Bogota municipal cabinet members offered their resignation at the request of Mayor Gustavo Petro Wednesday.
Petro denied on Twitter that his government was in crisis, insisting that he is only restructuring his administration. “The request for the waiver of the cabinet members was done to evaluate and make adjustments ahed of the implementation of the plan,” he said in reference to the recently approved $33.6 billion Bogota Development Plan.
City council member Maria Victoria Vargas said in an interview with Radio Nacional that she did not rule out that bureaucratic interests were behind Petro’s decision to sack 12 district secretaries of his cabinet.
According to local media, Petro is trying to form a coalition with members of different parties who voted in favor of the four year development plan, the most expensive in the city’s history. The majority of funds will be allocated to improving public transportation and social and environmental programs.
Among the candidates Petro is talking to are members of the Cambio Radical Party, the Green Party, the U Party and the Liberal Party.