(15 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bogota , Colombia – May 14, 2025.
1. Various of senators during labor reform debate
2. Senators listening to speech, sitting in front of screens
3. Signs placed in senators’ seats
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ivan Cepeda, Senator for the Alternative Democratic Pole party:
“You want to frame this in terms that there’s an electoral strategy behind this. That’s ok, we respect your position. What moved us to create this referendum was to make social reform. This is our position. You want to avoid the referendum, we understand you, but then let’s not disguise your intentions."
5. Board showing partial results of vote
6. Armando Benedetti, Colombia’s Interior Minister (left), arguing with senators including Senate Secretary, Diego Gonzalez, over vote
7. Wide of senators crowding and houting on House floor
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Carlos Meisel, Senator for the Democratic Centre party:
“Voting in favor of the referendum is not voting in favor of the people nor in favor of the workers. It’s a vote in favor of (Colombian President, Gustavo) Petro, to vote in favor Petro’s project. This has to be clear to all the parties in this Congress."
9. Mid of senators as Gonzalez announces vote result UPSOUND Diego Gonzalez, Senate Secretary, (Spanish): "47 votes in favor, 49 against."
10. Various of senators celebrating and chanting
11. Various exteriors of Congress
STORYLINE:
Lawmakers in Colombia on Wednesday once again blocked President Gustavo Petro’s efforts to overhaul the country’s labor laws, this time by rejecting a referendum that would have asked voters whether workdays should be limited to eight hours and whether workers should receive double pay if they work during holidays.
Petro asked Congress earlier this month to approve the 12-question referendum to give voters a chance to decide on the changes that lawmakers themselves had already rejected twice.
He had warned lawmakers against blocking the referendum, saying before thousands of people gathered for a Labor Day demonstration on May 1 that if they did not approve it, Colombians would punish them at the polls during the 2026 legislative elections.
After an intense debate Wednesday, 49 senators voted against the measure and 47 in favor.
Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, characterized the vote as fraudulent.
He has repeatedly accused lawmakers of blocking his social initiatives and ignoring the demands of Colombians.
Had lawmakers approved the referendum, voters would have answered questions such as whether daytime workdays should end at 6 p.m. and whether open-ended contracts should be offered to workers to prioritize job stability.
In a rarely used maneuver, a group of congressmen on Wednesday successfully appealed the March dismissal of Petro’s proposed labor reform.
The move allows lawmakers to again debate his proposals and potentially approve them. Lawmakers face a June 20 deadline to do so.
AP video shot by Marko Alvarez
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