The Congress of the Republic refuses to discuss the Agrarian Jurisdiction Project, which seeks to resolve land disputes in the Colombian countryside through justice. Almost a year after the agreement in which all parties agreed to go ahead and approve the law that created it in December 2024, the debate is stuck on the final step to materialize the initiative: the law that defines the powers that this new branch of justice will have. Over the past three weeks, as the bill was finally about to be debated in the House of Representatives, last-minute changes promoted by opposition members of Congress sent the bill to the back of the stairs. A date has not even been set for this in the Senate. This is the only agreement that this government has been able to reach, and which everyone has agreed to, from the opponents of the democratic center and radical change to the left-wing officials of the historic charter, and the Communards Party, from the extinct FARC guerrillas.
On Tuesday 28 October, after months of postponed discussion, agricultural jurisdiction emerged as the first point to be discussed in the plenary session of the Chamber. However, before the deliberations began, two senators from the opposition Democratic Center Party, John Jairo Berrio and Christian Garcés, put forward a motion to discuss the construction profession law first. This step was completed by his fellow member Juan Espinal, who submitted another proposal so that the project to establish the National Nuclear Security Agency could then be discussed. Between both projects they left out the discussion of agricultural jurisdiction. The majority of members of Congress voted for the postponement of the jurisdiction and against the government, a rare decision in the House of Representatives, where in the past three years President Petro has had a majority even on the most controversial reforms such as health and labor reforms.
For the plenary session the next day, the draft competence already appeared in fifth place in the ranking. This change occurred because on that particular date, the sanction imposed by the U Party on Julián López, the president of the chamber who decides on the agenda, took effect, preventing him from exercising his duties. He was a loyal ally of the government, but in his absence control remained in the hands of neoliberal representatives Juan Sebastian Gómez and Daniel Carvalho, of Centro Esperanza, with whom the government does not have the same dialogue. In addition, on that day, Rep. Sandra Ramírez Cavedes, from Cambio Radical – the other party in vocal opposition to the government – proposed moving to first place for a project to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the creation of the municipality of Pueblovijo, in Magdalena, in northern Colombia. Liberal representative Juan Carlos Lozada denounced what was happening: “What there is here is a very clear strategy not to discuss agricultural jurisdiction; the laws are respected until the first point of the agenda and there are people who justify that.” The government body tried to put the project at least in second place, but in the end no amendment was approved and other planned projects were already discussed.
The following week, the same strategy was repeated. On Tuesday, November 4, the jurisdiction was in third place, but once again Oribista representatives Juan Espinal and John Jairo Berrio requested an amendment and this time it was the medal of Colombian-American Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, Petro’s most powerful opponent in Washington, and Democrat Ruben Gallego. This initiative occupied a large part of the session, and had to be voted on twice because the first time there was a tie, and in the end it was rejected by the majority. The next day, jurisdiction was marked too low on the agenda to be discussed as well.
Last week, a similar blockage occurred. In the plenary session on Tuesday 11th of this month, the project was on the first item on the agenda, but representatives John Jairo Berrio and Andres Forero, from the Democratic Center; José Octavio Cardona, from the Liberal Party, and Juan Daniel Peñuela, from the Conservative Party, made proposals to discuss other projects first. The actors even prioritized dressing broadcaster and environmental activist Claudia Bahamon over the project that seeks to benefit some 12 million farmers.
The next day, on the afternoon of Wednesday the 12th, the plenary session approved a draft creating a special statute for ethnic intellectuals, but the majority left the chamber when the debate on jurisdiction was about to begin. They deliberately broke the quorum to prevent discussion of the government’s main project. But not only the Democratic Center Parties and the Radical Change Party, direct opponents of Petro, left the building, but also many representatives of the Liberal Party, the United Union and the Conservatives, who had previously supported the executive’s initiatives. Many who did not meet a quorum had, in the past, voted for the other two bills that would allow for jurisdiction.
The representative of the historic charter, Gabriel Becerra, spokesman for the project, questioned the delaying strategies used by his colleagues: “We noticed that there was a political decision not to allow the discussion of agricultural jurisdiction to begin,” Becerra said in an interview with El Pais newspaper. “There has been what is called, in legislative terms, parliamentary absurdity. It is frustrating that we have a quorum to discuss other projects, but it collapses as soon as the jurisdiction begins and we have to adjourn the session.” Agriculture Minister Martha Carvagalino, the project’s standard-bearer within the government, attends Congress every day for the discussion and agrees that there is a “political decision by the elites” not to approve the project and not even open the discussion so as to “not have to bear the political cost that publicly dumping it would bring,” she told this newspaper.
Becerra also denounced the pressure exerted by businessmen to prevent discussion of the project. “There is a union lobby from the Farmers’ Association of Colombia (SAC) that opposes discussing the project. They prefer not to have control over the conflicts in this area.” The SAC has sought representatives of opposition parties and even independents such as the Liberals or Conservatives to send them a proposal amending a core issue in the project. What they seek is that all agricultural processes – such as reclaiming vacant land from the nation, canceling grants that have already been awarded, or clarifying whether a property is private or vacant, among other things – They are resolved mandatorily by a judge, and not by the National Land Agency (ANT), which had traditionally done so, until a decree from the government of Juan Manuel Santos in 2017 took away that authority and slowed down processes. Representatives Juan Espinal, from the Democratic Center; Hernando Gueda and Astrid Sanchez, from the United States; Juan Daniel Peñuela, of the Conservative Party, among others, presented proposals almost identical to those prepared by the SAC, according to known texts of the newspaper EL PAÍS.
But adding to the opposition’s delays is the internal turmoil plaguing President Petro’s government, specifically the lack of coordination between Agriculture Minister Martha Carvajalino and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti. Left-wing representatives demanded Benedetti’s active presence and support for the project. Gabriel Becerra said it clearly: “We would like to see a more prominent presence of the Interior Ministry, as happened in the discussion in the first committees. Minister Benedetti usually does not go to the discussions.” Several sources familiar with the legislative process confirm to EL PAÍS that the project did not advance as expected because the government did not offer gifts, positions or contracts to members of Congress. A person who preferred to remain anonymous said: “Neither Benedetti nor Dabri will help Minagricultura get any votes. There is internal tension.”
The limited involvement of the Ministry of the Interior at this stage, which did not attend any of the plenary sessions, contrasts with what that portfolio had when Minister Juan Fernando Cristo, the standard-bearer of the peace agreement and the promoter of this jurisdiction, was in office. Something similar happened with the Ministry of Justice, which is also involved in the project and which under Angela María Buitrago was committed to moving it forward.
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