Televised Colombia Cabinet Meeting Plunges Into Chaos, Tears
(Bloomberg) -- Colombia’s first-ever televised cabinet meeting descended into acrimony as President Gustavo Petro’s ministers traded barbs and aired personal grievances.
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Petro arranged for the Tuesday evening gathering to be webcast in a bid to make Colombia’s democracy more transparent, saying most such events would be broadcast in future.
But after the Andean nation’s leftist president spent more than an hour questioning his housing and defense ministers on unfinished projects, participation was opened to the group and some of his ministers began attacking one another. A key aide to Petro announced his resignation Wednesday morning.
Vice President Francia Márquez said newly-named Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia had treated her with disrespect and criticized the appointment of scandal-plagued Armando Benedetti as chief of staff.
Márquez also complained about the various graft scandals that have roiled the administration. “It pains me that in this government that I helped elect there are so many acts of corruption,” she said.
Environment Minister Susana Muhamad teared up as she joined in the attacks on Benedetti. “As a feminist, I cannot sit at the same table as Armando Benedetti,” she said, in apparent reference to an allegation of domestic violence made against the cabinet chief.
Benedetti studied his phone while he was being criticized.
Jorge Rojas, the head of presidency’s administrative department, told W Radio on Wednesday he had presented his resignation, less than a week after his official appointment.
His exit could portend more changes in Petro’s cabinet after the raucous televised session. The president recently reshuffled key roles in his administration as he struggles to rein in the fiscal deficit amid lower-than-expected tax revenue and weak economic growth.
--With assistance from Andrea Jaramillo.
(Updates with Rojas resignation beginning in 3rd paragraph.)
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