2023-05-17 13:53:30
On April 26, Gustavo Petro announced the changes in his cabinet, after requesting the resignation of all his ministers. This change is the result of the departure of the Liberal, Conservative and U parties from the coalition, by stating that they would not support the health, labor and pension reforms that are undergoing parliamentary proceedings.
By: Antonio Romero / PST Colombia
Media analysis shows that Petro removed the ministers of the parties that left the so-called government coalition, to make a more ‘petrista’ cabinet, but the departure of the Minister of Health, Carolina Corcho, shows everything contrary. The changes in the cabinet are due to a new negotiation between Petro and bourgeois sectors and his expression in the traditional parties, no longer with the leadership of the parties but directly with the parliamentarians.
Those who leave, those who enter
Sandra Urrutia leaves the ICT ministry and Mauricio Lizcano enters, from the U Party, who had been working as director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency, to which Carlos Ramón González, from the Green Alliance, arrives.
Ricardo Bonilla arrives at the Ministry of Finance, a fundamental figure in the economic proposals of progressivism, who accompanied Petro from his Mayor’s Office of Bogotá, in addition, he continues to be a bridge with santismo and replaces the liberal José Antonio Ocampo. Another one close to Petro arrives for the Ministry of Health, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo, replacing the minister who represented the Petrist reforms, Carolina Corcho, whose head was delivered on a platter to the bourgeoisie for a new negotiation.
The santista Alfonso Prada also leaves the Ministry of the Interior and the liberal Luis Fernando Velasco arrives. From this ministry, Velasco, who comes from the bowels of the Liberal Party, surely has the mission of winning a large part of this party to remain in the government coalition, and for this it is necessary to counteract the power of César Gaviria. In agriculture, a liberal leaves – Cecilio Orozco – and a new minister close to Petro, Jhenifer Mojica, enters. In transport, Guillermo Reyes leaves, and William Camargo enters, who has just presided over the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI). Finally, Arturo Luna, Minister of Science, leaves, who is replaced by Yesenia Olaya.
beyond the names
With the changes in the ministries, two of the signatories of the letter against the health reform leave, who had survived the first shock in which Alejandro Gaviria left the education portfolio: José Antonio Ocampo and Cecilia López.
These changes do not mean that the Petro government breaks with the traditional parties, but that there is a renegotiation. In the cabinet there are still liberals like Catalina Velasco in Housing and Néstor Osuna in Justice. However, there is an evident turn towards the inner circle of the Petro administration in the District which is not a ‘turn to the left’ but rather towards the social democratic technocracy serving the bourgeoisie.
Cabinet crises are common in bourgeois governments and are used to negotiate with the different sectors that have their say in the Congress of the Republic, that finance campaigns or that directly influence because the laws they approve benefit their businesses. Presidents have traditionally controlled congressmen with bureaucracy and contracts, in a country like Colombia where the Presidency of the Republic has the capacity to violate the republican illusions of the balance between the branches of public power. In the past they called congressmen who voted without taking into account their bench “lentils”, alluding to the biblical passage, a few years ago they called it “jam”, but it continues to be the same strategy that apparently is the path that Petro does not resign.
But the ministerial crisis, in addition to being a transaction mechanism for “governance”, for a Popular Front government like Petro’s, that is, class alliance and collaboration, the ministerial crises and the internal convulsions of the coalition of government are also an expression of the correlation between classes. The interests of the bourgeoisie collide head-on with the reformist illusions and expectations of the masses, especially when these are transformed into direct struggle. The fierce debates surrounding health reform demonstrate this. What Petro is trying to do is settle these irresolvable contradictions in a highly unstable coalition. But unfortunately, the limitations of Petro and of this type of government end up favoring the most general interests of the bourgeoisie; although paradoxically, in this task he has to face some bourgeois factions. Everything to maintain the class alliance that makes up his government; to the detriment of the interests of the working class and popular sectors, which end up paralyzed or openly betrayed.
From the clamor of the streets to palace intrigues
From the Petro government, which is presented as the ‘government of change’, the masses expect it to respond to the demands of the Social Outbreak that led it to the Presidency, to respect the clamor in the streets that demands real reforms and to confront the the bourgeois sectors that will not hesitate to put obstacles even to the lukewarm water wipes that until now have been proposed as reforms.
But Petro, faithful to his electoral campaign and his aspiration to unite the impossible, to reconcile exploiters already exploited, oppressors already oppressed, victims and victimizers, has taken the path of cutting reforms by negotiating directly with congressmen, their votes for some reforms that he has agreed with bourgeois sectors and with imperialism.
The changes in the Cabinet are not a change in Petro’s policy, which continues to insist on agreeing on the reforms with the bourgeoisie, but a change in his negotiating team and a return to the traditional way of negotiating the votes of congressmen individually .
The most serious thing is that the leaderships of the social movement and the working class have taken the path of supporting these mini-reforms in exchange for bureaucratic crumbs and their timid calls to the streets are to “stop the revolution” and not to achieve the goals changes that are needed.
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