New Mining and Energy Minister could just be more of the same

COLOMBIA - In Brief 03 Aug 2023 by Andrés Escobar Arango
President Petro has appointed Andrés Camacho as the new Mining and Energy Minister. He replaces Irene Vélez, forced to resign after allegedly abusing her position as Minister to bypass a requirement to let her son leave the country on a trip abroad; Ms. Vélez was heavily criticized throughout her (almost) 12 months at the helm for her evident lack of technical knowledge, radical announcements on energy transition and scant political acumen. Even though Ms. Vélez's departure is, without a doubt, a positive development, the arrival of Mr. Camacho, a person probably better prepared for the job, remains a question mark. He is an electrical engineer, with a minor in physics and an MSc in renewable energies from Monterrey TEC (in Mexico). He has been a professor in a mid-tier public university in Bogotá and campaigned in 2018 (unsuccessfully) to get a seat in the House of Representatives. Between 2019 and mid-2022 he worked as an advisor to Senator María José Pizarro of the left-wing Comunes party. His CV also states that he was the spokesperson for Marcha Patriótica Bogotá (a minor left-wing party) and of the (unsuccessful) initiative to remove right-wing mayor of Bogotá Enrique Peñalosa from office back in 2018. Since the Petro administration began, Mr. Camacho worked as an advisor to Ms. Vélez in the Ministry of Mining and Energy; we checked whether he was one of the co-authors of the ill-fated and indefensible report on oil and gas reserves released by Ms. Vélez in December of last year: he was not. More recently, Mr. Camacho became acting director of the crucial National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH). He was never formally appointed at the head of the institution, though. D...

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