In view of the lack of support for a planned health care reform, Colombian President Gustavo Petro asked his cabinet to resign around nine months after taking office and replaced seven ministers.
“Today a new cabinet will be formed that will help consolidate the government program,” Petro said on Wednesday (local time). The changes affected the Ministry of Economics and the Ministry of Health, among others. Former health minister Carolina Corcho failed to reach an agreement with the various parties in the coalition to push through the controversial health care reform.
The cabinet reshuffle marks the biggest political crisis in the nine-month term of office of Colombia’s first left-wing president, who governs with a majority coalition of center and moderate right-wing parties. .
The situation came to a head on Tuesday when the liberal and conservative parties as well as the Social Party of National Unity opposed the government and rejected parts of the agricultural and health reforms. Petro spoke out in favor of an “emergency government” for Colombia because the parliament had not been able to pass even a few simple articles of law on the equitable distribution of land.
He added: “Urgency means government teams are working day and night. (…) Anyone who is not able to do this no longer has a place in our government.”
Colombia’s first left-wing president, Petro, took office in August with an ambitious agenda, but now faces major challenges in implementing it. During the election campaign, for example, the ex-guerrilla promised to start talks with all armed groups in the former civil war country in order to achieve a comprehensive peace.
At the end of last year he announced that his government had agreed a ceasefire with several armed groups until the end of June. However, the government suspended the ceasefire with the left-wing guerrilla organization ELN after just a few days. After more than two months, she broke the truce with the powerful drug gang “Clan del Golfo” (Golf Clan). (AFP/dpa)
