Seven new ministers will be sworn into office by President Gustavo Petro of Colombia later today, following a large-scale cabinet shakeup whose scope surprised local analysts.
The most notable change will come at the Finance Ministry, where Ricardo Bonilla — a close associate of Mr. Petro who was already his finance secretary during his time as Bogotá mayor — will replace José Antonio Ocampo, an academic who will return to his teaching position at Columbia University in New York.
Mr. Ocampo led a tax reform that is expected to increase government revenue by 1.5 percent of GDP, ensuring that the country’s already high fiscal deficit did not spiral out of control despite larger spending proposed by the Petro administration.
Mr. Ocampo was also seen as a moderating force within the administration, warning about the excessive costs of Mr. Petro’s health reform proposals and acting as a mediator with markets and technocrats.
Other centrists, such as Agriculture Minister Cecilia López and Transport Minister Guillermo Reyes, also left their posts in a move that pundits saw as a shift towards the left, part of an attempt to quell internal dissent amid a push to sanction ambitious health, pension, labor, and political reform bills through Congress.
Their ousting follows the resignation of former ally Alejandro Gaviria, another centrist, earlier this year. “The president is feeling cornered, and his DNA is pushing him in more radical directions,” former center-right President Juan Manuel Santos said of Mr. Petro.
Despite this, the president also accepted the resignation of Health Minister Carolina Corcho, the face of his controversial health reform which had sparked the most criticism from the center. She will be replaced by Guillermo Jaramillo, another ally of Mr. Petro who worked with him during his time as mayor.
“We are performing surgery on our healthcare system to solve what we think needs to be changed. We have differences in what we think the system should look like, but we can make things better if we work together, this is what the resident wants, and we are going to achieve it,” Mr. Jaramillo said.
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