Through a message on his X account, President Gustavo Petro confirmed that Luis Fernando Velasco is leaving the Ministry of the Interior, the Government’s political portfolio. For several days, the president was expected to announce his ministerial shake-up, close to completing two years of his mandate, and with Velasco the remodeling of his cabinet seems to have begun. Although the president has not confirmed who would be the minister’s replacement, the rattle points to Juan Fernando Cristo, leader of the En Marcha political party.
In the message with which Petro announced the replacement, he referred to a recent survey in which his popularity remains low and to the well-known “constituent power”: an idea that the president put on the table since May, when his health reform in the legislature. Although the first time he referred to the issue he spoke specifically of a National Constituent Assembly, in subsequent statements he has appealed to other resources such as a constitutional referendum or, simply, the “constituent power.” He now asks the new minister to “concrete” that so-called power.
“The next minister of the interior will make the necessary contacts so that the constituent power is achieved in this or the next government,” he said on his X account. “Thank you, Minister Velasco, for your good work,” he added.
They conduct false surveys to stop the constituent power
The next minister of the interior will make the necessary contacts so that constituent power is achieved in this or the next government. Thank you Minister Velasco for your good work pic.twitter.com/d8rp6P9d3C
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 29, 2024
Through the same social network, Minister Velasco confirmed that his departure from Congress had been confirmed “a couple of weeks” ago in the presidential office. In response to Petro, he assured that he will continue defending the president’s political project “from the space in which it is useful.” And he spoke about what he considers a successful balance in the legislature: he promoted the labor reform, which managed to advance in the House of Representatives, along with the pension reform, already approved in all its debates. “I leave to progressivism the most important social reform approved in decades, we leave alive the possibility of returning rights to workers who were lost with the excuse of new jobs that did not arrive and a legislative agenda with more than 35 initiatives approved or on the way to your approval,” he wrote on his X account.
The changes in the cabinet had already been announced by the president since the beginning of this month, on a trip the president made to Sweden. “We have to evaluate those who have been able to bring the change forward and those who have not been able to with those who do not want to lose privileges and prevent those changes from being made. We are going to evaluate and according to that there will be changes in the Cabinet,” he said then. “It is now a time of rest for some and opportunities for others,” he added, without further details.
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The labor reform, which Velasco highlighted on his social networks, achieved majorities with the support of congressmen in the Liberal, La U and Conservative parties. Labor Minister Gloria Inés Ramírez, the head of this progressive reform, told EL PAÍS just a week ago that the success of the reform had been, in part, due to “being pragmatic in Congress.” Velasco was key there.
However, his victories as the Government’s spokesperson in Congress were few. The education reform, which reached consensus from all political sectors, ended up collapsing in the last days of the legislative period. Velasco also had no success with the health reform, the most important project of the Executive, when at the end of April the Seventh Commission voted to archive the project. That has been the initiative that has cost the Government the most to carry out. Since August 2022, the president prioritized his processing over even the labor and pension reforms. And Velasco managed to ensure that the last two were the ones who came out ahead. Now it is not clear who will replace him, or where he will go.
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