Censure Motions Against Ministers Fail in Colombia

The motions of censure that the political opposition had filed against two of the main ministers of the Colombian government have failed. The motion of censure against Ivan Velasquez, Colombia’s Minister of Defense, has failed: with only 28 votes in favor of the resignation, the Colombian Senate, in a plenary session, quashed the attempt to remove the Minister of Defense, which had the support of 55 senators.

A few hours earlier on March 19th the motion of censure of the Minister of Health, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo, had also failed in the plenary session of the House of Representatives. Therefore, both officials will remain in their positions.

Reasons for motions

The Colombian conservative opposition had initiated proceedings to force the departure of two of the main ministers of President Petro’s government. The reasons put forward to advance this legal procedure against the Health Minister were his alleged responsibility in the shortage of medicines, as well as in the delays in the economic transfers of the State with the private health companies that manage the entire health system in the country.

In fact, the opposition accused Jaramillo of “persecuting the insurers” and seeking the failure of the system, just at the moment when the reform of the sector is being discussed, based on an initiative that is advancing with difficulties in the Colombian Congress.

For his part, the head of the Ministry of Defense, Ivan Velasquez, was pointed out by opposition parliamentarians as responsible for the complicated situation of public order in the country, as well as for the alleged inactivity of the military forces in the face of the resurgence of illegal armed gangs, such as the FARC dissidents. It is a fact that, during the debate of this motion, the opposition used figures on the recruitment of minors by these armed groups that corresponded to the management of the final stretch of Ivan Duque’s presidency, far from the responsibility of the present minister, as pointed out by the news website La Silla Vacia.

Thus, the motions did not prosper. The parties that supported the Minister of Health were: the Historical Pact, the Green Alliance, the Liberal Party, the U, the Conservative Party and the special representatives of Peace. The result was 36 votes supporting the motion and 96 in favor of the Minister.

Ministers will remain in office

Since the two motions of censure failed, due to the lack of support in the chambers of Congress, the two ministers will remain in their positions. With this double result, the government scores two important victories against the opposition, essentially from the Democratic Center and Radical Change parties, promoters of the motions against the ministers of Gustavo Petro’s government.

“I really welcome this vote in the Senate; the fact of having exceeded 53 votes (against) the motion of censure, it is an endorsement, which is also obtained from many political sectors, which have probably understood that the issue of security is an issue that interests…all of us, and that from the Ministry we have been committed to face so many difficulties that we have never hidden, but that we face and that we intend to face with the support of all, as we have been doing”, said Minister Velasquez, who also pointed out that he has met with different regional governors and mayors and congressmen with whom it has been agreed that “to strengthen ourselves in security we need a national unity around it”.

For his part, the representative of the ruling party Pacto Historico, Alejo Toro, also celebrated the victory of the Minister of Health. “The opposition’s motion of censure against the Minister of Health, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo, has been dropped, as it was so ill-founded that not even they came to vote,” Toro wrote in his social networks.