Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro delivers a speech during his inauguration ceremony in Bogotá on August 7, 2022. Photo: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images.
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, announced new ministers within his government cabinet, after the resignation request he made on Tuesday night to his cabinet.
In a statement issued this Wednesday, April 26, the Colombian president said that “today a new cabinet is being built that will help consolidate the government program.”
Therefore, he appointed the following eight new positions:
• Ricardo Bonilla will be the new minister of finance.
• Jhenifer Mojica will be the new minister of agriculture.
• Luis Fernando Velasco will be the new minister of the interior.
• Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo will be the new minister of health.
• Yesenia Olaya will be the new minister of science.
• Mauricio Lizcano will be the new minister of innovation, science and technology.
• William Camargo will be the new minister of transportation.
• Carlos Ramón González, will be the new director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency of the Republic.
President Petro thanked the outgoing officials “enormously for the commitment and the work accomplished,” and said that “they helped start the fundamentals” of the government.
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) April 26, 2023
Social change continues
In a letter addressed to the public, President Petro reiterated that his government “established a roadmap to carry out the change for which millions of 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,” he added.
Fracture in the Historic Pact
The assertion by the head of state comes after the division in the parliamentary debate that produced the health reform in the House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon.
At that time, the Conservative, Liberal, and La U parties—allies of Petro in the Historic Pact coalition—turned their backs on the reform, which had already been approved in a first step by the Seventh Commission of the House of Representatives, reported Sputnik.
However, the initiative of the president passed, thanks to the vote in favor from the Liberal deputy María Eugenia Lopera, who risked being disciplined by her political party.
At the moment of the parliamentary rejection, Petro wrote on Twitter that “the invitation to a social pact for change has been rejected. Those who have enriched themselves with the use of public money have not realized that society demands its rights and that this implies dialogue…”
Las decisiones politicas tomadas hoy demuestran:
1. La invitación a un pacto social para el cambio ha sido rechazada.
Quienes se han enriquecido con el uso del dinero público no se han dado cuenta que la sociedad demanda sus derechos y que eso implica el dialogo y el pacto.
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) April 26, 2023
In another message posted on social media, President Petro reaffirmed his commitment to “always be faithful to the popular mandate received,” due to which he decided to set up a new cabinet to duplicate “the agenda of social change at the service of the vast majority of citizens and peoples of Colombia.”
(Últimas Noticias) by Kleybergel Gonzalez
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
