Senator Armando Benedetti claimed that former President Alvaro Uribe will join the opposition to President Juan Manuel Santos after the upcoming October elections, newspaper El Espectador reported Wednesday.
“In this moment there is no opposition and with the things he is saying, without wanting to interpret them, I think that he will go for the opposition,” Benedetti said.
The congressman said that he believes the growing rift between Santos and Uribe is a healthy part of the national debate.
“For a long time the distance between the two has been growing, but I have nothing against that, I am fascinated by the dissent. I don’t like the false consensus, so I do not see why the country is worried that people say things and debate.”
Benedetti, a once prominent Uribista, has wavered his support between the two heads of state. According to the senator, “I’ve always tried to be a good broker, to not put one foot on the side of Uribe and the other on the side of Santos.”
Senator Roy Barreras disagrees. He believes that everything should be done to bring the two sides together.
“This is like when there is a profound love, not always in the first attempt is the love consummated but we must continue to insist,” said Barreras. He added that “our main task is to avoid having a rupture, we have the obligation of putting them in agreement, if we do not do it, we will be the ones who fail.”
Uribe recently criticized the current president after his first year in office. Santos has expressed his desire to reconcile with the former president.