Colombia’s Cabinet Implodes

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Latin America Brief A one-stop weekly digest of politics, economics, technology, and culture in Latin America. Delivered Friday. Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to receive email correspondence from us. You may opt out at any time. Enter your email Sign Up ✓ Signed Up Colombia’s Cabinet Implodes The crisis is the latest setback for the Latin American left. Osborn-Catherine-foreign-policy-columnist15 Catherine Osborn By Catherine Osborn , the writer of Foreign Policy ’s weekly Latin America Brief. Colombian President Gustavo Petro attends a ceremony in Bogotá on July 9, 2024. Colombian President Gustavo Petro attends a ceremony in Bogotá on July 9, 2024. Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images My FP: Follow topics and authors to get straight to what you like. Exclusively for FP subscribers. Subscribe Now | Log In Politics Catherine Osborn February 14, 2025, 8:00 AM Comment icon View Comments ( 0 ) Welcome back to Foreign Policy ’s Latin America Brief. The highlights this week: High-profile ministers resign from Colombia’s government , Ecuador holds a first-round presidential election , and Guatemala celebrates its national instrument—the marimba . Welcome back to Foreign Policy ’s Latin America Brief. The highlights this week: High-profile ministers resign from Colombia’s government , Ecuador holds a first-round presidential election , and Guatemala celebrates its national instrument—the marimba . Trending Articles Vance Delivers Rebuke on Immigration, Alleged Censorship Situation Report covers the Munich Security Conference. Powered By Advertisement Vance Delivers Rebuke on Immigration, Alleged Censorship X Sign up to receive Latin America Brief in your inbox every Friday. Sign up to receive Latin America Brief in your inbox every Friday. Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to receive email correspondence from us. You may opt out at any time. Enter your email Sign Up ✓ Signed Up The New Pink Tide Ebbs Four cabinet ministers have announced their resignations from Colombia’s government in the last two weeks, as of Thursday evening local time. Though turnover is common under Colombian President Gustavo Petro, whose administration has replaced more than 40 ministers in two and a half years in office, the recent departures are more high-profile. The tumult has implications for Petro’s domestic legitimacy and regional legacy. Petro, who took office in 2022, was part of a wave of left-wing leaders elected across Latin America in the last few years. Observers wondered whether the region would see a return to the cooperation among leftist presidents in the 2000s and early 2010s, a group nicknamed the pink tide . Many of these leaders presided over historic reductions in inequality but later saw their reputations tarnished amid corruption allegations and economic stumbles , allowing the right to take power. The so-called new pink tide , including Petro and contemporaries such as Chilean President Gabriel Boric and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has had the opportunity to create a fresh identity for the Latin American left. Petro announced goals including diversifying Colombia’s economy away from oil, rejecting a militarized security policy, and carrying out a feminist foreign policy. Petro has taken steps toward those aims. Outgoing Colombian Environment Minister Susana Muhamad launched a portfolio of investments as part of the country’s green economic transformation. Numerous government cease-fires with rural guerrilla groups initially held firm . And feminist groups gained prominence across government, especially in the foreign ministry. But Petro’s chaotic leadership style soon got in the way. Petro “finds it difficult to give in on his ideas, and I think that is reflected in his inability to reach agreements with others,” said Rafael Piñeros Ayala, an international relations professor at Externado University. Petro has particularly bad relations with private industry groups, Ayala added, which complicates goals like attracting green investment . The events that preceded Colombia’s recent cabinet departures reflect Petro’s administrative bungles. On Feb. 4, against the advice of several people in his government, Petro named Armando Benedetti—a politician accused of corruption and violence against women—as chief of staff. That evening, Petro broadcasted a cabinet meeting in which he extensively criticized ministers for unfinished projects. On Feb. 9, he called for his entire cabinet to resign, and soon after he departed for a weeklong trip to the Middle East. Petro’s defense and environment ministers are among those who just stepped down, complicating two policy areas that the president had hoped would become examples across Latin America. Although Muhamad announced data showing positive developments in the fight against deforestation days ago, Colombia is faring decidedly worse on security. Talks between the government and the National Liberation Army guerrilla group broke down last month and more than 50,000 people have been displaced near Colombia’s border with Venezuela in recent weeks. Sign up for Editors’ Picks A curated selection of FP’s must-read stories. Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to receive email correspondence from us. You may opt out at any time. Enter your email Sign Up ✓ Signed Up You’re on the list! More ways to stay updated on global news: FP Live Enter your email Sign Up ✓ Signed Up World Brief Enter your email Sign Up ✓ Signed Up China Brief Enter your email Sign Up ✓ Signed Up South Asia Brief Enter your email Sign Up ✓ Signed Up Situation Report Enter your email Sign Up ✓ Signed Up View All Newsletters Petro’s shakeup—and his embrace of Benedetti—distances him from “the new left that is concerned with environmental and gender issues as well as preserving institutional and democratic positions,” Sandra Borda, a political science professor at the University of the Andes, posted on X. It is “terrible news for the left,” she added. Colombia holds its next presidential election in 2026, and an early poll last month shows a right-wing candidate leading the race. Chile , where a major effort to write a more progressive constitution failed early in Boric’s presidency, votes later this year; conservatives also lead opinion polls there. Last month, a poll showed negative views of Lula outpacing positive views for the first time in his two-year-old presidency. A handful of left-wing leaders in the region remain popular, most notably Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. But the tumult in Colombia is the latest sign that Latin America’s second pink tide may be shorter-lived than the first. Upcoming Events Wednesday, Feb. 19, to Friday, Feb. 21: Barbados hosts a Caribbean Community summit. Saturday, March 1, to Wednesday, March 5: Countries including Brazil, Colombia, and Trinidad and Tobago celebrate Carnival. What We’re Following Ticking clock on tariffs. Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s Monday announcement that he plans to impose blanket 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum, Brazilian and Mexican officials kicked into negotiating gear. Brazil and Mexico sent the second- and third-most steel products to the United States in 2024, respectively. Both countries appear to be trying the strategy of calm reasoning that Sheinbaum debuted against Trump when he announced a plan to impose 25 percent tariffs on all Mexican goods. Brazil’s vice president pointed out that the United States runs a trade surplus with the country and suggested the maintenance of a quota system in which some amounts of steel products remain duty-free if they fall under certain volumes. Mexico’s economy minister said that the United States runs a trade surplus with Mexico in steel and aluminum. Trump’s threatened duties go into effect on March 12 . Paused anti-corruption law. Trump’s order this week to temporarily block enforcement of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) turned heads in Latin America. The decades-old law is designed to halt U.S. businesspeople from bribing foreign government officials; Trump said that pausing it would “mean a lot more business for America.” Latin America has been home to several high-profile cases tried under the FCPA in recent years, including those initially uncovered as part of a sweeping Brazilian anti-corruption investigation in the 2010s known as Operation Car Wash. That probe—and subsequent U.S. legal cases—prompted a revolution in compliance in Latin America. Firms have lawyered up and implemented new trainings. Businesses are watching to see whether Trump’s change becomes permanent. Musicians play the marimba before a horse race to commemorate All Saints’ Day in Todos Santos Cuchumatan, Guatemala, on Oct. 31, 2024. Musicians play the marimba before a horse race to commemorate All Saints’ Day in Todos Santos Cuchumatan, Guatemala, on Oct. 31, 2024. Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images Marimba merriment. Next Thursday, Guatemala will celebrate National Marimba Day, with performances all day in Guatemala City’s Central Park. Many historians believe that Guatemala’s national instrument—a cousin of the xylophone—was first brought to Central America as part of the African slave trade. It became popular among the Indigenous Maya ; for many years, Spanish colonists tried to repress its use. Guatemalans later developed the double marimba, with two rows of keys. In the 1970s, lawmakers named it the country’s national instrument. There is even a marimba song that was composed to honor the country’s legislature. The marimba is also the national instrument of Costa Rica, where National Marimba Day is celebrated on Nov. 30. Question of the Week Which of the following singers is from Guatemala? Paco Pérez Papa A.P. Polache Aurelio Martínez Pérez was a singer, composer, and guitarist . FP’s Most Read This Week DOGE Is Hacking America by Bruce Schneier and Davi Ottenheimer Trump’s Brinkmanship Is Changing Mexico by Catherine Osborn How Gaza Shattered the West’s Mythology by Pankaj Mishra In Focus: Ecuador’s Election A man reads front pages about the first round of Ecuador’s presidential election at a newspaper kiosk in Quito on Feb. 10. A man reads front pages about the first round of Ecuador’s presidential election at a newspaper kiosk in Quito on Feb. 10. Galo Paguay/AFP via Getty Images The first round of Ecuador’s presidential election last Sunday resulted in a near-tie . Center-right President Daniel Noboa won 44.2 percent of votes, while leftist candidate Luisa González—who comes from the political movement of former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa—earned 44 percent. Both will advance to a runoff on April 13. Votes for the country’s congress were similarly split: Noboa’s and González’s parties each won slightly less than half of the seats in the legislature. Rather than issuing a resounding endorsement for either top candidate to address Ecuador’s struggles with organized crime, Sunday’s vote was a signal of what voters don’t want: an untested third-party candidate. The runoff will feature the exact same candidates as the last presidential runoff election, held in 2023. In first rounds of Ecuador’s last two presidential elections, an Indigenous candidate (Yaku Pérez in 2021) and an anti-corruption candidate (Christian Zurita in 2023) earned robust third-place finishes of 19.4 percent and 16.4 percent , respectively. Pérez missed the runoff in 2021 by only a fraction of a percentage point. But on Sunday, the third-place finisher, Indigenous candidate Leonidas Iza, received just 5.2 percent of the vote. Noboa’s flagship policy, announced last January, is a crackdown on organized crime that combines troop deployments with investigations. In 2024, homicides in Ecuador dropped by 15 percent from their 2023 total, according to government data. But numbers rose again last month, which was the deadliest January in Ecuador in a decade. Noboa’s security forces drew criticism after an incident last December in which four Black boys aged 11 to 15 were found burned and dismembered in the city of Guayaquil after they were apprehended by air force personnel. The officers said that they detained the boys thinking they had carried out a robbery and released them before their deaths, but 16 soldiers are now under investigation. González has pledged many of the same hard-line anti-crime policies as Noboa but says that she would pair such an approach with more social spending. My FP: Follow topics and authors to get straight to what you like. Exclusively for FP subscribers. Subscribe Now | Log In Politics Catherine Osborn Catherine Osborn is the writer of Foreign Policy ’s weekly Latin America Brief. She is a print and radio journalist based in Rio de Janeiro. 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