Vice President Pedro Alliana said Friday, September 11, 2026, that he would remain aligned with Santiago Peña’s government and backed cuts to the General National Budget 2027 to fund demands from doctors and teachers. The statements came during an event marking the 139th anniversary of the National Republican Association (ANR), the Colorado Party, at the National Pantheon of Heroes.
“I am part of this government, with its mistakes and successes,” Alliana said in response to criticism from former President Nicanor Duarte Frutos, who had recommended keeping his distance from the Peña administration’s failures. The vice president said he would continue presenting complaints and suggestions to the head of the Executive, including publicly: “The president knows me; he knows that I will raise questions in private or in public.”
Alliana also rejected the idea of a break between Peña and Horacio Cartes, president of the ANR and leader of the Honor Colorado movement, the Cartes-aligned faction of the party. He said the party was strengthened for the municipal elections on October 4. “There is unity in the ANR,” he declared, although he acknowledged the existence of complaints and internal disputes.
On social policy, the vice president agreed with Cartes’s call for public health to be a central priority. He said the number of mammography machines had risen from 13 to more than 30, that consultations in the public health system had increased from about 1.5 million to more than 4 million, and that the Health Ministry’s budget for medicines and supplies had tripled. Alliana presented the figures without providing documentary details in the statements released.
The vice president acknowledged, however, that doctors, nurses and teachers still had outstanding demands. To address them, he backed reducing expenses he classified as unnecessary in the 2027 budget, citing daily allowances and catering services, and also called for Congress itself to review its spending.
Alliana said the cuts could not compromise the functioning of institutions. He criticized proposals to withdraw funds from the Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE), the body responsible for administering elections, arguing that this could prevent the voting machines from being maintained. “So are we left without elections?” he asked.
The statements place the vice president at the center of two simultaneous pressures: the need to preserve the Colorado Party’s unity ahead of the municipal elections and the attempt to respond to mobilizations announced by health and education professionals. So far, Alliana has spoken of cuts and negotiations, but he has not presented a list of expenses or the amounts set aside for the pay increases.