*Opposition senators sank the first version of the popular consultation
*Labor Reform and the Health Reform have been rejected by the ultra-right in parliament
*Popular organizations are calling for a May 28-29 National Strike
*Labor Reform and the Health Reform have been rejected by the ultra-right in parliament
*Popular organizations are calling for a May 28-29 National Strike
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NewsTranscript
00:00The Colombian executive insists that it is the people who have the power to decide in view of the parliamentary blockage that has prevented the advancement of social reforms.
00:09That is why it's promoting a new popular consultation.
00:12A correspondent in Antovar read the details.
00:17Representatives of the Colombian executive filed in Congress another version of the popular consultation
00:25that now adds four questions related to the health reform to the 12 that were already stipulated on the labor reform.
00:31The intention is for the people to decide some aspects of the social reforms that have been blocked in the assembly.
00:40And that benefit many economic sectors that finance campaigns that finance scientific societies.
00:46Those monopolies are the ones that we say have to be eliminated, that the government enters to massively acquire the medicines,
00:51that the government enters to directly attend to guarantee from the low complexity to the highest complexity medicines for
00:57the population without depending on authorizations or other forms of intermediation that exist in the whole health market in Colombia.
01:04That for us is absolutely valid. We consider that this mercantilist scheme is broken.
01:08In recent days, a sector of the legislators in the Senate plenary, belonging to the opposition benches,
01:23sank the first version of the popular referendum.
01:26The new proposal of the executive now broadens the spectrum to the health group,
01:30welcoming more collectives with this mechanism of citizen participation that seeks to change the model of health,
01:35seizing to be seen as a business, and suppressing the monopolies that revolve around it.
01:46And that benefit many economic sectors that finance campaigns that finance scientific societies.
01:51Those monopolies are the ones that we say have to be eliminated, that the government enters to massively acquire the medicines,
01:57that the government enters to directly attend to guarantee from the low complexity to the highest complexity medicines for,
02:02the population without depending on authorizations or other forms of intermediation that exist in the whole health market in Colombia.
02:13That for us is absolutely valid. We consider that this mercantilist scheme is broken.
02:17Both the labor reform and the health reform have been rejected by the ultra-right in parliament.
02:33For this reason, the executive has appealed together with the various social sectors and the coalition benches in the legislature
02:38to the figure of popular consultations so that these demands can be recognized and implemented,
02:42and expectations continue among the citizens.
02:49It helps the labor situation that Colombia is going through.
02:52People are working to survive, not to live, so it is very difficult not to give them the conditions that the people need.
03:00It is also time for the popular sectors to organize themselves.
03:06In a first moment to defend this other proposal of popular consultation, we are seeing it in the different sectors,
03:13not only in the big cities, but also in the smaller municipalities as they are organizing themselves in the open town councils.
03:18In view of this panorama, the different popular social and political organizations that support the consultation
03:30have decreed a national strike on May 28th and 29th, in view of the parliamentary blockade
03:36that has been imposed on the social transformation proposals.
03:38Hernán Darío Tobar Gaitán, Telesur, Bogotá, Colombia.