Colombian President Gustavo Petro used a Workers’ Day address on Friday to promote a nationwide signature drive aimed at convening a constituent assembly, arguing it is the last available path to embed his blocked social benefit agenda.

Speaking to supporters in Medellín, Petro insisted he does not want to scrap the 1991 charter but to “add two chapters” to it before his term expires on August 7. The first would make legislated reality of the fundamental rights to health, pensions, land and mining that Congress refused to approve; the second would redesign the political system to “definitively corner corruption, both criminally and socially.”

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“All these reforms that guarantee the fundamental rights ordered by the 1991 Constitution must be passed — it is the people’s command,” Petro said, mentioning that his pension reform is still awaiting court rulings.

Flanked by union and grassroots leaders, the president announced that citizen committees would begin collecting signatures immediately “in every municipality,” aiming to gather 2.5 million valid endorsements. Once delivered, the signatures would pressure the next Congress — elected on March 8 and set to take office on July 20 — to call a referendum on convening the assembly.

The anti-corruption chapter, he argued, would not only target graft with criminal penalties but also attach social consequences.

The signature threshold of 2.5 million is steep but achievable: Colombia’s last major citizen-driven referendum push, the anti-corruption consultation of 2018, surpassed 12 million votes. Should the drive succeed, the new Congress would have to green‑light a ballot question asking voters whether they want an assembly to amend the 1991 Constitution.

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