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Colombia’s Petro Drops His Plan for a Constituent Assembly

Colombia
Colombia’s Petro Drops His Plan for a Constituent Assembly


Colombia’s Petro abandoned his plan for a Constituent Assembly amid an election campaign in which the ruling party is seeking allies. Credit: Juan Diego Cano / Presidency of Colombia.

The proposal to convene a National Constituent Assembly, one of the most controversial political initiatives promoted during Gustavo Petro’s administration, was officially suspended this Thursday after the Promoting Committee announced the withdrawal of the project and the end of the signature-gathering process required to move it forward.

The decision represents a significant shift in a debate that for months occupied a central place in Colombian politics and generated strong criticism from different sectors across the ideological spectrum.

The announcement was made by Armando Wouriyu, president of the Promoting Committee for the National Constituent Assembly, who confirmed that the organization had decided to withdraw the initiative and focus its efforts on building broader political consensus.

The decision comes at a particularly sensitive moment for the government camp, in the final stretch of the presidential campaign and after weeks of questions about the electoral impact the proposal could have, as well as the need for the pro-government campaign led by Senator Ivan Cepeda to seek new support in order to have a chance of winning the runoff election on June 21.

Colombia’s Petro drops his plan for a Constituent Assembly

The National Constituent Assembly was presented by its promoters as a mechanism to deepen structural reforms and strengthen the Social Rule of Law. The government and allied sectors argued that the 1991 Constitution required updates to address the country’s political, economic, and social challenges.

Although President Gustavo Petro himself, the main driving force behind the initiative, clarified that his objective was not to pursue structural changes to the constitutional text, the initiative encountered strong resistance from the moment it began to take shape.

Opposition parties, centrist leaders, business organizations, and numerous analysts warned about the risks of opening a constituent process amid growing political polarization.

The controversy intensified because the proposal was directly associated with President Gustavo Petro, who on different occasions defended the need to transform fundamental aspects of Colombia’s institutional framework and the need to seek alternative paths to approve his ambitious social reform agenda, which for the most part has failed to secure the necessary support in Congress during his four years in office.

Nevertheless, the president’s statements fueled debate about the scope of a potential constitutional reform and raised concerns about possible changes to the balance of powers.

Over the past several months, the Promoting Committee moved forward with collecting signatures to support the convening of the Constituent Assembly. However, the process was surrounded by legal and political disputes that made it difficult to build support beyond sectors close to the government. Finally, this Thursday, the definitive suspension of that citizen-led campaign was confirmed.

The influence of the electoral landscape

The decision cannot be understood outside the context of the current political environment. The Constituent Assembly proposal became one of the most sensitive issues in the presidential campaign, especially after the first round of voting.

Various leaders from the political center had indicated that any support for the ruling coalition’s candidate depended, among other conditions, on explicitly ruling out the possibility of convening a Constituent Assembly during the next administration. The initiative was perceived by broad sectors as a source of institutional uncertainty and division at a time when the country faces significant economic and social challenges.

In that context, some sectors of Petrismo began to view the continuation of the project as an obstacle to expanding the ruling coalition’s electoral base. The need to attract moderate voters and build bridges with independent political forces ultimately carried greater weight in the political debate of recent weeks.

It should be recalled that the ruling party’s presidential candidate, Ivan Cepeda, had already been quietly distancing himself from this proposal—which has generated divisions even within his own campaign, including opposition from former minister Juan Fernando Cristo—and had advocated for a “national agreement,” without specifying or defining what form it would take.

Armando Wouriyu’s message and Petro’s reaction

When announcing the decision, Armando Wouriyu explained that the withdrawal of the initiative responds to the need to build broader agreements and strengthen a political alliance capable of addressing the challenges the country is facing.

The leader thanked the citizens who supported the signature-gathering process and noted that the effort made over the past several months was not in vain, as it helped open a national discussion about Colombia’s institutional future. However, he acknowledged that the current political moment requires prioritizing other objectives and focusing efforts on the search for consensus.

His statements were interpreted as a sign of political pragmatism and as an acknowledgment that the necessary conditions do not currently exist to push forward a constitutional transformation of such magnitude.

Shortly after the announcement became public, President Gustavo Petro publicly backed the decision of the organizing committee. The president expressed his support for suspending the signature-gathering process and called for attention to be focused on the current electoral process.

The head of state’s position marks a significant change from previous months, when he insisted on the need to open a constituent debate as a tool for deepening the transformations promoted by his government.

“I support the decision made by the citizen committee for the National Constituent Assembly to suspend the signature-gathering process. (…) The constituent assembly had no objective other than improving the living conditions of the Colombian people and finally guaranteeing their fundamental rights enshrined in the 1991 Constitution,” Petro wrote this morning on his X social media account.

The Colombian president added that “the electoral decision reflected in the most recent elections, by revealing a deep division among citizens, does not allow the constituent power to convene itself and has left open the door to a return to the methods of violent fascism,” and concluded that “today’s decision, to define its next government, is the priority of the constituent power, that is, of the people. Social reforms depend on that.”





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