Colombia’s former President Andrés Pastrana invites political leaders in the country to join his new party

By Carlos Rioba

Former Colombian President Andrés Pastrana has begun a tour in Medellin to invite the country’s political leaders to join his new party, Nueva Fuerza Democratica, which announced last April 12 the launch of a new political party, reports H13N.

“Aware of the responsibility I have as a former president of the Republic, I observe with anguish and with the pain the country where the uncontained march of the populist left seeks to implant among us a statist regime contrary to our historical development,” said the former president in a video on his Twitter account.

The former president of Colombia between 1998 and 2002 said this regime has promoted “senseless” proposals, such as the reforms of the health system, the pension system, and the labor system, “with a disastrous tax reform,” the “dismantling and humiliation” of the armed forces and the police, and the “international distancing of our traditional allies.”

“Sadly, we note that the Conservative Party is an accomplice and actor of this institutional collapse by allying itself with the left to approve its destructive projects in Congress”, denounced the former Colombian president.

Pastrana said this decision “taken by its leaders” contradicts “the principles and the party’s statutes.”

“They changed more than 170 years of history for a few spoonfuls of Petrista jam,” he said.

“The New Democratic Force is a new option to rescue the principles that always inspired us to defend the social market economy, private property, and the rule of law over the intentions of imposing on us by force a supposed change that will only bring more poverty,” said the former president.

Finally, he recalled that the National Electoral Council had granted a term that expires next April 25 “for citizens linked to other parties to register in ours.”

“The future of the conservative principles, which are the same that sustain Colombian democracy, is in your hands,” he said.

With information from LGI