Sacked ministers were aware of president’s decision, chief of staff assured

Laura Sarabia, the person in charge of managing President Gustavo Petro’s agenda and his relations with ministers and other officials, denied the former ministers who left the cabinet. He stressed that they were aware of the decision before the president announced it publicly.

“It is important to specify that the two ministers and the outgoing minister were aware of the decision of the President Gustavo Petro before the presidential speech. The versions that have been notified to them by the media are, to say the least, imprecise”, writes the head of office of the Presidency via Twitter.

Ariza there the distance they had said, snail radiowho were unaware of the decision before the presidential speech in which Petro thanked them for their services and named the replacements, at least in the portfolio of Education there deportwhile in Culture will be on order.

There former minister of culture pointed out that they called her two or three minutes before 7 p.m. when the president made the announcement publicly, she said in On the radio. The former minister said it was Sarabia who contacted her to tell her that the president wanted her to resign, which she had already guessed, but it was not confirmed until shortly before the speech. refused to attend the Narino Palace.

He assured that he had no problem with Petro and that he did not know the reasons why it was decided to withdraw her. He said he had differences with Ignatius Zorro, the Deputy Minister, regarding the notion of culture and who will now replace her in the portfolio as manager. “I was surprised by the decision, but the president exercised his right. What bothers me is the way it was done,” said Ariza, who said he would continue to support the historic Pact political project to which he belongs.

Ahead of claims by ex-ministers and comments on social media that said personal notification of the decision had not been made, Sarabia He pointed out that they had tried but it had not been possible because none of the three officials showed up for an appointment.

“It is surely a misunderstanding but that is why I have made the clarification. The ministers, like the whole of the cabinet, are summoned in the afternoon where they will be notified of the decision. For reasons that I don’t know, they didn’t show up, which they were told about by phone,” said the head of office.

version of the distance, who was Minister of Sports until February 27, has another version of his dismissal. “They never told me anything, they told me there was a press conferencebut that she could not be there because she was no longer a minister. That was the story; It wasn’t the way, because I did my job,” he told the station. Radio Blue.

Urrutia assured that his departure is not due to corruption or not having worked, but he attributed the reasons to a possible negotiation of political quotas with political parties. However, the President stressed that these decisions had nothing to do with the meetings he had previously had with the leaders of the liberal party, U-Day there Conservative.

The only reason he gave President Petro when the decision was announced was that it was “a decisive moment for the reforms”, for which “more cohesion and determination” are necessary, to advance the various projects which should be approved this year in the Congress of the Republic.

Ariza and Urrutia had both been part of the Historic Pact, the former as part of the Patriotic Union and the latter as part of the Colombia Human. The third, Alexandre Gaviriawas the only one not part of this sector, but joined the campaign after the first round.