BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday said he expects his Finance Minister Ricardo Bonilla to resign amid an ongoing corruption scandal, though the president said he does not think the minister has committed any wrongdoing.
The growing scandal, which is being investigated by the attorney general’s office and other entities, revolves around the alleged misdirection of resources from the national disaster management agency (UNGRD) and has been tied to various officials, including a former interior minister.
The scandal ignited earlier this year when two former UNGRD officials were accused of ties to suspicious purchases of water tankers for 46.8 billion pesos ($10.5 million), which were supposedly bought to supply remote areas of Colombia’s La Guajira province with water.
The Supreme Court called on former Interior Minister Luis Fernando Velasco to testify in the probe, saying its investigation “begins with the hypothesis of the crimes of bribery and possible illicit enrichment.”
UNGRD former deputy director Sneyder Pinilla, one of the two officials investigated, said former presidents of the senate and chamber of representatives, Ivan Name and Andres Calle, received huge sums of money to help push the president’s social and economic reforms through Congress.
Both Name and Calle denied the accusations.
Bonilla has previously said he has not committed any crime and respects the work of the attorney general’s office.
“I expect his resignation, not because I believe him guilty, but because they want to tear him apart for being loyal to the government’s program and they want to unconstitutionally take down the government,” Petro said in a long posting on X.
Petro has repeatedly accused his political enemies of seeking to illegally remove him from office.
The finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Should Bonilla resign, he will be the second finance minister to leave Petro’s government, which took power in August 2022.
In April 2023, Petro called for the resignation of Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo, who was replaced by Bonilla, as well as other ministers after a proposed health reform was held up in the Colombian Congress’ lower house.
(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra, Oliver Griffin and Carlos Vargas; Writing by Oliver Griffin and Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
Comments