The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and his cabinet starred this Tuesday in a chaotic council of ministers of more than four hours long that for the first time was broadcast on television and social networks and reflected the internal fractures of the Government.

Petro decided to broadcast the session with the argument that “democracy is that the people can watch, participate” in the decisions of the Government, because he believes that “every administrative act must be public and transparent”.

However, the council of ministers ended up being a scenario of confrontation in which several officials, with Vice President Francia Márquez at the head, criticized the president’s decisions, such as the return to the Government as head of office of former Ambassador Armando Benedetti, accused of corruption, as well as the excessive power of Chancellor Laura Sarabia, Petro’s right hand.

Petro, who is facing the last year and a half of his government in Colombia, also took the opportunity to question the results of some of his ministers and talk about other important issues such as the diplomatic crisis with the United States and Venezuela’s support to face the violence at the border.

The breaking point was marked by the vice president, who is also Minister of Equality, and who took advantage of the space transmitted to the country to express to Petro her dissatisfaction with the appointment of Benedetti and to criticize the new foreign minister Laura Sarabia.

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CEL

“I don’t think so, and I respect Benedetti, but I don’t share your decision; I respect you because you are the head of state and you are the president, but I don’t share your decision to bring to this Government those people who we know have a large part of responsibility for what is happening,” said Márquez, who was seconded in her criticism by the Minister of the Environment, Susana Muhamad, and by the director of the Department for Social Prosperity (DPS), Gustavo Bolívar.

Benedetti, appointed today in the new position by Petro, was one of his greatest supporters in the 2022 presidential elections and his first ambassador to Venezuela, a position he left in the middle of a scandal of illegal wiretapping in which he even threatened to reveal alleged irregularities in the campaign of the current president.

Sarabia, then chief of staff, was also involved in that scandal, because illegal interceptions of her nanny, Marelbys Meza, were known, who was subjected to a polygraph test without a court order after the alleged robbery at her house of a suitcase in which there was about 7,000 dollars.

However, Sarabia enjoys enormous power in the Government, where she has held different positions, the most recent, that of chancellor, since last week.

“And I don’t think in this Government Laura Sarabia’s attitudes with us, with me, that I have had to tell her, ‘Respect me, I’m the vice president’,” Márquez claimed.

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Because of these scandals, the Minister of the Environment assured: “I have to say that neither foreign relations nor the current office management are in the hands of this project, they are in the hands of the opposite of this project.”

Petro took advantage of the council of ministers to criticize, again, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, because he considers that migrants should arrive in their country without being handcuffed and that once this happens, we will talk about business.

“Trump thinks we kneel for the merchandise, he thinks we are like him. Watch out! We are different, we are not him, we can understand each other yes, I am not saying no, he has to understand the difference. Progressiveness puts the person above the merchandise. First they arrive without wives and then we talk about business, not the other way around,” he said.

He also said that the Venezuelan authorities are “deactivating camps” of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in that country, something that happens in the midst of the confrontations between that guerrilla and a FARC dissident in the border region of Catatumbo.

“Our strategy with Venezuela in international politics worked, that is, they are deactivating ELN camps in Venezuela because they consider it valuable (to have) a healthy diplomatic relationship with Colombia,” Petro said.

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At the close of the Council of Ministers, the director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency of the Republic (Dapre), Jorge Rojas, described the decision to broadcast the session on television and social networks as “very bold, even risky”.

“In a gesture that I value for its capacity for transparency and communication with public opinion, but that we surely have to review in its methodology so that this communication with the Colombian people is assertive, has results and conclusions,” he said.

What happened today at the House of Nariño ignited social networks where citizens have commented sarcastically on what was said by the head of state and his ministers.