Awkward remarks by Colombian interior minister cause uproar in Congress

Colombia’s Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, assured today that his statements in a public act in the department of Cauca (southwest) in which he called for “mobilizations” to support the government’s tax reform are not part of an “incendiary” or “threatening” discourse.

“Our discourse is not at all incendiary nor threatening. We do not call for mobilizations to put pressure, we only appeal to the popular support that elected the President, and we report to the community so that this democratic feeling of support for change remains in force”.

That is how the head of the political portfolio stated to a question asked by a local journalist on Twitter about his sayings in the department of Cauca.

“Ready, even the popular mobilization to tell the Congress that we need to get out of this. He who understood it, understood it! He who understood it, understood it! We need the support of the Colombian people for what we want to do, and what we want to do is to make decisions with you”.

These were the words expressed by Prada in a meeting with communities in Cauca, one of the departments most affected in terms of security, given the territorial dispute of illegal armed groups, but with a strong social organization.

The words of the Minister of the Interior did not go down well among sectors of opposition to the government, who described them as threatening.

“It worries me that Alfonso Prada pretends to pressure Congress to approve a reform that will slow down growth and employment generation with induced citizen mobilizations.
Should we congressmen understand this as a threat, Minister?” asked Andrés Forero, representative to the Deputies Chamber for the right-wing Democratic Center.

While his party colleague, Senator Miguel Uribe, went further and wrote on the same social network: “They destroyed the country to stop a tax reform. Now they want to set it on fire again to impose theirs. The blackmail has begun”.

In the narrative of the right-wing sectors, Petro was the driving force behind the social protests of the previous year, which had no owner and their causes were multiple, among them the unrest generated by the tax reform proposed by the government of Iván Duque, who in post-pandemic intended to alleviate the burden on companies and affect the working class.

One of the first acts of Petro’s government was the filing in Congress of a tax reform with which it intends to collect COP 25.8 trillion (US$6 billion) to meet – among others – social demands that cannot wait.

The reform increases the taxation of companies, puts an end to exemptions, increases the carbon tax in which coal is added to the list in which hydrocarbons are already included, and broadens the tax base, including pensioners who receive more than COP 10 million per month.

It also creates a tax on sugared beverages and ultra-processed foods and requires companies within free trade zones to prove that a significant part of their production is exported to maintain the tax benefits they enjoy, among others.

The business community has strongly criticized the reform, which the Minister of Finance, José Antonio Ocampo, defends while listening to the versions of the opponents.

The head of this portfolio has said that he is willing to change aspects of the proposal but has not given in on the collection goal.

Bruce MacMaster, President of the National Association of Colombian Businessmen (ANDI), maintains that “this tax is punishing companies” and will affect the “most vulnerable households”.

It is estimated that in about two weeks, Congress will begin the first votes on the bill within the House and Senate economic commissions.

With information from ANSA