Colombia’s Interior Ministor Fabio Valencia Cossio will not resign, he
told Partido de la U, the coalition party that had asked him to step
down Wednesday.
The party, consistently the most loyal with President Alvaro Uribe’s policies, had threatened earlier Wednesday to withdraw its support from the referendum that seeks a re-election of the President in 2010.
The Uribistas are upset after fellow coalition party Cambio Radical breached a pact with the government and prevented a De la U
Representative to become president of the House of Representatives.
The tense atmosphere within the coalition is being worsened by the insecurity concerning the re-election of President Alvaro Uribe. The President himself continues to refuse to speak out about his ambitions for 2010, while efforts to secure his re-election are under heavy pressure.
The Supreme Court is investigating 86 coalition lawmakers for allegedly illegally approving the bill for the referendum and within the coalition parties there is a growing insecurity about who supports the re-election and who doesn’t.
Valencia Cossio recognized the loyalty of De la U within the coalition, but refuses to step down because he has “a responsibility to talk to the new directive boards [of Congress] and the different parties to make sure it (the referendum) will be approved.”