Colombia's Vice President Angelino Garzon has hit back in the escalating row with President Juan Manuel Santos, saying he will not give up his right to think, nor his right to speak his mind.
The statement comes after the vice president was warned by the president not to publicly criticize the system, arguing that people who openly who criticize the system "should withdraw from government."
Vice President Garzon said that he would fight tooth and nail to defend his right to speak out, which he said was a right held by every Colombian citizen. "The right to form an opinion is what we most need to defend in a democracy," said Garzon on Monday.
The vice president ignited the controversy when he publicly criticized the country's new poverty definition, which redefined a person as not being poor if they earned over $105 a month. Garzon called the new definitions an insult to Colombians living below the poverty line.
Santos has stated that if his vice president wanted to continue along these lines, it would be tantamount to announcing his resignation.
