Petro’s cabinet change seeks to “put together a coalition” to pass his reforms: analysts

The cabinet part changes of the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, suppose not only the rupture of relations with some political parties that were part of his coalition and work with more “loyal” and close people, but also seeks to open spaces to carry out his government projects, according to analysts consulted by the Voice of America.

“Petro is a person who has not changed since we met him in Colombian politics, it gives me the impression that he can close with his people, put together a coalition to try to pass his reforms and find the streets to get some things voted for him. as has already happened in Colombia”, explained the political analyst and columnist for the newspaper El Espectador, Pedro Viveros.

For Theodore Kahn, Associate Director of Control Risks, the changes offer a more united cabinet with an ideology closer to that of the president. “Probably there will be an effort to really propose some reforms and some public policy objectives more aligned with what Petro had proposed in the campaign and some of the banners that he has carried for several years,” Viveros said.

In this sense, Kahn adds, he will have fewer problems when it comes to “moderating his proposals” and “acceptance of points of view internally” and, in this way, “achieving the most radical objectives in some areas that he wants to implement.”

key changes

The most sensitive changes within Petro’s cabinet occur in the Treasury, Health and Agriculture portfolios.

The first, due to the stability in the markets and the national and international recognition represented by the outgoing minister, José Antonio Ocampo, not only for being known as one of the most respected economists in the country, but also because he managed to move forward with tax reform most ambitious in the history of Colombia.

Despite the good relationship with the Colombian president, he is not as close as his successor, the economist Ricardo Bonilla, current director of Financiera de Desarrollo Territorial (Findeter), former Secretary of Finance in Bogotá, during the Mayor of Petro, and his adviser on different issues, such as pensions.

Another sensitive issue is the health reform, proposed by the outgoing minister, Carolina Corcho, whom many legislators and political leaders have described as intransigent, which presented problems when it came to advancing this proposal in Congress.

“We are in the process of this very complicated reform… With this change in health, Petro will want to exercise more control over the administrative process of this project. He does not want to lose control of this process ”, Corcho opined.

His successor, the surgeon Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo, has more experience in the political arena. He was Secretary of Health of the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá and district secretary between 2013 and 2014. He has also been a senator and representative to the chamber, which opens channels in these sectors.

The departure of the Minister of Agriculture Cecilia López, according to Kahn, is also “interesting”, since “she was a person with a lot of credibility, very technical and was handling a flagship Petro proposal that was approved.”

However, his public criticism of the energy transition project in the country and the health reform proposed by Corcho would earn him the exit.

This portfolio will be led by lawyer Jhénifer Mojica Flórez, the current director of Ethnic Affairs of the Land Restitution Unit. She was deputy director of the Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ) and has been part of various processes with the Association of Arhuaco Authorities of the Sierra Nevada and the Commission for the Clarification of the Truth.

Break with other parties

The transformation of Petro’s cabinet, barely nine months after have started his governmentalso due to the so-called break in the coalition in Congress with the liberal, conservative and ‘U’ parties.

In the transport sector, for example, Guillermo Reyes leaves, considered the quota of the Conservative Party, with which a tense relationship has developed over the health reform. In addition, he has been involved in various scandals and controversies over his management.

Reyes will be replaced by engineer William Camargo Triana, current director of the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) and who, according to the government, has extensive experience in road and mobility projects.

On the other hand, the departure of Sandra Urrutia from the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications (ICT) also means ruptures with the U party, with which tensions are also maintained over the health reform, since it was considered the share of that community in the government.

His replacement will be the lawyer Mauricio Lizcano, the current director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency of the Republic (Dapre), which will now be led by the lawyer, political scientist and environmental specialist Carlos Ramón González, former guerrilla in the M-19, where The president was also a member, and who chaired the Green Alliance Party, declared as a government party in June 2022.

Other, more independent changes, fell on the Science card, from which the Science and Technology manager of the government of former President Iván Duque leaves. The direction of the Ministry will be occupied by the researcher in the field of Afro-Latin American studies and inclusive education Yesenia Olaya.

Alfonso Prada leaves the Ministry of the Interior, and the lawyer arrives Luis Fernando Velasco, the current Presidential Adviser for the Regions and director in charge of the National Disaster Risk Management Unit (UNGRD).

Coming?

For the analyst Pedro Viveros, with the departure of the seven ministers, the president has allowed himself to be seen as a “rupturist” president, taking into account that, in February, surprisingly he took out of his cabinet the heads of the ministries of Culture, Sports and Education, the latter, a staunch critic of the health reform project.

“In the exercise of power, it is a government of rupture with many things… It also took out a director of the police and now part of the cabinet is changing because it seems that the dynamics with which it began to govern are not working within Congress,” he said. nurseries at VOA.

According to the Associate Director of Control Risks, “the ministers who had the most dialogue with the private sector left… There, the new communication will be less fluid” and the same, he adds, will happen with the presidents of various political parties.

In this sense, the government “is going to follow a strategy of seeking a more direct negotiation with individual congressmen from those parties, but no longer negotiating with the heads of the parties.”

[Con la colaboración de Camilo Álvarez, de la VOA, desde Bogotá]

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