Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro burnt through another of his government secretaries, local media reported on Tuesday. Hugo Zarrate is the fourth to resign since Petro’s installment in January 2012.
When the leftist mayor landed the city’s top job, former governor Navarro Wolf, an old comrade from the two’s shared time in the M-19 rebel group, came on as government secretary, the second most powerful position under the mayor.
But just three months later, Wolf handed in his resignation for “personal reasons.” Today he is a senator.
Taking his place was Jorge Rojas, who filled the void temporarily while Petro looked for a more permanent replacement.
When Guillermo Asprilla came along, he held the job for over a year, even being known as the mayor’s “right hand.” Then the prosecutor’s office and Ministry of Public Affairs barred him from holding public office for 12 years. Scratch another one.
After Asprilla’s departure came ex-senator Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo. He held the job until that February, when he decided to assist with the campaign seeking the ouster of his boss, mayor Petro.
Since then, Hugo Zarrate has held the post, becoming the fourth government secretary in under three years.
Zarrate, carrying on tradition, recently resigned from the post as well, citing, as others have before, “personal reasons.”
With a total of four government secretaries in less than three years and a new one, Gloria Florez, recently inaugurated, the mayor’s ability to form a functional government in the country’s capital and most important city is under heavy scrutiny, especially when it is widely speculated that in the coming days other top officials in his governing team will resign.
“These changes show that the mayor has not yet been able to consolidate a strong and stable team. …It is vital to ensure the governance section of the city by Florez accompanying the mayor until the end of his term,” said Carlos Vicente de Roux, an advisor to the mayor.
