Colombia: Protests against president's reforms in healthcare and fight against crime

(Patria) - Thousands of Colombians marched against the healthcare reforms proposed by the country's first leftist president Gustavo Petro, as well as against the proposed amnesty for members of armed groups in his pursuit of "total peace", AFP reports.

Dressed in white and waving the Colombian flag, rivers of people marched in Bogota, Medellin, Cali and other cities, chanting: "Enough of Petro".

Petro came to power last August with a series of proposals to reform healthcare, pensions and the prison system. His government has also put forward the idea of granting immunity to criminals in exchange for laying down their arms, similar to concessions made to FARC guerrillas in negotiations that led to a peace agreement in 2016, but not to the end of violence.

Protesters, who compared Petro to the late Venezuelan socialist leader Hugo Chavez, are against the healthcare sector reforms outlined in the legislative proposals the president presented to Congress. Petro's government has stated that it will seek to increase the state's role in healthcare and reduce the role of the private sector. This move is opposed by the right-wing opposition and the union of private healthcare business owners.

The reforms are likely to pass as Petro's leftist bloc in Congress enjoys a majority thanks to a coalition with centrist and moderate right-wing parties.

"The streets have spoken, they have spoken massively and they say: 'She (the Government) will not impose the health reform... she will not impose total peace on us'," said former vice president Francisco Santos at the march in the capital, Bogota.

Santos served under former president Alvaro Uribe, one of a string of right-wing governments that led Colombia for 200 years until Petro, a former member of an urban guerrilla group, won the election in June 2022.

The president has sent a proposal to Congress to suspend arrest warrants for certain drug traffickers as he seeks ways to end ongoing struggles between guerrillas, cartels and other armed groups over drugs and illegal mining resources. Many in Colombia oppose this move, fearing that criminals will be released.

In Cali, in the southwest of the country, a protester held a banner stating that the government was "putting the human trafficker before the merchant, the criminal before the businessman".

On Tuesday, smaller groups of people gathered for demonstrations in response to the president's call for marches in support of his plans.

Last year, Congress approved a law increasing taxes on the wealthy, another move that is widely opposed.