Police reform would have been to be seen: Gustavo Petro would have difficulty dealing with it

One of current President Gustavo Petro’s key campaign promises was to reform the national police. This is due to possible instances of abuse and excessive use of force in protests like those of 2019 and 2021, which have set a significant and disturbing precedent for violence across much of the country.

Taking these facts into account, the then Head of State assured that, firstly, Esmad would end and, secondly, the police would no longer be in the Ministry of Defense, but would go to the Ministry of Interior. Neither of the two premises was violated.

So far, there is no known document or draft of a possible reform bill that makes the changes proposed by Petro Urrego; On the other hand, the national government has prioritized other initiatives, such as health and justice reforms. To this extent, in recent days, the Ministry of Justice introduced the submission bill, named by the executive as, through which “mechanisms of submission to ordinary justice, guarantees of non-repetition and dismantling of organized armed structures of high impact crime are established “.

Even President Petro himself admitted, in full meeting with journalists, the difficulty of presenting the reform project to the police. In this regard — and according to the magazine Change— said that despite the fact that the package of structural reforms that are intended to be dealt with in the Legislative Assembly and can generate attrition in the Congress of the Republic. It is worth mentioning that in less than a year, decisive regulations have been approved, such as the law on public order – which makes total peace a state policy – and the tax reform.

In this order, the police reform project will continue to be seen, at least until the discussions of the “big three” are completed, as President Petro mentioned on February 15 from the Plaza de Armas of the Casa de Nariño: the reforms of the systems health, retirement and work.

Despite its non-prioritization, the project is under discussion: Tuesday, February 14, the Minister of Justice, Néstor Osuna, revealed that this initiative is being evaluated so that in the long term, this force reaches his portfolio.

This was announced by the official in an interview with the newspaper of the radio of the Presidency of the Republic entitled Colombia Today Radio. From there, he assured that the idea of ​​moving the public force to this entity is so that it “is the best ally of the citizen. This is what we want and this is where the reforms will go”.

On the other hand, he explained that this possibility is being evaluated and that the first conclusions could be known in April of this year, more precisely after the Holy Week. In this space, he also explained why they think the National Police should go to his portfolio and not that of his partner Alfonso Prada, who heads the Interior Ministry, as promised in the campaign.

“It seems that the best thing would be to transfer it to the Ministry of Justice, because the Ministry of Justice defines the penal policy of the State, because it is he who articulates the relations with justice,” said Minister Osuna .

Incluso, dentro de lo que está evaluando, según claró el jefe de cartera, es también cómo loggran que la ciudadanía esté más a gusto con la Policía, motivo por el cual encontrarán la manera de permitir que la “Policía sea mucho más cercana a citizenship; that a pedestrian’s best friend is the police”.