Congress president Armando Benedetti on Wednesday lashed out at prominent Partido de la U member Jose Obdulio Gaviria, saying “no one pays attention to what he says.”
In an interview with W Radio, Benedetti bashed Obdulio’s idea to hold a National Consitutional Assembly to deminish the power of the country’s judicial branch.
Benedetti said he doesn’t see the importance of Gaviria’s statements, because “he doesn’t have any influence over the Partido de la U” and that the national government “knew a National Consitutional Assembly was an absurd idea.”
Gaviria, adviser to former President Alvaro Uribe and columnist for newspaper El Tiempo, spoke Tuesday in an interview with El Pais about his idea that Colombia’s justice system needs to be reformed and should be given less powers through changes to the constitution.
There have also been recent disagreements between the government of new President Juan Manuel Santos and the old administration of Uribe, both members of Partido de la U. Bendetti has said that there are small issues between the policies of the two men, but that the party remains a united front. For this reason, he said no one should pay attention to Gaviria’s suggestions because he his not in a position to speak for the entire party.