Radical left in Colombia reveals itself due to the arrival of Armando Benedetti to the Government

Ministers, congressmen and allies of the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, showed this Tuesday their disagreement with the arrival of the controversial politician Armando Benedetti to the Government as advisor to the president after resigning to be ambassador to the FAO and being involved in several scandals.

After the official announcement of the arrival of Benedetti, who was Petro’s campaign manager, to Bogotá, several ministers requested a meeting with the president to explain the role he will have.

The director of the Department of Social Prosperity (DPS), Gustavo Bolívar, one of the head of state’s greatest allies, justified after this meeting: “It was not a rebellion, but a consultation. We were asking the president why Armando Benedetti is coming to the government, he already gave us an explanation and told us that he is going to be a liaison with Congress”.

Another of Petro’s close friends and one of the most respected figures of the Colombian left, the senator of the Historical Pact Iván Cepeda, was also tough: “I express my support to the ministers of our government who ask for a critical reflection on the arrival of Armando Benedetti to the Casa de Nariño. There are a series of facts that severely question the compatibility of that decision with our political project”.

Armando Benedetti, protagonist of several political scandals, He confirmed on Monday that he was leaving the Colombian embassy to the FAO in Rome, citing personal reasons, and later the Presidency itself confirmed that he was coming to the Government to occupy a position as political advisor to the Colombian president.

The controversial politician was one of Petro’s greatest supporters in the 2022 elections to reach the Presidency. He was his first ambassador to Venezuela, a position he left in the midst of a leak scandal and a confrontation with the president’s current right-hand man, his chief of staff Laura Sarabia, and even threatened to reveal alleged irregularities in the current president’s campaign.

Benedetti also starred in a sexist violence scandal last July, after his wife, Adelina Guerrero, reported him for physical attacks during a trip to Madrid, Spain, which led the Colombian Foreign Ministry to announce the opening of a process disciplinary against him.

More reactions

“I join the call of our ministers who yesterday raised a critical reflection on the strengthening of people whose positions and actions have been incompatible with our principles. As a woman I will not justify those who violate us,” expressed, for her part, the ruling party senator María José Pizarro.

A message also shared by Senator Ariel Ávila, who is not part of the ruling party, who considered that “a person with as many questions as Benedetti should not return to the Government.”

In fact, Petro has found little support in this new decision, only from Sarabia, current director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency of the Republic (Dapre), who met with both on Monday and who, apparently, smoothed over the rough edges with Benedetti, with whom he had a verbal confrontation and both were involved in an illegal wiretapping scandal.

“I arrive as political advisor to the President of the Republic due to the friendship and closeness I have with him”Benedetti stressed in statements to journalists, and indicated that, among his functions – which he does not know if he will perform as a contractor or as a public employee – will be to strengthen relations with the Colombian Congress.

Petro is scheduled to lead a Council of Ministers this Tuesday in which he will give more details about Benedetti’s arrival after the discontent shown by several members of his cabinet.

It has also been a criticized decision among the opposition. The senator from the opposition Democratic Center María Fernanda Cabal assured that “Petro knows that if Benedetti speaks, no one will be saved,” in reference to the insinuations of the now presidential advisor to reveal alleged irregularities that the president had committed in the presidential campaign.

EFE