[News] Colombian President Gustavo Petro warns of coup plot against him

[Anti-Imperialist News]

peoplesdispatch.org
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/05/12/colombian-president-gustavo-petro-warns-of-coup-plot-against-him/>
Colombian President Gustavo Petro warns of coup plot against him
Peoples Dispatch - May 12, 2023
------------------------------

Gustavo Petro has been under constant attack from right-wing forces from
well before he became president. Photo: Cristian Garavito - President's
office

“For the first time there is a president, that instead of trying to take
the land away from peasants to keep it or give it to his friends, he is
trying to give the land back. And now some former colonel says that this
deserves a coup d’état… these coups are resisted and overcome through the
mobilization of citizens,” declared
<https://twitter.com/RTVCnoticias/status/1656779897560244225> Colombian
President Gustavo Petro during an event in Sucre, in which land was turned
over to dispossessed peasants.

Petro was referring to the incendiary statements made on Thursday, May 11
by retired Army Colonel John Marulanda during a debate on *La W radio*
<https://www.wradio.com.co/2023/05/11/debate-que-hay-detras-de-la-multitudinaria-manifestacion-de-la-fuerza-publica-en-retiro/>.
Marulanda said that the mobilization of retired members of the military is
a sign that Colombia is “following the steps of Peru” wherein “the reserve
forces were successfully able to defenestrate a corrupt president.” He
added, “Here we will do our best to defenestrate someone who was a
guerrilla fighter.”

Marulanda, who is the ex-president of the Association of Retired Army
Officials (ACORE), immediately tried to rectify his statement in the
interview saying “I correct what was said. It is not about trying to
defenestrate the president as Peruvian President Castillo was
defenestrated…[Petro] is legitimate, it is perfectly plausible that he is
president of the Republic.”

On Wednesday May 10, around 3,000 retired members of the Armed Forces
mobilized in the Plaza Bolívar against the government of President Gustavo
Petro and his policy of National Security. They particularly take issue
with Petro’s government plan for “Total Peace” which has seen the
government engage in peace talks and negotiations with numerous different
armed groups in the country and establish several bilateral ceasefires.
Retired army personnel also criticized the progressive reforms promoted by
Petro and the members of Congress from the Historic Pact such as the health
care reform and labor reform. Many in the mobilization demanded “Out
Petro!” and staged particular opposition to the fact that he is a former
member of a guerrilla group.

In this context, the incriminating statements of the retired colonel have
sparked serious concerns amongst progressive forces of a possible coup plot
against Petro.

Shortly after Marulanda spoke on *La W*, President Petro wrote
<https://twitter.com/petrogustavo/status/1656750941347934208> on Twitter,
“Why do they conspire for a coup d’état? Because they are terrified that we
will end impunity. The truth frightens them so much that they get
desperate.”

The Attorney General of the Nation released a communique
<https://twitter.com/FiscaliaCol/status/1656818745241731073> the same day,
in direct response to the declarations made in media that mentioned “the
possibility of attacking democratic institutions established in Colombia
and how a citizen expressed it word for word ‘defenestrate the president’”,
and declared that it “rejects any attempt to undermine the democratic
institutions and their representatives” and will open up an investigation.

On the other hand, far-right former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez rejected
Petro’s warnings about a coup saying
<https://twitter.com/AlvaroUribeVel/status/1656998526113415170> “[It is]
detrimental to talk about a coup d’état when Colombia has had the most
respectful Armed Forces of the democracy. [It is] detrimental that through
political agreements with Congress, a coup d’état is made to the Health
System.”

The tensions which have come to the fore in the last week, have been
brewing since long before Gustavo Petro was even elected. One of the
primary challenges facing Petro is how to deal with the massive Armed
Forces apparatus which has historically been an ally of the successive
right-wing governments in the country and is deeply entangled in its
structure of corruption and crime, and is a cornerstone of its historic
policy to suppress and eliminate the left
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/02/01/iachr-declares-colombian-state-responsible-for-extermination-of-left-party/>
.

The creation of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) by the 2016 Havana
Peace Accords and the numerous investigations it has carried out into the
crimes committed by the members of the Colombian Armed Forces, such as
the “False
Positives” scandal
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/07/27/special-court-in-colombia-convicts-22-former-military-officers-for-killing-over-300-innocent-civilians/>,
have caused a stir amongst those who are and have been part of the military
apparatus. During the prior governments, there had been a de facto code of
silence on the crimes committed by the Armed Forces against Colombian
civilians, especially as they were often in collaboration with the
government policies. This was the case with Uribe’s ‘Democratic Security
doctrine’ which saw the expansion of Colombia’s military presence and the
intensification of the campaign to militarily defeat leftist insurgencies.
*Read more: **“We killed innocent people”: retired Colombian army officials
confess to murdering civilians*
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/04/29/we-killed-innocent-people-retired-colombian-army-officials-confess-to-murdering-civilians/>

As Petro’s government continues to threaten the vested interests of
Colombia’s large landowners, military forces, health insurance moguls, and
other conservative sectors, these attacks are likely to continue. However,
as Petro declared, they will not deter his commitment to peace and social
justice.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20230513/fad51118/attachment.htm>