00:00President Gustavo Petro inaugurated Colombia's new Congress.
00:03During his speech, he highlighted his administration's key social achievements.
00:07During the opening session, President Petro defended his administration's social achievements
00:12while highlighting the risk of democratic rollback under Abelardo de la Espriella.
00:17Petro stated that Colombia is ending his administration with the lowest levels of poverty, unemployment
00:22and inequality in recent decades.
00:25The head of state also highlighted the growth of the agricultural sector as an alternative
00:29to dependence on oil and defended the progress made in his social and health policies, despite
00:35the fact that several of his reforms failed to pass Congress and the crisis currently
00:39affected the health sector.
00:49There has been a gap between rural areas and large cities since the beginning of the republic
00:54that must be narrowed.
00:57Otherwise there will be no equality, neither regional nor individual nor social.
01:04But all the figures from my administration projected through 2025 official data show that this is
01:09the lowest rate of the century.
01:12That is the fact.
01:15And this is the fact, complex in its construction, but simple in its presentation, which is the
01:21goal of an economic policy for a good life, as Aristotle said.
01:30What's wrong with a government having reduced poverty to its lowest level in a century and
01:35in history?
01:38In that regard, the President Gustavo Petro recalled that he has never initiated a debate without
01:43evidence, neither as a congressman nor as a mayor, nor as a president reiterated his allegations
01:48of possible electoral fraud in the recent elections.
01:53never, president of the Senate and the Congress, did I engage in a debate without evidence.
02:00That has never been my reputation here.
02:04And I have never been sued by the courts for making a false accusation or an insult.
02:10You know that.
02:16I don't know if you were there that time.
02:19But during 10 years of parliamentary life, I dedicated myself to various debates in the
02:24chamber and in the Senate to identify, by name, those who sat here in constant collaboration
02:32with narco-trafficking and paramilitary groups.
02:41And it all ended with everything being proven true.
02:44All the evidence was true, they confessed.
02:46And 35% of the Senate of the Republic ended up in prison.
02:51Not because of me, but because of the Supreme Court of Justice.
02:57So I remind you of that, Mr. President.
03:00Because you demand evidence from me, and I have always provided it, do not doubt me.
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