Bogota. The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, renewed seven ministries yesterday and surrounded himself with old political allies in the midst of the worst crisis in the government that it is worth to implement his leftist reforms.
In power since August 7, the president has had difficulties in making the profound changes that he promised in the campaign regarding the labor, health, pension, and justice systems, among others, a reality. And the traditional parties that supported the start of his government gradually distanced themselves over time in Congress.
In the midst of the political storm, Petro called for the resignation of all his ministers. Among the outgoing ones, José Antonio Campo stands out, a liberal academic who served as head of the Ministry of Finance and created consensus. Due to his experience and recognition as an economist and professor at Columbia University, in the United States, he provided security in the markets.
“We have managed to generate confidence in the country’s economic management that I hope will be consolidated,” Ocampo said at a farewell press conference.
In Finance, the president appointed former university professor Ricardo Bonilla, former Secretary of Finance during the mayoralty of Petro in Bogotá (2012-2015). In Health, to the politician and surgeon Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo, government secretary at that time.
Apparently the discrepancies over the proposed health reform and the agrarian sector triggered the conflict.
Petro also accepted the resignation of Health Minister Carolina Corcho, at the center of disputes between the government and part of Congress that opposes a constitutional reform to reduce private participation in the health system.
He placed former congressman Juan Fernando Velasco, one of his closest men, in the Ministry of the Interior and Mauricio Lizcano, who had been serving as advisor to the presidency, in the portfolio of Technologies and Communications.
Petro had formed a first cabinet away from the leftist forces that led him to the presidency and opted for politicians from the center and right.
Petro’s gestures “generate an unprecedented crisis” in the country, said the president of Congress, Roy Barreras. “I do not remember” that a president “decrees the death of his government coalition” so prematurely, added the parliamentarian from the ruling party.
