The government and Portugal discussed the feasibility of launching a new passport scheme at the Casa de Nariño.

While the country continues to wait to find out what will happen with passports starting September 1, the National Government is pressing ahead with its efforts to ensure there are no delays and the new public system, in partnership with the Portuguese government, can be implemented . That's why a long meeting took place this Tuesday at the Casa de Nariño between the Executive Branch and Portuguese delegates.

The technical meeting was attended by Chief of Staff Alfredo Saade; Acting Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio; the manager of the National Printing Office, Viviana León Herrera; and the Portuguese ambassador, Catarina De Mendoza. After more than six hours of meeting, no trade agreement has yet been signed.

"This isn't just a passport issue (which is far too important), it's a national sovereignty issue. Don't be fooled, everything is going well," Saade wrote hours before the meeting.

In parallel, a response from the Foreign Ministry to a petition submitted by Senator Angélica Lozano circulated, in which the Ministry reiterates that the new passport issuance model will not be ready to begin operating on September 1, as the National Government had announced.

This was the reason Laura Sarabia decided to leave the National Government. According to her and her team, the memorandum of understanding left by Luis Gilberto Murillo was not entirely solid, which led to administrative delays that would make it impossible to maintain the planned dates. Sarabia was inclined to extend the urgent need with Thomas Greg & Sons, but President Petro insisted on stripping the firm of its monopoly on the booklets.

"If the path laid out by Alfredo Saade is followed, it's certain that when the contract with Thomas Greg expires, Colombians will be left without passports," Sarabia told Cambio.

The former director of the DPS and Dapre, among other positions, even stated that Portugal was unaware of the contract, which, according to Saade, had been ready to be signed since last week.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Portuguese Mint would need a 35-week transition period to bring the technology to the National Printing Office and begin producing passports in Colombia.

In an interview with EL TIEMPO, former Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo explained that the National Printing Office would be responsible for data personalization and passport issuance in the first few months. " This is a highly specialized matter that requires capacity building, training, technology management, and testing, which will take a reasonable amount of time, because that's what it's all about: updating the Printing Office ," he said.

However, the entity headed by Viviana León would still have to make internal adjustments to receive the machines from Portugal, something that has not happened to date.

"We need to discuss it with Portugal. If they reach a different type of decision, obviously, that doesn't fit the transition model we designed. It's a different type of transition. But the most important thing in this is to ensure that there is no impact on the production of passport cards," Murillo said regarding the possible agreement that Colombia and Portugal would be working on to maintain the start of the scheme in September.

Juan Pablo Penagos Ramirez