Petro calls on Colombia to organize community councils in response to Senate «fraud» – Colombia News

President Gustavo Petro called on Colombia to organize a mass movement in response to an allegedly fraudulent Senate vote that sunk a broadly supported referendum on the expansion of labor rights.

From China, Petro addressed the nation and called on local authorities to facilitate working class council meetings.

These community councils would be in charge of formulating a response to the “class of great capital in Colombia, those who have concentrated wealth” and have opposed the president’s labor reform proposals.

I call on you… to meet in open town meetings in all the municipalities of Colombia, in the square, wherever you can, if it rains, under the roof of the municipal council, to wait and make decisions, to debate in permanent assembly.

President Gustavo Petro

Petro ordered the security forces “not to take up a single arm against the people” and called on citizens “not to exercise violence against anything, against any window, against any person, but to decide on the answer with forcefulness.”

Last but not least, the president said that he would again file his referendum before Congress in the hope that a “clean” vote in the Senate would allow the people to decide on his proposed labor reforms.

In a response to Wednesday’s disputed Senate vote, the labor unions and indigenous rights groups that organized massive uprisings in 2019 and 2021 said that they had begun mobilizing their bases.

In an exchange of text messages that was photographed by newspaper El Espectador, Petro and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti discussed the possibility of a general strike, which would shut down the national economy.

The president’s political party, Colombia Humana, had warned ahead of the senate vote already that their social organizations would organize a general strike if Congress’ higher chamber decided to vote against the referendum.

Multiple surveys that were organized over the past months suggested that Petro’s labor reform proposals and his referendum can count on the support of a significant majority of voters.