Over 50,000 Take Streets Against Radical Leftist Ex-Guerrilla President in Colombia

Demonstrators march against the government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro over healt
JOAQUIN SARMIENTO/AFP via Getty
Christian K. Caruzo

More than 50,000 Colombians flocked to the streets of Colombia’s main cities on Wednesday to peacefully protest against sweeping leftist reforms the government of radical socialist President Gustavo Petro is attempting to impose on the country.

Wednesday’s peaceful protests were the latest in a recurring series of such events organized by the Colombian opposition against Petro’s Marxist government.

The nationwide event, called the “March of the Majorities,” was organized by members of Colombian conservative political parties such as the Democratic Center, Just and Fair Colombia, and the National Salvation parties, as well as unions such as the General Confederation of Labor (CGT). Local media reported that the peaceful demonstrations took place in at least 18 Colombian cities, including the capital city of Bogotá.

Participants of the demonstrations expressed their rejection of the economic, political, healthcare, and social reforms that Petro’s government has been attempting to implement since taking office in 2022. Most notably, the event allowed the peaceful demonstrators to express disapproval over the health reform proposal that the Colombian Congress is close to approving.

If passed, the reform will bring drastic changes to the nation’s healthcare system, such as granting the state larger control of the country’s healthcare facilities and severely diminishing the role of private healthcare providers.

The controversial healthcare reform is one of the several yet-to-be-implemented policies that Petro, a former member of the Marxist M19 guerilla, and his Historic Pact coalition have insisted on passing to significantly change Colombia — a country that, prior to Petro, had not elected a single leftist president in its history.

In Bogotá, the peaceful protesters, who official government sources estimated to number 15,000, marched and gathered at the city’s Bolívar Square. Upon convening in the square, the protesters sang the Colombian national anthem and listened to speeches from opposition politicians. Across all participating cities, total turnout was estimated at roughly 52,000 attendees, according to the Colombian National Police.

Colombian House of Representative lawmaker Miguel Abraham Polo Polo, one of the event’s main organizers, addressed the event’s participants in Bogotá, rejecting Petro’s policies and expressing concern for the growing violence in Colombia.

“Today we are here, thousands of Colombians and millions of Colombians from their jobs, demanding Mr. Gustavo Petro give up Twitter, stop international tourism, stop the perico [slang term for cocaine] – sorry, to leave the tinto [coffee] – in the mornings and dedicate himself to govern the country,” Polo Polo said. Petro’s time in office has been defined by his penchant for going on embarrassing tirades on the social media platform, causing at least one international incident in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack against Israel.

Polo Polo also mentioned 2023’s “nannygate” scandal, in which two members of Petro’s inner circle were accused of abuse of power and illegal wiretapping. The scandal began after Marelbys Meza, who worked as a nanny for Petro’s former chief of staff Laura Sarabia, accused Sarabia of forcing her to take a polygraph test after Sarabia accused Meza of allegedly stealing a briefcase with thousands of U.S. dollars in it.

“It is proven that, to belong to this nefarious government, it is necessary to mistreat, torture, and put nannies in basements. It is necessary to chuzar [Colombian slang term for wiretapping] the opposition and the press. It is necessary to [harass] young people and then drive them to suicide,” Polo Polo said.

“It is clear that there is no need to have any professional profile because Mr. Gustavo Petro does not like technicians. The people Mr. Gustavo Petro likes to have in high office are leftist activists, inefficient people, and an entourage of masseurs, make-up artists, and activists for his wife.”

Former Colombian Vice President Germán Vargas Lleras, who participated in the event, told local media that he was there to express support for the Colombian Supreme Court of Justice after a group of Petro sympathizers blocked access to the court’s building in February to demand a new attorney general. Current Attorney General Francisco Barbosa has been accused by Petro of wanting to “oust” him.

“I am marching, first of all, to express to the Supreme Court of Justice my solidarity. I deeply reject the intimidations of which it has been a victim,” Vargas Lleras said. “Secondly, to ask this Congress not to allow the health system to end in the coming days. Nor should it allow the savings of millions of Colombians to become the petty cash of this Government.”

The rally in Bogotá concluded around 3:00 p.m. local time. The demonstrators reportedly left the square “clean, without excesses, without vandalism.”

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.

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