to discuss President Joe Biden’s budget request for fiscal year 2025.
During the hearing, The representative of Florida, María Elvira Salazar, used her five minutes to ask him about this issue and for the upcoming elections in Venezuela.
“You know that President (Joe) Biden loves President (Gustavo) Petro. My question for you is the following: If Petro dares to break the Colombian Constitution like (Hugo) Chávez did, do you think President Biden will change the perception you have of the president? Will what he thinks about Colombia change?” asked Salazar, one of the Colombian president’s strongest critics and who is also fiercely opposed to Biden.
Salazar, however, insisted on asking for his own opinion on the subject.
“Let’s look at what actions they take. We, and this is the case of any country whether it is an ally, partner or rival, we look at the actions…” said Blinken, who was interrupted by Salazar mid-answer.
Secretary, the representative told him, “President Petro has said that he is going to change the Constitution. He has said it himself.”
Blinken, with years of experience in this type of situation, responded again without committing: “Let’s see what actions he takes. I’m not going to speculate on hypotheticals,” said the secretary.
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However, Blinken continued along the same line. “I am not an expert in either the constitution or Colombian laws and I do not know what (Petro) is contemplating and what that would do,” the secretary continued.
Salazar, at that point, complemented her response: “What he wants is to perpetuate himself in power, forever and ever, just like Chávez did. That’s what he wants to do,” the representative told him.
To that comment, Blinken offered a somewhat different response. “That – perpetuating himself in power – would be something we would object to. But, again, I don’t want to get into hypotheticals because I don’t know…”
The exchange culminated with Salazar telling Blinken that, with his response, he was giving Petro “the green light to do it, you know that.” To which the secretary responded with “hardly”, as if to emphasize that that was not what he was implying.
Of course, the exchange between Blinken and Salazar gave rise to interpretations. But, at least on paper, it was nothing more than a reiteration of the official position.
It is worth remembering that The United States never objected to the constitutional change that allowed the reelection of President Álvaro Uribe in 2006 or the reelection of Juan Manuel Santos in 2014.
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The then President Barack Obama made it clear during a meeting at the White House with the Colombian president when he said that: “for the United States, 8 years are enough,” alluding to the fact that in the United States re-election is allowed, but not a third consecutive period.
Blinken, in addition, was avoiding entering into an unnecessary controversy, since to date Gustavo Petro has not talked about a constitutional reform that includes reviving reelection in Colombia. But what he did stop at was to highlight that Washington would not welcome the perpetuation of a president in power. Not only in the case of Colombia, but in any country in the world.
Of course, opting for diplomacy by introducing the “presumably”, since he does not know what Petro’s plans are and if an eventual constitutional reform, in fact, would include the figure of indefinite re-election.
At the hearing, Blinken also stated that the decision to remove Cuba from the list of countries that do not cooperate with the anti-terrorist fight was because Gustavo Petro – within the framework of the peace talks with the ELN – withdrew the arrest warrants that were in force. against the leaders of this group who were refugees in Havana.
SERGIO GÓMEZ MASERI – EL TIEMPO CORRESPONDENT – WASHINGTON
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