Colombian President Petro will replace the embattled finance minister Government Affairs
Ricardo Bonilla is the second finance minister to leave Petro’s government, which is facing legal challenges and investigations.
A key member of President Gustavo Petro’s government in Colombia has resigned, due to the latest corruption scandal rocking the administration.
Finance Minister Ricardo Bonilla stepped down from his post on Wednesday, though he remained defiant in the face of allegations that he diverted money from a Colombian disaster relief agency to buy votes in a congressional committee on government finance.
“I walk with my head held high, confident that I will convince my investigators that I did not buy peace or votes from congressmen,” Bonilla. he wrote on social media.
He denied committing a crime. “The defense that I and my legal team conduct is based on truth and transparency.”
President Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president, has faced a series of scandals and legal impasses since taking office in 2022. But he stood by Bonilla, although he accepted the minister’s resignation.
“I know that Bonilla’s accusation is unfair,” Petro he wrote in one of two long comments on social media, describing Bonilla as “a true economist, dedicated to the needs of his people”.
But, Petro added, “politics and law continued to be based on corruption” in Colombia.
Petro immediately removed Bonilla and installed his deputy finance minister, Diego Guevara, on Wednesday afternoon.
Bonilla was the second finance minister to leave Petro’s government. He took over from Jose Antonio Ocampo in 2023, after Petro abruptly reshuffled his cabinet.
The scandal that brought down Bonilla emerged earlier this year when the public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into the large contracts of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, or UNGRD.
Some of the purchases allegedly involved $10.5m worth of contracts for malfunctioning water tanks aimed at La Guajira state, where residents are struggling to get drinking water.
The former head of the UNGRD was accused of influence peddling, in a scandal that grew to include Bonilla himself.
Colombia’s Supreme Court has since revealed that its investigation hinges on “criminal acts of bribery and possible illegal enrichment”.
The former deputy director of the UNGRD, Sneyder Pinilla – who is also being investigated – has become a cooperating witness. His lawyers say he has provided evidence of a “criminal network” linking the UNGRD to senior government officials.
But Petro has largely dismissed the allegations of corruption in his government.
For example, in October, when election officials announced they were investigating possible campaign finance violations in Petro’s landmark presidential bid, the president labeled the efforts as sabotage.
“The coup has begun,” wrote Petro on social media.
That investigation is still ongoing and includes not only Petro but also his former campaign manager Ricardo Roa.
Petro’s son, Nicolas Petro, was also arrested in 2023 for allegedly accepting money from people connected to drug trafficking, although he denied that his father, the president, knew anything about the scheme.
President Petro tied the cases together in his own statement on Wednesday regarding Bonilla’s resignation.
There are people, he wrote on social media, who want to use the scandal affecting Bonilla “to make the economic policy of the government collapse”.
“They are the ones who say that Bonilla criticized Roa and my son, when he is an unknown liar since the month of October given by the Ministry of Finance,” said Petro.
“They want to separate us from the wars they create for themselves.”
