The outgoing senator was bothered by the attendees of the USO forum, in Barrancabermeja (Santander) for approximately five minutes
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The outgoing senator was invited as a speaker at the USO forum.
The outgoing senator of the Dignidad collective and former Colombian presidential candidate for the Hope Center Coalition, Jorge Enrique Robledo, caused an aggressive reaction among those attending a forum of the Oil Industry Workers’ Union (USO), in Barrancabermeja (Santander), for explaining his disagreements with candidate Gustavo Petro on the oil issue.
The former member of the Polo Democrático Alternativo was invited to an event to discuss the current and future role of the state-owned company Ecopetrol —where many of those attending the meeting work— in the energy transition project that Colombia would adopt in the coming years.
Robledo had the intention of expressing his bewilderment with the idea of the left-wing candidate to stop oil exploration in the country in its tracks, since many developed countries would have this idea in mind for a very long term and the jobs of those present at the meeting would be compromised.
“We have a difficulty and I am going to say it with all cordiality and frankness,” said the senator, who came last in his interpartisan consultation with just 7.46% of the votes. “It is that someone who Dr. Gustavo Petro weighs heavily on national public opinion, in my opinion he has made some statements that are wrong; I say it with all cordiality ”, he continued.
Once he said this, several of the trade unionists who were in the room began to whistle at him, shouting cheers for Petro and cheers for Robledo, who remained silent for several minutes. The hostess and two members of the guild—including its president, John Rodriguez—tried to control the enraged viewers and asked them to respect the guest’s opinions, but continued to shout for several more minutes.
The trade unionists who protested, some of whom were clothing with socialist symbols or with Petro propaganda,They assured that Robledo was disrespecting the candidate of the Historical Pact, to which he replied that “I am respecting, I have not said anything that is disrespectful to anyone.”
Finally, after After five minutes of whistling, Robledo was able to continue his speech.
The outgoing senator was whistled for several minutes.
The incident did not go unnoticed by Petro, who is the leader in voting intentions with a view to the first round on May 29. The candidate shared the video of the Barrancabermeja whistle on his Twitter account, with the brief message “sad”.
Robledo was not silent before the response of the leader of the Historical Pact, who was his teammate years ago. His message was not as concise as Petro’s: he accused him of being a bad democrat and assured that he was applauded by the trade unionists at the end of his speech.
“Your message to the country was terrible when you supported the aggression of your supporters because in a forum I said that you “had made the wrong statements…” on the oil issue What bad democrats! And if this is today, what would happen in your government for thinking differently? With these words of mine and this applause from those attending the forum, I finished my speech. Thanks to USO Colombia for such a kind invitation to unite around a correct energy transition and to defend Ecopetrol”, said the outgoing senator.
Furthermore, Robledo responded to the commentator Álvaro Pardo , who assured that Robledo had delivered the message of a possible closure of the Barrancabermeja refinery on behalf of Petro.
“I have never said that @petrogustavo is going to close the Barranca refinery. But yes, if oil exploration in Colombia ends -which Petro has announced- we will run out of crude oil to load it and this will lead to its closure, because they will prefer to import refined products and not crude oil.”