Presidential cabinet crisis

COLOMBIA - In Brief 26 Apr 2023 by Andrés Escobar Arango

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In the evening of April 25 president Petro twitted: “1. Our invitation to a social pact for change has been rejected. Those who have made fortunes with public moneys don’t realize that society at large asks for their rights to be respected; and that that implies dialogue and agreements. “2. The political coalition built to be majoritarian [in Congress] has been terminated today, due to decisions made by some the political parties’ presidents. Some of them go against their own parties’ political positions. “3. This situation leads us to a reshuffling of government”. The spark of this crisis was the narrow majority with which the first vote of the healthcare reform was approved in the 7th committee of the House of Representatives. This favorable vote does not mean that the reform has run its course in the 7thcommittee; it means that the committee is now ready to start discussing and voting all the articles of the reform. A couple of liberal and conservatives House Representatives helped approving this first vote, yet their parties immediately ordered to be voted negatively thereafter, leading to a governability crisis. If the reform were to be voted in subsequent sessions, it would sink. In light of this risk, the president of the committee, Agmeth Escaf, close to the government, is intentionally taking his time to call for the crucial vote, giving president Petro time to work out the politics. Cesar Gaviria, president of the Liberal party, and Efraín Cepeda, president of the Conservative Party, have created a schism within the government coalition in congress. They decided that their parties will not support the healthcare reform. This is not the end of the story. A rev...