Some of President Uribe’s closest advisors and supporters met in Bogota on Thursday night on the eve of the Constitutional Court’s decision on the referendum that would allow the president to seek a third term.
The meeting, which took place in the Founder’s Room of the Metropolitan Club, boasted many of the main proponents and financial backers of the referendum campaign, including ex-presidential advisor Jose Obdulio Gaviria, U Party president Juan Manuel Santos, and Conservative candidate Andres Felipe Arias.
The meeting was originally planned as a fundraiser for the Primero Colombia Foundation (FPC), which is the organizor of the controversial referendum.
However, with more news stories circulating in the Colombian press about the Constitutional Court’s probable rejection of the referendum, the meeting’s focus has shifted to take the new political reality into account.
Gaviria, one of the founders of Primero Colombia, said before the event that the topic of the referendum would probably be referred to by all present at the meeting, and that the group realized that the get-together would be taking place right before a crucial moment for the referendum.
Should the referendum be rejected by the Constitutional Court on Friday, the group founded to explicitly support and advocate the ideas of President Uribe will have to shift its focus and make contingency plans for the upcoming presidential elections.