I'm John Batsworth, my colleagues, Ernesto Aruja, former Foreign Minister of the Republic

of Brazil and Joseph Vumar, Executive Director of Secure Free Society, who's in Medellin.

A Columbia observing the Petro government and questions to be answered about investigations

of the Petro government at the same time, there is an opposition in Columbia.

It's a vibrant opposition.

It's nowhere near cowed as we could name other countries in the region.

Joseph, is it your measure that the Petro government, which is done a amazing flip-flop of approval?

It's gone from approved to disapproved with the same numbers within months.

A report from the Mercow Press within these last hours, Colombian President Petro and his

government of change project, seems to have run aground, according to the latest by monthly

poll, the President, who in August 2022 began his mandate with a 56 percent approval rating

and a 20 percent against now in reverse of expectations has a disapproval rating of 61 percent.

This is in part caused by leftist cabinet, more so, a breakup of the coalition that gave him a

majority and an ongoing investigation about campaign financing in his election.

Joseph, the Petro government is vulnerable to the opposition and if the vulnerability exists,

what is the opposition in Columbia? Where is it headquartered?

That's a great question, John. I don't know if there's a real consolidated opposition to Petro.

And this is very interesting because the scandals that have come out very recently in terms of

allegations of illicit financial actions on behalf of this campaign during

is run up to the presidency, both tied to his son and also tied to his former political operatives.

All that isn't really coming from the opposition. It isn't that the opposition is organizing

themselves and launching political attacks against the President. It's more, it looks at least

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