[Petro’s inaugural year was characterized by guaranteeing free
higher education, agrarian reform, reopening of relations with
Venezuela, and an attempt to reform health care, labor regulations,
and pensions.]
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GUSTAVO PETRO’S FIRST YEAR: SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND
REGIONAL INTEGRATION  
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Laura Capote
August 9, 2023
Peoples Dispatch
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_ Petro’s inaugural year was characterized by guaranteeing free
higher education, agrarian reform, reopening of relations with
Venezuela, and an attempt to reform health care, labor regulations,
and pensions. _

August 7, 2023 marked one year of Gustavo Petro's government,

 

This week marked the first year of the first progressive government
in Colombia’s history. In this short time, the government has proven
its commitment to defend its victory
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the polls. The Colombian people have also affirmed their will to enact
radical change that brings the country closer, in the terms of the
National Development Plan presented by Petro, to being a “world
power of life” as Petro’s
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Domestic, regional, and international factors have marked these 12
months of government and undoubtedly will shape the course of the
three years to come. These elements include the political will for
transformation, an opposition
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by the economic sectors that see their interests affected by the
government’s reforms, and the fact that peasant, Indigenous,
impoverished, and diverse people have gone from absolute invisibility
to the front page of government policies with the project of social
justice.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND REFORMS TO COME

The government has attempted to make good on its slogans of social
justice with its focus on the health
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labor, and pension reforms presented to the Congress of the Republic.
Despite having encountered setbacks
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they are expected to be approved in the new legislative period which
began on July 20. These reforms, which essentially propose structural
changes in the neoliberal design of these areas, have been
complemented by political initiatives that continue to concretize, in
other aspects of the country’s social and political life, the
inclusion of traditionally excluded sectors.

An example of this was the approval of the legislative act (reform of
the Colombian constitution) that recognized the peasantry as a subject
of rights, in response to a historical demand of the peasant
communities. In the same sense, the progress made in the agrarian and
rural reform, which included the purchase of 28,000 hectares for the
peasantry, is evidence of this inclusion. Finally, the passing of the
law recognizing free public higher education is a dream of many
generations who were unable to access university education.

TOTAL PEACE WITH SOCIAL JUSTICE

Likewise, the Total Peace project, also central to the last
presidential campaign, has made important advances, particularly with
respect to the reopening of talks with the ELN
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the recent inauguration of the National Participation Commission
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which will design the mechanisms for the participation of the
Colombian society in this peace process. Finally, the government
achieved a bilateral ceasefire that seeks (together with efforts with
different armed groups in the country) to advance in the Total Peace
project. This change has predictably been rejected by the opposition
which is nostalgic for war.

Of course, the project of structural change in a country where the
same elite always occupied the places of power contrary to popular
will, was never going to find a smooth or simple path. The hegemonic
media and the economic elites who feel their interests threatened have
played a central role. Thus, there have been many attempts to
destabilize the Petro government, such as recently with the case of
the investigation into the president’s son, Nicolás Petro, who is
being prosecuted for the crimes of illicit enrichment and money
laundering. These are allegations for which the president himself has
asked for a transparent investigation. The attempts of the opposition
press to show some link between the president and these allegations
have not been successful because they do not correspond to reality.

Along with social justice, environmental justice has been the second
major pillar of the government and it has taken several initiatives in
this vein. In this first year, part of the policy of decarbonization
of the economy at the national level—and as a proposal even at the
global level—as well as its Just Energy Transition project towards
clean energies, has allowed the government to reduce deforestation in
the Amazon region by 76%. At the same time, it has allowed the
government to promote innovative initiatives on the international
agenda, such as the proposal to exchange debt for climate action in
the countries of the region and the proposals of the Amazon Pact
within the framework of the Leticia Amazon Summit in July. The same
happened at the Amazon Summit
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August, with the initiative for an Amazonian court of justice for
environmental crimes, a scientific research center and an Amazonian
cooperation treaty, among others. 

THE BOLIVARIAN DREAM OF GRAN COLOMBIA AND REGIONAL INTEGRATION

In the international agenda, in addition to the environmental agenda,
it is essential to highlight the importance of the reopening of the
border and the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with the
neighboring country for the binational agenda of Colombia and
Venezuela. At the same time, Colombia has played a crucial in the
relaunching of the regional integration project with a new paradigm of
sovereignty. It has challenged the United States to recognize the
failure of the drug war policy it promoted in the region and its
dramatic consequences. It has also been an active participant in the
process to strengthen CELAC, it has returned to UNASUR, and been
present in meetings of the Andean Community of Nations. Likewise, it
has been an important voice in the defense of Latin America and the
Caribbean as a zone of peace, with a call for a political solution to
the conflict in Ukraine, outside the geopolitical impositions of
NATO. 

The great number of initiatives at the national and international
level, as mentioned above, encounter today a strong opposition from
those sectors of power that are not willing to turn the page of war
and subordination. In spite of these difficulties, Gustavo Petro has
insisted on the call to build a National Agreement that includes the
different political sectors, not for the benefit of the government,
but for the establishment of democratic, fair and stable bases for the
country, beyond the government in office. He appeals both to the
political sectors with representation in the legislature, as well as
to the different social expressions of the common people, who must
take this objective as their own in order to achieve the change they
voted for at the polls.

_LAURA CAPOTE is a Colombian journalist and an activist with
Colombia’s Patriotic March. She is part of ALBA Movimientos
[[link removed]] Secretary, and she works in the Buenos
Aires office of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research._

_This article was adapted and translated from a piece originally
published on El Grito Del Sur
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* Colombia
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* Gustavo Petro
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* FARC
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