The Minister of Finance of Colombia, Ricardo Bonillapresented this Wednesday his “irrevocable resignation“, after the president of the country himself, and his ally for years, Gustavo Petro, I asked him in the midst of the scandals that plague both parties, in what appears to be a crossfire.
Petro had been defending for days to his Minister of Finance, who has accompanied him in his closest circle since he was mayor of Bogotá, in the face of accusations that involved him in the largest corruption scandal facing the Government, and which has as its center the National Disaster Risk Management Unit (UNGRD).
Bonilla was identified as the person who authorized the disbursement of the UNGRD budgetafter the knowledge of the embezzlement of 46.8 billion pesos (about 10.64 million euros) in the purchase of 40 tanker trucks to bring drinking water to desert areas of the Caribbean department of La Guajira.
According to a chat posted by Caracol Newsthe now former minister supposedly coordinated the awarding of three contracts for 92,000 million pesos (almost 21 million euros) for benefit six congressmen in exchange about what will support the expansion of the debt quota of the Government. However, he has not yet been formally charged by the Prosecutor’s Office and it’s just being investigated.
Bonilla, who took office in May 2023 when he replaced Jose Antonio Ocampojustified his resignation by saying that he wants to focus on his “defense as a citizen devoid of the status of public official” and “avoid any damage to the future of the government on their public agenda.
Forced resignation
After a staunch defense, and after ensuring that he greatly respected him for “his intellectual depth as a real economist” and defending that the “accusation of Bonilla is unfair,” on Wednesday Petro changed his mind. Through X (formerly Twitter), asked him to resign, not because they considered him guilty, but because they were “tearing him to pieces”.
He did so with a vague excuse, without making reference to the UNGRD case, and highlighted the good work by Bonilla as minister and the good state of the economy, which has managed to get “Colombia out of the recession due to the over-indebtedness left by (the previous Colombian president, Iván) Duque.”
Petro declared that “before falling into the trap set by the extreme financial right and its politicians and the big mafia, I prefer that the doctor in economics, naive because he has no political practice, takes the path worthy of Varoufakis (former finance minister of Greece) and resign and don’t get dirty like Tsipras (Prime Minister of Greece)”.
Bonillla counterattack
However, this resignation occurs on the same day that a Bonilla’s own attack on Petro through his family. This Wednesday, a letter sent at the end of last October by Bonilla to the Prosecutor’s Office was made public, in which he informed the accusing body of alleged illegal acts carried out by the adopted son of the president and firstborn of his wife, Nicolas Alcocerand by the president of Ecopetrol, –Colombia’s main oil company– Ricardo Roa.
The letter was sent in connection with the investigation into the plant Urrá hydroelectriclocated in the Caribbean. The former minister wants to provide alleged information that has reached him about the undue pressure to favor contracts with the hydroelectric plant, whose majority shareholding is held by the State. It also denounces officials and external contractors, who would have had “full internal knowledge and privileged access to technical information.”
The economist assures that Roa, who was the manager of Petro’s campaign and is already being investigated for possible irregularities in its financing, “wants to keep all the energy and profitable companies in the sector“.
He also denounces Alcocer for seeking to “exert undue pressure” on the Ecopetrol board “to take control of it and favor your closest friends“.
This is not the first time that Petro’s son has been involved in a case being studied by the Prosecutor’s Office. The firstborn, Nicolas Petrois currently accused of alleged money laundering, illicit enrichment and violation of personal dataand has been under house arrest in the city of Barranquilla since mid-2023.
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