In 2022, the Colombians made a historical choice: for the first time, the left-wing president took power. Mandate granted Gustavo Petro, was clear – it was time for deep social reforms and a break with the heritage of neoliberalism. In 1 of the most unequal countries in the world, the government announced the transformation of the labour system, pensions, wellness and education.
For these reforms, the president has strong public support, but the elites of the old order – opposition, conservative media, Church and business – torpedo reforms. An impatient Petro seeks support in the pluralistic social movement that brought him to power. An effort to exit the deadlock and test for Colombian democracy was to be a referendum. Meanwhile, the country is experiencing a wave of violence, accompanied for years by any effort at progressive change.
The voice of the people in the elite
From an ambitious improvement plan, Petro has so far implemented just 1 – pension reform, although this could shortly be blocked by the Constitutional Court. wellness and education reforms have been lost, and in fresh months, the most crucial improvement of labour law, which was to improve the conditions of millions of people, especially in the informal sector. Although the home of Representatives approved the task after removing any of the key records from it, in March 8 Senators from the Seventh Committee on Social Affairs rejected the bill without having a debate.
Petro went to counteroffensive. After a crowded rally of support on 1 May, the president requested a nationwide consultation in the legislature to have citizens themselves decide on the future of labour reform. A fewer days earlier he addressed parliamentarians: “I ask you as a patriot and head of state: do not turn your backs on the nation.” He stressed that the sense of a typical in legislature is to service the people – "not the mafia, not the head of the party, not the greed, but the nation."
In announcing the consultation, Petro benefited from the 1991 Constitution – a landmark paper in terms of the introduced mechanisms of direct democracy. It was a motion of a politician who co-created this constitution, profoundly believing in the democracy of people, living, listening to the voice of the street. Petro threatened that, if necessary, he would circumvent the legislature with a referendum decree.
A fewer days after the initiative was announced, the content of the consultation was made public. 12 referendum questions, formulated on the basis of citizens' proposals, concern key provisions of the reform. The first question indicates that fundamental rights are at stake. "Do you agree that the working day should last up to 8 hours and the daytime should cover the time from 6.00 to 8.00?". According to the designers' intentions, extra hours would be better paid as overtime, which is uncommon in Colombia today.
Further questions concern, among others, the remuneration allowance for work on days off or subsidies for micro-, tiny and medium-sized enterprises. There are besides demands for formalisation of work in sectors specified as home care, transport and media. In Colombia, as many as 12.8 million people (over a 4th of the country's 49.5 million people) work in the grey area.
The referendum besides addresses menstrual leave, the work to employment people with disabilities (only 20% has a job) and the creation of a pension fund for farmers (90% of this group has no benefits).
Opinion studies show that the consultation is supported by a majority, as 57% of Colombians. The support of respondents to the consultation increases erstwhile they hear the content of individual questions. For each of the 12 questions, 75% of respondents would answer yes. However, in order for the consultation to be binding, at least 1 3rd of the eligible 13 million citizens must participate, most of whom must vote yes. In comparison, Petro won in the election with a consequence of 11 million. triumph would so require evidence civic mobilization.
Despite public support in mid-May, the legislature rejected the motion for a two-vote referendum. After a stormy session, accusations of vote manipulation were made. The question is that the deciding vote was given by an opposition senator accused of corruption who came to the vote... from the detention.
Scenes on which opposition senators celebrate the rejection of improvement show how much power is detached from Colombian reality. It is hard not to interpret this minute as a manifestation of a deep class struggle: Senators earning an equivalent of $40,000 for 3 working days a week, frequently coming from the political ruling dynasty Colombia for generations, celebrates the removal of a modest overtime allowance for millions of workers.
At the beginning of June, the situation intensified rapidly. The first effort was to kill Miguel Urib Turbay, an influential right-wing senator and a grandson of the erstwhile president. A fewer days later, there were bombings in Cali. Turbay's political environment immediately utilized these events to attack the president, suggesting they were the consequence of Petro's extremist and polarizing rhetoric.
Although it is inactive unclear who is behind the assassination, it is hard to see what the Colombian left would gain from a akin act of violence. possibly the most notable, however, is the fact that the shooter was only 14 years old sisario (killer). "I did it to have money for my family" – a boy from the mediocre territory of Bogota, whose parent died and his father went to Poland in search of a job, was to shout. In a country where poorness forces children to kill, the state can no longer hold fighting inequality.
Neoliberal Purgatory
Colombia's economical strategy of fresh decades can be described as militarized neoliberalism. The primacy of marketplace orthodoxy would not have been possible without the panic and force that was aimed at citizens in the interests of large capital. The last decade of the last century and the first decade of the present is simply a time of dirty war against the left and union leaders who were kidnapped, murdered, and displaced to weaken opposition to the assassination of then president Álvaro Uribe on labour rights. Until today, 90 percent of these crimes have not been brought to justice.
Despite economical growth and falling poorness in fresh years in 2023, Colombia was the world's 3rd most unequal society, behind South Africa and Namibia. The scale of concentration of wealth and capital shocks. The poorer half of the population owns only 4% of the country's wealth, and 81% of the farmland controls 1 percent of the Latin-Americans. So we are talking about a country where almost everything of value is among the richest.
President Petro, an economist by education, has no doubt: "These inequalities are the problems of Colombia: drug trafficking, violence, no democracy". Unlike many post-neoliberal neighbours, the Colombian State has not carried out any deeper redistributive reforms. Colombia remains a neoliberal paradise.
The sense of injustice is exacerbated by the fact that Colombians are among the world’s most hardworking societies. Contrary to the racist imagination of a lazy Latino in the tropics of Colombia, it is in a sense a labour camp. Data from 2024 show an average of 44.2 hours a week, while the OECD average is 37.1. It's like 1 more day a week in Colombia.
Despite attempts to suppress resistance, fresh generations of Colombians – free from fear – proceed to fight for fundamental rights. 10 years of tightening the neoliberal screw led the country to a boiling point. erstwhile Uribe's heir, president Iván Duque, tried to usage the pandemic to force the mediate class strike and lower taxation reform, society massed into the streets. Estallido social – a social outburst – these are months of protests that have shaken Colombian politics. Their consequence was unprecedented support for Gustav Petro's task – and hope for change.
Bolivar Square, 1 May
The crowd in Bolivar Square is slow thinning as I talk to the participants of the first-class demonstration after president Petro's speech. Says Mariana: “I will support the improvement with all my heart due to the fact that I am a working person. I am fighting to guarantee that workers have a decent salary." Mario: “I support the improvement for 2 reasons. First: after 200 years, we, the people, decide in a sovereign way. Secondly, the improvement brings us closer to a planet where a man works 8 hours, sleeps 8 hours, and spends 8 hours with his family. It is simply a fundamental right."
Although the improvement is important, among its supporters is the belief that it is simply a drop in the sea of needs. “We support the task of a fresh country,” says the leader of the indigenous Muisca community, for for over 200 years we have lived in an oligarchical strategy that subjugated peoples, minorities and mediocre majority according to our own view.”
“ Many of us believe that change must be structural, ” says the leader of the Abrazo youth organization. Getting power is not enough. A cross-cutting process is needed in which minorities play a greater role. Colombian past is simply a communicative of shed blood. We request fresh spaces where extremist ideologies – regardless of colour or orientation – can decision from disagreement to agreement peacefully."
Everyone agrees that even democratically elected politicians are not above society. The older woman around her children is convinced: “I will support the improvement due to the fact that it is for the good of the people. As president Petro said – Senators are chosen by us. This society is their superior. And improvement is an investment in future generations."
Colombians search to deepen democracy outside typical institutions by changing the structures of power and forms of participation of citizens in public life. "Social consultation is simply a legal and peaceful tool, says Muisca leader. That's what society wants today. It is an expression of extremist democracy."
The people will defend themselves
The opposition fears that reforms will trigger the exodus of large capital in consequence to the end of the Victorian exploitation model. In their eyes, social mobilisation is almost textbook chavismo. “Is it Venezuela? Is it Cuba?” they ask at the sight of Petro speaking to the crowds with the sword of Bolivar.
The journals interpret the President's actions through a prism of strategy, politics and individual obsessions. They lament spending public funds for civilian consultation. They grasp the symbolic gestures from which they effort to read the coming dictatorship. Yes, Petro does not avoid confrontations of ideological and performative means of expression – his old organization, M-19, was celebrated for its action on the borderline of the performance. Bolivar’s sword, which the guerrillas had stolen 3 decades earlier, was presented by the president on May 1, quoting the Liberator: “I would like to have a luck that I could give to any Colombian. But I have nothing but a heart to look after them, and a sword to defend them.”
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Meanwhile, in the communicative of opposition, the essence of reforms remains completely marginal, as is the destiny of society. The movement centered around Petro is far from worshiping the individual. People know that their fight must be independent of circumstantial governments and leaders. opposition is ripe. He was not aroused by run promises, but by centuries of injustice. "Petro is not the president, but a social project. And if we do not decision forward with a friendly government, within the constitution, we have what we always have: action based on strength and opposition in the field," says Muisca leader.
It's not the end of history. The Colombians will return to the streets and to civilian disobedience practices. due to the fact that there's no 1 here to magically forget basic labour rights. It is not Petro or his sword, but the increased conscience of society that gives the opposition the deepest fear.
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Piotr Wójciak-Pleyn is simply a doctor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He specializes in Colombia and Latin America.
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