Colombian president pushes for health, labor changes as new session of congress opens

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia’s government will propose legislation aimed at overhauling the health sector and will pursue changes to labor laws, President Gustavo Petro said Saturday as he inaugurated a new session of congress.

Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president, has pushed an ambitious set of economic changes that includes changing the pension system, raising the minimum wage and redistributing land to farmers affected by Colombia’s armed conflict.

He managed to get the minimum wage boosted last year and his pension plan approved by congress earlier this year, but he has struggled to persuade legislators to adopt his ideas on labor laws and the health system.

The coalition of political parties that joined Petro’s government at the beggining of his term has broken up due to ideological differences. Meanwhile, numerous corruption scandals involving government ministers and the president’s eldest son have decreased Petro’s popularity.

Leftist parties loyal to the president have their highest number of legislative seats in Colombia’s history, but they lack the 50% majority needed to pass legislation on their own and have been forced to bargain with parties on the center and the right.

For health care, Petro wants a government agency to be in charge of collecting billions of dollars in insurance fees from Colombians, sidelining the private insurance companies that currently manage much of the health system.

For the labor sector, he wants to make it harder for companies to hire workers on temporary contracts and also require employers to pay workers full wages on rest days. He also proposed Saturday that legislators reduce the work week from 47 hours to 40, arguing that could increase employment and spur productivity.

Petro told congress Saturday that increasing the minimum wage by 16% last year helped to reduce poverty, which decreased 10% in 2023 and is now at similar levels seen in 2019, according to the national statistics department.

“We are fulfilling our promises” to reduce inequality, the president said.

Petro is nearing the halfway point of his four-year term, which ends in August 2026. Critics say his government has struggled to contain inflation and collect taxes.

In his speech to congress, Petro urged Colombia’s central bank to reduce interest rates as a way to boost economic growth. He suggested congress could help curb inflation by “controlling speculation” in real estate rentals and reining in electricity fees.

Petro also said his government will propose a bill that would enable congress to speedily approve legislation related to Colombia’s 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. He said implementation of the accord is lagging in areas such as land distribution and economic development projects for rural communities.

Critics have expressed concern about efforts to expedite legislation, arguing that such mechanisms could be used to give the president more power and eliminate term limits.