How a chaotic Council of Ministers in Colombia showed that Petro “does not have the management of its dome” of government?

LOOK: China and the USA at the commercial war: who will be more harmed after mutual imposition of tariffs

The meeting, which was transmitted to the public unpublished at Petro’s request, had everything. For almost six hours, the president and his closest team showed the country several moments loaded with tension. The president questioned the results of his ministers and said that some of these ignore him. He even talked about “parallel agendas” inside the cabinet. He rebuked the head of the Education portfolio, Daniel Rojas, for being late and then ignored when the aforementioned minister asked for his attention.

Other unusual moments arrived when the director of the Department of Social Prosperity (DPS), Gustavo Bolívar, publicly expressed his admiration and support to the president telling him that he loved him; Or when the president caused a stir by stating that “cocaine is not more bad than whiskey.”

However, it was the debate around former ambassador Armando Benedetti that made the Council of Ministers a public fight. Several officials, headed by Vice President France Márquez, criticized Petro’s decision to recently appoint Benedetti, who is being investigated for alleged irregularities in the financing of the presidential campaign of 2022 and who faces a complaint for violence of gender.

Márquez also lashed out at the new Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia, considered Petro’s right hand and who is dotted in the investigation of the largest corruption scandal in the government by the diversion of public funds. He is also wrapped in a case for alleged illegal listening against his nanny.

“It doesn’t seem to me, and respect Benedetti, but I don’t share his decision; I respect it because you are the Head of State and he is the president, but I do not share his decision to bring to this government those people who know they have much of responsibility with what is happening, ”said Márquez, who was seconded in his Criticism by the Minister of Environment, Susana Muhamad, and by the Director of the Department for Social Prosperity (DPS), Gustavo Bolívar.

What was shown at the televised meeting not only caused a stir in social networks, but also caused the criticisms of several opposition members and even politicians related to Petro, who described the government as “improvised” and the Council of Ministers as A “shame.”

“It is demonstrated how the president of Colombia has a very serious problem of governance, does not have the management of the group, does not have the handling of its dome and has to use techniques such as, for example, cornering its subordinates to comply with a decision that he takes, ”Néstor Julián Restrepo Echavarría, a doctor of politics, communication and culture, and coordinator of the Master in Political Communication of the Eafit, tells El Comercio.

For the expert, the disagreement of the ministers is part of Petro’s decision to bring Benedetti, who is a traditional and very controversial politician, within his dome to handle them. “Petro decided to take them to the public fore, but the strategy went wrong because the ministers did not amilated, they did not cornered, they did not remain silent, they simply continued to act as if the cameras were not there. Finally, Petro’s fragility and his government were unveiled, ”he adds.

Collapse

The chaotic meeting has so far the resignation of two senior officials of the Colombian government. The first to make public his resignation was Jorge Rojas, director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency (Dapre), who had assumed said position a week ago. He was followed by the Minister of Cultures, Arts and Knowledge, Juan David Correa.

The head of the Interior portfolio, Juan Fernando Cristo, proposed on Wednesday to the other members of the cabinet an immediate protocol renunciation to “release the president of making the changes he considers.”

“After yesterday’s episode the cabinet is unsustainable as formed today.” Going “to the ministers” said: “Let’s give up today to release the President of Make the Changes” he considers, he said in X.

For his part, Petro explained through X that he decided that the Council of Ministers be made publicly to obtain a response from the cabinet about that breach ”of his government promises. “It was preferred to evade the answers and launch the cannibal and self -destructive attack that is a historical tradition not only from the left but of Colombia,” he said.

Given the obvious division within the highest government officials, there are many questions about whether there will be more exits in the cabinet and the strategy that Petro will have to quickly assume to face this internal crisis.

The Colombian newspaper “El Tiempo” points out that the next few hours will be crucial for the future of the Petro government, who still has a year and a half in power.

“The session of the Council of Ministers undressed above the whole country fractures within the Executive and also evidenced the great lags in compliance with the current administration. He also showed how far the president is willing to play it for Armando Benedetti. Although he knew that he was not going to like his ministers, he decided to bring him again to his closest circle, from which he left for his legal problems, ”says the media.

“Governance crisis”

To Restrepo the crisis caused this week will sharpen the governance problem that Petro has, especially because the transactional capacity of this government was already diminished.

“Who will trust a president who leads his subordinates to that level of wear, at that level of informality? Many wonder how they will be able to make their political proposals and develop the objectives of their ministries. I think it’s very difficult, ”says the expert.

Therefore, it is very likely that the Colombian government will weaken more, which will make it more difficult to meet its objectives of generating structural changes in the country. “We will have a very weak government that is going to talk a lot, but that really will be seen very little, because after all the president is nothing without his ministers, without the institutional design of the State,” he says.

In addition, he adds that Colombia is one of the most stable countries at the institutional level within Latin America, but that episodes such as that of the Council of Ministers reveal a fragility. “It may be that in Colombia the presidents have been as we saw them, but there was a status quo, a very strong order, a deep power, that can come from entrepreneurs, elites, and that Petro is breaking. The problem is that we can now be in a nonsense, such as a mouse in a cage, rolling, rolling, without results, while the country’s social, political and economic problems are exacerbated, ”he concludes.