“Security hasn’t been a war at the expense of social policy; on the contrary, it has been a security with democratic values escort by the expansion of social coverage” the Head of State expressed during the opening act of regular sessions of the National Congress.

Bogota, July 20 (SP). The President of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, highlighted the progress of the country in the last seven years, due to the Democratic Security Policy, and emphasized that it has been done without giving up social policies, which has allowed the extension of the program’s coverage.

“After seven years we can say: we are placed in a democratic balance”, the Leader said during his speech and reminded that “confidence is the leading word of our actions, confidence in Colombia, supported in a balanced effort for security, investment and social policies”.

He highlighted that “security hasn’t been a war at the expense of social policy; on the contrary, it has been a security with democratic values escort by the expansion of social coverage”

Colombia has a State of Opinion

The President stated that “Colombia has a State of Opinion which is a superior and characteristic stage of the Rule of Law” and he added that “without a State of Opinion democratic virtues become blurred, which rest in the independence of the power branches and in the existence of control agencies”.

“He pointed that “State of Opinion is not a democracy of plebiscite but a balance between participation and representation; is not manipulation but courage to guide about controversial matters; is respect for expressed opinion and the right for the quiet opinion to express; is not a forced imposition or surrender before the opposite forces; is to guarantee freedom of speech and its counterweight, which is the freedom of the Government and the citizens facing the media”

The President also said that “State of Opinion is the fence to block the overflow of any power, the balance between the mandatory performance of the rulings of the judges and the freedom to controvert it; and the source for debate of legislative decisions without penalizing them”

He explained that the country has solid institutions and “justice independent and autonomous. The Executive power does not participate in the conformation of the Supreme Court or the State Council. It is respectful with the control agencies created by the Congress and its impartial mission”.

Reintegration into Society

Uribe Vélez pointed that the emphasis of the Security policy is to promote demobilization.

He said that “more than 50 thousand members of criminal groups have demobilized” and the number of demobilized members is three times bigger than the ones killed in combat.

“The program of reintegration into society is huge. Around 11 thousand members are going to elementary school, others are validating high school and 2 thousand are going to literacy teaching. In 2008 more than 7 thousand received trainings in the Sena (National institute for training). Adding the families, the total beneficiaries are around 120 thousand”, he said.

The Head of State declared that the Government continues with its principle of not comparing State agents with terrorists, because that could promote a paralysis in the Armed Forces caused by fear that every legitimate action against a criminal could be used as a false accusation, as a reparation mandate and as a repetition risk to the policeman or soldier”.

“The Nation, has been mistreated for many years by guerrillas and paramilitaries, it needs the support from its policemen and soldiers, and for their honor and good name we repel and penalize the criminal actions of any of its members, and for its confidence and solidity the President, the ministers and commanders must be firm to denounce false accusations, used by some to play with the failure of security”, he stated.

Social Policy

President Uribe made a presentation of the main advances in of the social policies and highlighted how that can be the best way to validate Democratic Security and investment trust, which also depends on the prosperity of the last two.

He added that beside the resources allocated for displaced people, victims and demobilized members, social coverage has remarkably increased.

•          The Budget to attend displaced people is more than 10 times bigger.
•          85 per cent of the population is affiliated to the Social Security System for Health.
•          Families in Action Program works with 340 thousand displaced families.
•          45 thousand of the 80 thousand who received subsidies have effective housing. Each year 30 thousand additional subsidies are given
•          Education coverage was around 78 per cent, now is around 100 per cent.
•          Around 650 thousand students ended their studies, before this number was around 400 thousand.
•          Before, we had less than a million university students. With the new quota for technical and technological programs of Sena, this number will be more than one million and 700 thousand students.
•          Icetex program used to finance 60 thousand students, now the finance 250 thousand and the goal are 300 thousand.
•          Sena use to train one million 100 thousand Colombians, this year almost 6 million. It had 41 thousand registered students for technical and technological training and now it has 295 thousand.
•          Free education for more than 5 million children and Families in Action has registered more than 2 million 700 thousand families.
•          Soon, 80 per cent of the students with public enrollment will have broadband access.
•          The Ministry of Education is responsible for the construction of 50 schools in the poorest areas.
•          The ICBF (Colombian Institute for Family Welfare) has raised the alimentary portion to almost 14 million 500 thousand. And they went from 122 days to 156, with a goal of 180.
•          This year 300 thousand children, under five years old, must go to school and in 2010 400 thousand.
•          The country is reaching the goal of full health coverage, 41 million people have insurance.
•          Juntos Strategy is meant to eliminate extreme poverty, it try to reach 45 basic goals for 1 million 500 thousand families for education, health, nutrition, housing, banking, saving, family dynamic, access to justice, work and income. Until now, 610 thousand families are registered, supported by 6820 co-solicitors.
•          Departmental Water Plans must invest around 5.6 billion pesos and the goal for this year is 1.7 billion.
•          Numbers shows a recovery in housing construction. There has been a normalization of Interest rates and there has been an increasing of budget resources for housing subsidies, which went from 150 thousand million to 840 thousand million.
•          The National Fund for Saving will approve 60 thousand credits this year. During the current presidential term, the credits given are higher than the rest of the years of this institution.
•          During the current term, there has been a 45 per cent increase of beneficiaries of the Employees Contribution Health System, professional risks and retirement funds.