During the meeting, Petro criticized his ministers nominally and was also criticized
Mayara Paixão – It was not as if the situation was already favorable, but now the crisis was exposed live and in colors in the national network in Colombia.
The country dawned on Wednesday (5) adding renunciations in the office of Gustavo Petro, which imploded after a meeting of the team that the president himself ordered to be transmitted to the population.
During the meeting, Petro criticized his ministers nominally and was also criticized. The most sensitive point was observed in the recent appointment of a politician accused of corruption and violence against his ex-wife to be his chief of staff.
Dissatisfaction and accusations that there is no cohesion in the government led to the waiver of at least three lesser expression members and a at least curious proposal from the Interior Minister: to resign to allow Petro to name a new cabinet.
All this at a time when Colombia is already immersed in one of the greatest humanitarian crises of recent decades. The conflict between guerrillas in the Great Cocalem region of Catatumbo, on the Venezuela border, has left at least 80 dead and made more than 77,000 people have to flee, abandoning their lands and houses.
Not enough, there is still the crisis with the United States. Not only for the rhetorical climbing involving immigrants deported by Donald Trump, but for American funding.
Petro does not seem to want to admit and disdain from the money, but Trump’s actions to freeze foreign aid impact the country of South America.
In addition to receiving money from the US State Department for Security area, Colombia is also the country of Latin America and the Caribbean who received the most funded from USAID, the US agency for international development that is in Trump, the boss of his diplomacy, Marco Rubio, and billionaire Elon Musk, now a member of the government
The agency dumps more than $ 400 million annually, on average, for Bogota. It is a money that supports the third sector, but also the government. Programs aimed at immigrants (Venezuelans are 5% of the Colombian population) and organized by the government itself have now been paralyzed that the agency is in moratorium for three months.
All these cascade crises in a little over a month from the presidential election in Colombia have exposed weaknesses in the government of the first left president of the country.
And, as political analyst Zulma González says, the live meeting on Tuesday (4) may have even become satire, but in fact it was “the gout of water for everything overflowing.”
She says that the “uncoordination of Petro’s office” was, from the beginning, “a weakness of this government.” “And now there may be a ministerial earthquake: what Petro asks for the resignation of all his ministers.”
The meeting was marked by exchanges of barbs, accusations and even tears. The president said he was inspired by Cuba to convey the conversation between his ministers live.
The difference is that in the single party dictatorship of the Caribbean island, dissent is not exactly welcome or possible, different from what happens in democracies.
Women’s ministers were emphatic in criticizing the boss for appointing Armando Benedetti as his chief of staff. The controversial politician was his campaign head in 2022.
This former senator and former petro in Venezuela (one of the most sensitive positions of Colombian diplomacy) is investigated for illegal campaign financing in the Petro race for the presidency and was accused of threatening the ex-wife with a knife, A statement that later she withdrew.
The most emphatic was Minister Susana Muhamad (environment). With his eyes visibly full of tears, he said that “as a feminist and as a woman,” could not sit on the office table of a progressive project with Armando Benedetti. ” He said he would not resign and asked Petro to rethink his actions.
The vice president and minister of equality, Francia Márquez, the first black woman to arrive at the post, chorial and said she was disrespected by the new chancellor named by Petro, Laura Sarabia.
The president’s right arm, Sarabia took over a few days ago. Since the beginning of management it has been pointed out that France has been stunned in the administration.
To date, Juan Correa, Minister of Culture have renounced; Jorge Rojas, Head of the Presidency Administration Department; In addition to Carlos Carrillo, head of the disaster response department. More names are expected to disappear.
