The Minister of Defense, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, greets the commander of the Military Forces, General Luis Fernando Navarro, in November 2019.Mauricio Dueñas Castañeda / EFE
The Colombian Minister of Defense, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, infected with covid-19, is in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Military Hospital of Bogotá and until he recovers, he will assume his functions as minister in charge, the general commander of the Military Forces, General Luis Fernando Navarro, the Government reported this Monday.
The former foreign minister, one of the most visible faces of Iván Duque's Cabinet, seeks to compete in the 2022 presidential elections as a candidate for the Democratic Center, the government party founded by former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez.
The 69-year-old official has been hospitalized for a week, first in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla and then in Bogotá, and “continues to be hospitalized in the critical care area (…) due to the current acute respiratory infection secondary to viral pneumonia due to SARS COV-2 ”, said the Colombian presidency in a brief statement.
Former president Uribe invited through his social networks to a prayer for the minister.
Among many other positions, the veteran politician and diplomat has also been Minister of Education and the Interior, Mayor of Cali and member of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1991 political letter. As Duque's chancellor, he promoted the so-called “diplomatic siege” of the Government. of Nicolás Maduro, in tune with the White House of Donald Trump.
Upon assuming the Defense portfolio in November 2019, in the face of an imminent motion of censure against his predecessor Guillermo Botero, he promised to carry out a transparent and neat management of zero tolerance for human rights violations.
That promise has been diluted amid criticism of his administration, although Trujillo has passed two attempts at a vote of no confidence in Congress without pressure.
The Army has been hit by a long chain of scandals that include illegal interceptions of journalists and opponents, the return of the specter of extrajudicial executions, and cases of rape of indigenous girls.
Police brutality has also burst into the public debate after the murder in police custody of Javier Ordóñez, a law student, sparked two chaotic days of massive protests in September that left 13 civilians dead amid the unrest .
Holmes Trujillo is the most recent case among several officials who have reported their infections in Colombia, which is going through its second wave and accumulates more than 49,000 deaths related to the pandemic according to official figures.
The Foreign Minister, Claudia Blum, 72, tested positive a week ago and is in good health, as reported by the Foreign Ministry.
The vice president, Marta Lucía Ramírez, 66, contracted covid-19 last October and overcame the disease without major setbacks.
It was also contracted by the first lady, María Juliana Ruiz, while President Duque, 44, has tested negative in several routine tests over recent months, as reported at the time by the Administrative Department of the Presidency of the Republic (DAPRE).