Why Gustavo Bolivar Was Not Elected as Second Vice President of the Senate in Colombia Despite Opposition Law

For the second time in this legislature, due to conclude on July 20, the re-elected Senator for the Historical Pact, Gustavo Bolivar, was defeated in his attempt to take control of the second vice-presidency of the Senate of the Republic.

The defeat of the legislator was the trigger for the legislator to declare that the charge did not matter to him since his intention, he said, is to set a precedent in terms of the opposition's rights to access managerial positions in Congress.

“The position is good for me, because a position for two months does not make sense, I should have taken office on July 20 and if I want I can even be the president of Congress in July, because I am the top of the list of the most voted list in the history of Colombia, the position is the least of it,” the representative of the Historical Pact.

Bolívar sought to gain second vice presidency after a nullity ruling, issued by the Council of State, stopped the nomination of Iván Leonidas Name Vásquez (Green Alliance Party), who won the position from the representative of Humana Colombia on July 20, 2021.

According to his colleagues in Congress, the reason why the representative of Colombia Humana has been defeated twice, because he is not part of the opposition, but because, on the one hand, his attitude towards his colleagues is past him a collection account; and on the other, that he does not have enough knowledge to be able to occupy the position he wanted access.

According to Senator Carlos Abraham Jiménez, from Cambio Radical who spoke with El Tiempo, the reason that Bolivar has not won the support of his colleagues is because they would like someone from the opposition with better ways of relating.

“We are not giving the opposition a rabbit here, but they cannot tell us that they are going to impose on us on a man who does not have the manners to lead this Plenary. The opposition will be respected when they bring a decent person”, noted the representative.

For his part, Juan Diego Gómez, president of the Senate in an interview with Blu Radio, that everything lies not in the guarantees given to the opposition but in what Senator Bolívar represents for many parties, since he expresses everything, which according to the right wing, presidential candidate Gustavo Petro cannot say out loud for reasons of image.

“What we have there is a personal difficulty for Senator Bolívar, with a series of parties, representatives and senators, and we cannot solve that. We can give you guarantees, but love and charisma of colleagues do not,” said Gómez.

For her part, the representative of the Democratic Center, Paola Holguín said that although the blank vote in this scenario has no validity, the position of the Congress that they do not want Bolivar as vice-president is very clear: “He does not have the majorities; it is that he got 40 and the blank vote 48, and that is a new fact. So why do they ask the Plenary to vote if finally what we say with the vote has no validity.”

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