Barely two and a half months after the start of his government, the president Abelardo De La Espriella decided to do without of one of its key officials: the minister Rodrigo Lara Restrepo. Around 9 pm last night, through a trill, De La Espriella thanked Lara “for her service to Colombia” and announced the appointment of former attorney Alejandro Ordóñezwho today is ambassador to the OAS, as new Minister of Politics.
“I welcome the doctor Alejandro Ordóñez Maldonadowho will take over as the new Minister of the Interior. “His experience, character and trajectory will be fundamental to face the great challenges of our nation,” wrote the President. In the interim, while Ordóñez closes his cycle in the embassy (which is based in Washington), the position It will be exercised by the current head of Justice, Iván Cancino.
Lara, according to several sources, was notified of his departure almost in real time. In fact, a few minutes before De La Espriella’s tweet, he had published on his social networks a report of his appointment with senior United Nations officials to talk about the anti-terrorist statute.
“We will count on the cooperation and technical assistance of the UN to strengthen its practical development and application,” says the last tweet published until last night. The now former Minister of the Interior and his Treasury colleague, Enrique Gómez Martínez, They had to overcome tough questions yesterday for the unprecedented procedural error in the approval of the General Budget of the Nation for 2027which ended up sinking it for legal reasons and forced the Government to resort to the decree route to punish him.
This Wednesday, the minister had led the successful startup of the discussion of the law of submission to justiceone of the key initiatives of the current government’s security strategy and which in record time received the blessing of the joint first committees (see page 4). And his portfolio had advanced several key initiatives for the President, such as the mechanisms to unblock the progress of strategic projects for the country slowed by popular consultations.
The political cost of the error with the budget added to a series of disagreements that the Minister of Politics had had with figures very close to his boss, President Abelardo De La Espriella. Particularly, His relationship was not good with Carlos Suárezstrategist of Abelardo’s campaign and one of the most influential men in the current administration.
Recognized for his work as a former congressman, Lara’s management started with noises because the Government could not prevail in the fight with the Democratic Center in the election of the president of Congress. However, his handling of relations with the parties showed him as a leading role in the Executive.
The analyst Gonzalo Araújo says that, although Lara had had a hard time securing majorities for the ruling party in the first year of his mandate, it is not so clear how this situation could improve with the Interior portfolio in the hands of a profile like that of Alejandro Ordóñezwho has more control of the judicial world What political expertise (he was Attorney General and State Councilor).
Characterized by his positions against legal abortion and gay adoption, Ordóñez already had representation in the cabinet: the Minister of Education, Ilva Miryam Hoyoswas one of his right hands in the Attorney General’s Office. Those tough positions, analysts say, could make the new minister’s task difficult of the Policy.
POLICY
