“If Liberalism Wants to Embrace Fascism, We Can't Stop It”: Petro to Gaviria on the Break of Dialogues

This Wednesday, March 23, the former president of Colombia and director of the Liberal Party, César Gaviria, announced that a dialogue with the Historical Pact was “unfeasible” and closed all possibility of union with the left-wing coalition ahead of the first presidential round to be held on May 29.

In a statement, the former president of this community, who won an important vote during the legislative elections, rejected the statements of the Afro-Colombian activist, Francia Márquez, who was announced this Wednesday morning as the vice-presidential formula of the opposition leader and candidate for the presidency of Colombia, Gustavo Petro.

“I am very sorry that the historical pact thinks that its incendiary language is something that we Colombians can celebrate. I hope that our country does not expect that language and attitude that will lead to more violence and total confrontation between its economic, social and political forces,” said the director of the Liberal Party.

However, the left-wing senator and candidate for the presidency of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who leads the polls of intent to vote, told the former president with whom he had approached in recent days, in the face of the legislative and presidential elections, that a “liberal attitude will always be willing to accept criticism and to put the arguments instead of it”.

In turn, he pointed out that he did not seek to disqualify people when he recognized that Colombia needed a path of rectification, and he invited the ranks of the liberal party to make the country “a power of life”, leaving the door open to members of that bench and militants to support the political project of the Historical Pact.

“We recognize in César Gaviria the person in whom the Liberal Party has appointed its spokesperson. We hope that liberalism will prepare itself to the path of the reforms that Colombia needs. If liberalism wants to embrace fascism, we cannot prevent it, history will judge it harshly,” said the left-wing senator.

For his part, the senator and head of debate of the Historical Pact, Roy Barreras, pointed out that César Gaviria had been the manager of the 1991 Constitution “that the Historical Pact must defend” and who accompanied “without sprains” the Peace Agreement, pointing out that offending him was a mistake “I hope you understand that not the world has experience in building unity”.

“Very difficult like that. In relationships of this level you can't improvise. Applause from the excited gallery. Closed doors to build governance. To squander the efforts made to add and win in the first round is not a good idea. Even winning, you have to rule. The bridge is broken... what will we cure it with...”, said Congressman Barreras, who seems to puja Francia Márquez for his statements against the former president.

The statements that would have generated César Gaviria's resentment were mentioned by Francia Márquez during her presentation as the vice-presidential formula of the Historical Pact, noting that she had never denied the need to work with the community that obtained important results in the congressional elections.

“We always said: 'with the Liberal Party as such there is every openness to move forward'. Another thing I said was the problem with César Gaviria as a person. He represents neoliberalism, he represents more of the same and this country requires change,” said the candidate, who won the third largest vote within the coalitions in internal consultations, with almost 800,000 votes.

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