After confirming the resignation of Ricardo Bonilla as Minister of Finance, President Gustavo Petro already appointed the new head of the portfolio: Diego Alejandro Guevara Castañeda.
Guevara was one of the names that began to be heard strongly after Bonilla’s departure and had been serving as Vice Minister of Finance.
He had been holding that position since August 2022, at the beginning of the Petro government. It started with former minister José Antonio Ocampo and, with the arrival of Bonilla, in April 2023, it was ratified.
“Guevara is a professor who knows the entire process we have had fighting so that the capital funds of the internal and external public debt do not drown us, fighting against high interest rates, fighting to reduce the deficit that Iván’s government left us Duke brutally over-indebting the country. Debt that was neither to stop covid-19 nor hunger in Colombia“said Petro from Uruguay, where he is strengthening bilateral relations, when making the announcement.
Diego Guevara, new Minister of Finance
“Now Petro has to pay Duque’s debts and Congress, with Duque’s friends, does not want us to pay it: they believe that we are going to collapse, irresponsibly ruining Colombia and all its companies. The economic reactivation law that we present includes an article that says that all companies in the country lower their taxes to reactivate the economy, that the middle class lower their taxes. But since you propose compensations, such as that games of luck and chance pay more taxes or that coal and oil exports pay more taxes, they want to sabotage the financing law“added the president in his explanation of the decision to choose his new Minhacienda.
Guevara He has a doctor in economics, a master’s degree in economic sciences and an engineer from the National University of Colombia. His career also includes having been a consultant for the French Agency for Development and an associate professor and researcher at different higher education institutions in the country.
Bonilla’s departure
In a letter addressed to Petro, Bonilla presented his “irrevocable resignation from the position of Minister of Finance and Public Credit of Colombia“and maintained that he always said”that I respect the work of the Prosecutor’s Office and that I would not use my position in the cabinet to defend myself“.
He assured that he leaves the Ministry of Finance with his “head held high”, and that he trusts in convincing his investigators that he did not buy silences or votes from congressmen “neither indicative quotas nor did I commit any crime for personal gain.”
Bonilla has been pointed out his possible participation in the corruption network in the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD).
In his first, and cut management balance after resigning, he said that he leaves Colombia’s finances with “good health” and fiscal stability is maintained “despite external and internal circumstances that we had to face.”
Bonilla’s resignation occurred after President Petro publicly requested it on the social network X.
CAMILO HERNÁNDEZ M.
Digital Portfolio Editor
