President Gustavo Petro during a military ceremony, on August 20, 2022.Chepa Beltran (Long Visual Press/Universal Imag)
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has decided by surprise this Wednesday to take over from José Antonio Ocampo as Minister of Finance as part of eight changes (seven of ministers and one of the head of the Administrative Department of the Presidency) in his second Cabinet crisis in the eight months he has been in power.
Ocampo, a renowned economist who had already headed the Treasury portfolio, was a representative of the political center and will be replaced by Ricardo Bonilla.
The ministers of the Interior, Agriculture, Health, Science, ICT and Transport will also leave office, the Presidency announced in a statement.
“The government program established a road map to carry out the change for which millions of Colombians and Colombians voted.
Despite the fact that my cabinet, and its commitment to dialogue and the pact, was rejected by some traditional and establishment political leadership, we are going to persist with our program and our vocation for great national agreements," said the message signed by the president. .
“We have decided to set up a government to redouble our social change agenda,” he concluded.
With the shaking, Petro removes the two ministers who represented a social democratic technocracy, Ocampo and the Minister of Agriculture, Cecilia López.
The two reportedly signed a letter criticizing the health reform before it was presented, but they survived the previous cabinet crisis, in February, when the president removed three ministers, including the signatory of the letter most opposed to the project, Alejandro Gaviria.
The replacement of Ocampo, a heavyweight in the cabinet, has been the biggest surprise.
As is customary when a country turns to the left in Latin America, the expectations around the person in charge of taking the reins of the economy are enormous, and the name of Ocampo generated relief and tranquility both in markets and investors as well as in different political sectors. and economic.
The renowned Columbia University professor and former executive secretary of the United Nations arm for the development of Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal), 70, accepted the portfolio despite the fact that he had advised the campaign of the centrist candidate Sergio Fajardo.
His replacement, Ricardo Bonilla, was already Secretary of the Treasury when Petro was mayor of Bogotá and had been advising the president on economic matters as president of Findeter,
Although the change comes a day after Petro spoke of the end of the political coalition, he only took representation in the Cabinet from two of the three traditional parties that make it up and with which there was tension due to the legislative process of the reform to health and development plan.
The liberal ministries Catalina Velasco in Housing and Néstor Osuna in Justice remain, while the conservative Guillermo Reyes, of Transportation, leaves.
Instead, La U leaves, which had the ICT ministry headed by Sandra Urrutia.
Replacing him comes Mauricio Lizcano, a traditional politician who made a career in La U but left that party for the 2022 elections and now heads his own, Gente en Movimiento.
Lizcano then leaves the direction of the Administrative Department of the Presidency,
(News in development)
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