Bogotá.- The Colombian senator Iván Cepeda, from the leftist party Pacto Histórico, announced demonstrations in Bogotá, Cali, and Barranquilla for next August 7, the day on which the far-right Abelardo de la Espriella will be inaugurated as president.
“They are not going to be mobilizations or marches, they are going to be gatherings in Barranquilla (…) in the city of Cali we will be at the monument in Puerto Resistencia (…) and in the city of Bogotá at the Capitol,” stated Cepeda, who lost the presidential runoff election against De la Espriella on June 22nd.
Cepeda explained in a statement in Cartagena de Indias that these peaceful gatherings are part of the “civil disobedience” actions against the president-elect, who, by his own decision, will be inaugurated in Cali, capital of the Valle del Cauca department (southwest).
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“The opposition we are exercising and will continue to exercise will be peaceful, non-violent, organized, and responsible. The Historic Pact acts within democracy and within the limits of the Constitution and the law,” stated the senator, who will participate in the Barranquilla demonstration.
Likewise, he stated that on August 7, the opposition to De la Espriella will set its position regarding the decrees that the new Government may possibly publish once it assumes the Presidency as successor to Gustavo Petro, a member of the Historic Pact, the same party as Cepeda.
In that sense, he pointed out that the Historic Pact is willing to engage in dialogue with the new Government and expressed its willingness “to build agreements”.
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“If the path is dialogue and consensus, you will find an attitude absolutely willing to do so. But if the path is authoritarianism and imposition by force, you will face formidable rejection from us,” stated Cepeda.
The joint session of Congress in which De la Espriella will be sworn in as President of the Republic, which no member of the Historic Pact will attend, will be held on August 7 at the USC Arena, at the Santiago de Cali University, and not in the Elliptical Hall of the National Capitol, the traditional venue for presidential inaugurations.
Cali is already preparing to host the inauguration ceremony, which will make the capital of the Valle del Cauca department the first city outside of Bogotá to host a presidential inauguration.
The president-elect has explained that he chose Cali for its location in a region hit for decades by guerrilla violence and drug trafficking and because he wants the beginning of his administration to symbolize support for the Military Forces.
