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Colombian President Gustavo Petro lost his 13th minister in three months, further disrupting the country’s first left government in more than a year until the next presidential election.
Finance Minister Diego Guebarra, who took office in December, said he left on Tuesday after a “serene and friendly personal conversation” with Peter.
However, local media reports denied by the Treasury cited the destruction of the minister’s efforts to curb the growing fiscal deficit.
Since taking office in 2022, the Peso has to name his fourth finance minister since the Peso fell over rumors that the president refused to cut his spending. Guevara’s predecessor resigned in a corruption investigation, and Petro’s original cabinet is not in office.
The president, who is unable to run again in 2026 due to constitutional period restrictions, is desperately trying to save something from the rest of his time.
This week he pledged a referendum on two signature laws recently blocked by Congress, calling for a massive march in support of his reforms. Tuesday’s demonstration was attended primarily by union members and public sector workers who were given a break.
The internal turmoil of the Peter government was exposed last month at a televised cabinet meeting. At the meeting, left-wing ministers, including Vice President Francia Marquez, protested against scandal-hit fixer Armando Benedetti, who was included in the government’s Chiefs of Staff.
Peter denounced his minister for ideological sectarianism and called for a mass resignation a few days later. He then promoted Benedetti to Minister of Home Affairs, but removed Marquez, a prominent Afro-Colombian activist, from her post in the newly created Ministry of Equality. She remains the vice president.
Like Marquez, 10 other ministers have resigned, and the Foreign Minister has already resigned in January.
Colombian parliament rejected the tax rise proposed in December, and after 6.8% of GDP last year, lowering revenues lower than expected, lower than expected revenues by the government.
PESO fell 1.7% against the dollar after local media reported Guevara resigned on Tuesday and slipped another 0.6% on Wednesday morning.
Munir Jalil, chief economist for the Andean region at BTG Pactual, said Colombia will suffer greater market turmoil if rumors are confirmed about Petro’s blocking budget cuts.
“If this is confirmed, what we can expect is that no one appointed to the post wants to commit in favor of financial integration,” Jalil said. “This should be bad news for sovereign debt and currency.”
Earlier this month, rating agency Fitch downgraded Colombia’s credit outlook from “stable” to “negative,” citing concerns about “deteriorating financial position and uncertain outlook for corrective actions.” Columbia lost its investment grade status in 2021.
Additional Reports by Tommy Stubbington in London
