President Gustavo Petro announces radical changes to his cabinet: "I can't find one that fits the bill."
There's one year left until Gustavo Petro 's administration ends, and his cabinet has already gone through 52 officials who have come and gone. Now It seems there will be more, as the president announced this Tuesday, June 15, that "radical" changes are coming to his portfolios.
President Gustavo Petro made the announcement during the televised cabinet meeting, where he said that some of the senior officials he has appointed to the ministries have not complied with the program his administration proposed starting in 2022.
" The cabinet is doing the opposite , and the government of change cannot do that," he declared to his teammates in governing the country.
President Gustavo Petro led a new council of ministers. Photo: Ovidio Gonzalez. Presidency
The president admitted during the meeting that he has indeed made several moves over the past three years. "I can't find a cabinet that fulfills the government plan , which is a popular mandate," the president explained.
In his address to the council, Gustavo Petro stated that since 2022, ministers have been appointed who don't understand the government's program . With this in mind, the president says he doesn't want to end his administration with officials who don't understand the roadmap outlined during his campaign.
"The people voted for certain goals, and they are respected. The government cannot allow the people to be mocked," the president asserted.
Darts at Alejandro Gaviria and other former ministers Prior to the cabinet meeting, Gustavo Petro had already taken digs at his previous ministers during his presidential address. In his speech, he stated that all his ministers had betrayed him.
"They weren't trained in public service; they're technocrats or aristocrats who put themselves at the service of laziness or big capital in Colombia," Petro said.
Above all, he accused former minister Alejandro Gaviria of betraying him and "ignoring" the financial situation of the EPS.
Gaviria was Minister of Education at the beginning of Gustavo Petro's administration. Photo: Alejandro Gaviria
This isn't the first time Gustavo Petro has scolded members of his cabinet. On June 17, at another cabinet meeting, the president accused them of treason due to the budget execution in the regions.
"Why is there social inequality in Colombia? (...) Because the Government itself produces inequality and so does this one (...) It cannot be that this Government, which is supposed to be left-wing, creates these circumstances... Out of laziness, because the ministers and directors do not look at where the money is invested or have a different agenda than the Government's agenda ," the president added on that occasion.
The second president with the most changes of ministers With the arrival of Eduardo Montealegre as Minister of Justice and Diana Marcela Morales as Minister of Commerce, there are now 52 ministers who have served under the Petro administration.
President Gustavo Petro during his speech this Tuesday. Photo: Ovidio Gonzalez
With these potential changes coming to the various ministries, Gustavo Petro's administration could be shaping up to be the one with the most ministerial changes Colombia has ever had.
EL TIEMPO previously reported that Gustavo Petro Urrego is the second Colombian president with the most cabinet changes. Only Ernesto Samper surpassed him, with 54 changes during his four years in office. However, Petro has one more year of his administration.
María Paula Rodríguez Rozo
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