Colombia’s president Juan Manuel Santos is planning to dissolve the Congress in a move to prevent his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, from being elected, the ex-president said Friday.
The allegations started over Uribe’s Twitter feed when the ex-president posted: “Santos is planning a National Constituent Assembly with the FARC for March, with special participatory conditions for the FARC and dissolution of Congress, with the intention of getting rid of Uribe.”
"Está advirtiendo Fernando Londono que Santos está planeando una Constituyente con farc para marzo, con (cont) http://t.co/jsp0xKd6tj
— Álvaro Uribe Vélez (@AlvaroUribeVel) November 15, 2013
Immediately following Uribe’s claim, Interior Minister Aurelio Iragorri denied that any such plans to hold a constituent assembly, and said he would continue to deny the allegations as long as necessary.
“All the time they ask I say no, and they return and ask, and I say no, National Constituent Assembly no, and I will repeat it as many times as much as necessary,” said Iragorri.
Colombia will hold elections twice in 2014; The first election, for Congress, will be held in March, while the second, the first round of the presidential election, will be held in June.
Uribe, who initially endorsed the 2010 election of his successor, has regularly accused his successor of handing Colombia to the FARC through ongoing peace talks with Colombia’s longest-living rebel group.
The guerrillas and the government agreed on the FARC’s political participation earlier this month. The content of the agreement, part of a pending peace deal, was not disclosed.