Colombian president orders Cabinet to resign

BOGOTA, Colombia

Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced Sunday afternoon that he has formally requested the resignation of his entire Cabinet.

“There will be some changes in the cabinet to achieve greater compliance with the program mandated by the people. The government will focus completely on following the program,” Petro wrote on X.

Earlier in the day, Environment Minister Susana Muhamad confirmed in an interview with local media that she had stepped down. Labor Minister Gloria Ines Ramirez soon followed, announcing her resignation as well.

A total of four Cabinet members have now left their posts, including Jorge Rojas, the head of the presidency’s administrative department, and Culture Minister Juan David Correa.

The resignations followed a tense six-hour Cabinet meeting broadcast live on Tuesday.

During the meeting, Muhamad suggested she would step down if Armando Benedetti, a former ambassador to Venezuela, was appointed head of the presidential office. Benedetti’s return to government has drawn criticism from Muhamad, Vice President Francia Marquez, and other officials due to his ties to domestic violence cases and an ongoing investigation into irregularities in presidential campaign financing.

They also objected to the appointment of Laura Sarabia as foreign minister, citing her involvement in a case of alleged illegal wiretapping against her nanny.

Petro’s call for mass resignations came just hours before he departed for Dubai to attend the World Government Summit 2025. He is accompanied by three ministers and two interim ministers, while the remaining 14 ministries remain in Colombia with their formal resignations in Petro’s hands.

Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo, who was absent from Tuesday’s meeting, had proposed the Cabinet’s collective resignation on Wednesday, calling its current composition “unsustainable.”

So far, Sarabia, who has held the foreign minister post for less than a month, is the only one to have formally submitted her resignation.

“I have repeatedly expressed that there is no greater privilege or honor than serving the Colombian people. In order for him to be able to make the decisions he considers most appropriate, I allow myself to present my formal resignation to President Petro,” she wrote Sunday on X.