🗞️ A controversial appointment and a televised cabinet meeting have led to multiple ministerial resignations and a cabinet reshuffle, with President Gustavo Petro losing heavyweights and long-time allies from his front bench.
Last week, Environment Minister Susana Muhamad, Labour Minister Gloria Ramírez, Culture Minister Juan David Correa, and Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo all resigned. Jorge Rojas, the head of the presidency’s administrative department (DAPRE), also resigned on Wednesday.
On Sunday, Petro asked all ministers for protocolary resignation; a cabinet reshuffle had been in the pipeline, but was made urgent by ministerial resignations. Various ministers have now resigned on a protocolary basis, meaning they could be reinstated by Petro in the same role or another a part of the cabinet in the reshuffle.
The crisis began last Monday when Petro appointed Armando Benedetti - formerly an adviser - as chief of staff. Benedetti is an extremely controversial figure, implicated in various recent scandals including electoral irregularities and last year’s ‘Nannygate’ scandal – a wide-ranging and unresolved set of allegations involving wiretapping and campaign finances which also implicated Laura Sarabia- another close ally of Petro and recently-appointed foreign minister.
Benedetti has also been accused of machismo, bullying, and domestic violence.
On Tuesday, the President made the unprecedented decision to livestream and broadcast a cabinet meeting - online, on television, and on the radio.
The meeting began with a 90-minute presidential address then descended, over its four subsequent hours, into disagreement and accusations - cementing as well as publicising the government’s internal crisis.
Petro spent much of the meeting defending his appointment of Benedetti and accusing his ministers of failing to deliver government promises - along with long digressions, one of which caused controversy when he claimed that ‘cocaine is no worse than whiskey.’
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