With 73 votes in favor and 11 against, the Colombian Senate approved this Wednesday the proposal that authorizes former president Gustavo Petro to leave the country for one year, after he requested it citing the desire to attend to “personal, social, political, and academic” commitments.
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“A human being is free and must go where they are invited and want to accept the invitation. I am not imprisoned nor have I committed any crime, the fact that some people do not want me is not a reason to prevent me from deciding whether to travel or not,” Petro said in a message on social media after learning the voting results.
Nevertheless, Petro assured that the permission granted by the Senate is not to be absent from the country for a full year, since “my power resides in the Colombian people and their love, why would I leave it,” and explained that the measure allows “that during the next year I can leave the country authorized by the Senate, that is very different.”
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It was this Monday when the former president referred to the “article 196 of the Constitution” of his country in order to request this permission.
The request was made for a “validity of one year to attend commitments outside the country of a personal, social, political, and academic nature throughout the entire year following the exercise of (his) functions as president of the Republic.”
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