Gustavo Petro and, the president and the vice president of Colombia, reappeared together in public this August 7, in the commemoration of his three years leading the government. They had coincided in the installation of the new legislature of the Congress of the Republic on July 20, but that day they kept the distance, and did not even greeted themselves. His distancing was evident. In Leticia, however, they walked together, dressed in the same target and participated in a floral offering in honor of the fallen Colombian soldiers during the conflict with Peru of 1930-1932. The image, of unity, contrasts with the tension signals that have accumulated: the vice president has been absent from key cabinet spaces and, just two weeks ago, that I wanted to shout. “I am not here to get quiet. I will not pretend that it does not hurt,” he said in front of a full auditorium, in reference in the distance that has remained of the decision -making spaces.
On Thursday, Márquez and Petro sought to put aside their political differences. Distances between two leaders on the left who have more weight in this pre -election period, less than three months after the consultation in which this sector plans to define its presidential candidate. The Interior Minister, Armando Benedetti, pointed out the rejection of the reunion image. “The greeting between the president and the vice president was loved, warm and natural,” he wrote in X. It is a message loaded with meaning, because Benedetti and Márquez have had several friction since she questioned the arrival of the career politician to the government, during the first Council of Television Ministers, last February. “I do not share their decision to bring these people to this government that we know they have much of the responsibility of what is happening here,” he told Petro, and warned that he knew that his words could cost him politically.
Beyond that attempt to show unity, the Afro -Colombian leader has been screaming for a long time. , when he criticized his cabinet handling and questioned his total peace policy, one of his flags. “People say I am relegated … and yes, they are right. I thought it came to be their ally,” he claimed, and then made reference to the war that plagues his apartment, Cauca. “It hurts me that my people tell me that I was better before I got to the government.” The relationship between the two figures was already bad, but there it began to crack completely. Just two weeks later, in the head of a portfolio created by and for her, without public explanation. Since then it has not stopped questioning the low level of budgetary execution of that portfolio, which has not exceeded 5% since its creation, in 2023. The relationship did not make crisis because, instead, the president appointed Carlos Rosero, an old friend and ally of Márquez.
Just another change in equality marked the novel of the break. On August 2, after just four months in office, Rosero was replaced by Juan Carlos Florián, his vice minister of diversity and who is an old militant of Petrism, but has rejection in feminist sectors for having been an adult film actor. Petro offered Vice Ministry to Florián in 2023, but Márquez avoided designating him. With Rosero the decision was not immediate. “No one who is black is going to tell me that you have to exclude a porn actor,” Petro said in a claim tone in another Council of Ministers, in July. The fight was already evident.
In her public speech in Cali, the vice president answered those claims. He argued that they accused her of not executing the minigation budget, but “they never handed me the instrument to do it.” “The idea was promoted that as I am black, sure robbery,” he read, and then referred to more personal disappointments: “I soon went from being the political phenomenon, heroin, to be the traitor.” On the stage, he dissipated the idea of a resignation, although several relatives have suggested it. “If God and ancestors allow, I leave here on August 7 of next year,” he said, visibly annoying.
That explicit demonstration of his distance in front of the House of Nariño had as a history his silence against key decisions of the government. In May, when Petro faced one of his most difficult political battles, since the Senate had denied his proposal to make a popular consultation to carry out his labor reform, the president summoned a march. Márquez avoided supporting her openly: “It may be yes, it may not … I have to concentrate on governing and responding to Colombia,” he said initially. Two days later, he clarified slightly. “My call is that both government and Congress comply with workers,” he said in an interview with Caracol Radio, avoiding joining the mobilization.
Another focus of distancing became visible last June, after they show that former chancellor Álvaro Leyva sought to overthrow President Petro and Márquez assumed as president. “France is played,” the politician is heard. Petro insisted that all those mentioned – including the vice president – had to give political and legal explanations, marking a new distance with who his electoral formula was. Márquez rejected any link with some plot. “I have a quiet conscience, the clear mind and the firm heart. Deeply respect the constitutional order. I have never betrayed or questioned the legitimate authority of the first president of the nation,” he said, and asked the Prosecutor to open an investigation to clarify the episode.
With that antecedent, what happened on July 20 at the Capitol was notorious. Márquez arrived at the wrong time with Petro; They avoided any greeting. When the president left the enclosure during the opposition replica to his speech, she remained there. The opposition congresswoman Lina María Garrido, of radical change, took the opportunity to curl her what happened: “His silence only shows me that dignity will never be customary, because you have allowed them to use it.”
The political distancing has affected the I am because we are, which founded the vice president. When, last March, a ruling from the State Council took away the legal status, Petro kept silent. In other cases, the judicial decisions have been complained or criticized. In addition, among the presidential candidates of the official Historical Pact none comes from the Márquez movement. The vice president and her team were not included in the discussions of the progressive coalition, and they have not wanted to refer to their intentions in the elections of next year. For now, Leticia’s photo is just a sample of thaw between the first leftist president and the first Afro -Colombian vice president.
