Two ministers and the administration chief of Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro resigned after the appointment of an allegedly corrupt cabinet chief.
Petro announced the appointment of former Senator Armando Benedetti as his cabinet chief on Tuesday last week, which led to rebellion in the cabinet.
In a cabinet meeting that was broadcast on national television, Vice-President Francia Marquez and a number of outspoken feminists in the government openly rejected the presence of Benedetti, who is under investigation on domestic abuse charges among other things.
Immediately after the meeting, Petro’s newly appointed director of the administration department, Jorge Rojas, resigned from the cabinet.
Rojas was followed by Culture Minister Juan David Correa, who suggested that Benedetti’s alleged violence towards women was the reason.
Environment Minister Susana Muhamad, one of Petro’s most successful and respected ministers, told media on Sunday that she too had resigned.
In the broadcast council of ministers, Muhamad said that she wouldn’t sit at the same table as Benedetti.
In response to the resignations, the president asked the remaining ministers for their protocolary resignation.
This would allow Petro to restore order in the cabinet where multiple Benedetti critics continue to occupy important positions.
The president’s defense of his cabinet chief has come at a high political cost, also among his supporters on social media.
