Alejandro Gaviria spoke about his departure from the Ministry of Education

María Isabel Urrutia says that Petro did not notify her of the departure of the Ministry of Sports

Former Sports Minister María Isabel Urrutia assured this Monday that was not informed that she was going to be relieved of her position and that the explanations for the changes must be given by the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro.

“I had been doing my job, the one that corresponded to me and it is the president (Petro) who must say why these changes”Urrutia told EFE.

In a surprising decision, the head of state also announced today the departure of the Minister of Education, Alejandro Gaviria, and of Culture, Patricia Ariza, in the first crisis in his cabinet after six months of government.

“There are political decisions that are hard and difficult and they have to be made and that is where the (Minister) of Culture and I are, we were like the people that he (Petro) saw us as an icon but now we stop being an icon because it is politics more important” Urrutia said.

The former official said that she found out about her departure at the same time as the presidential address: “I arrived normally at the Council of Ministers and nobody told me anything about changes.”

“I found out right there in the speech”, express.

For her part, the former Minister of Culture Ariza assured Caracol Radio that she was unaware of his departure and that she would have preferred that President Petro had communicated this decision to her in private before doing so publicly.

“I do not want to be a spokesperson against the government of change, I respect it, but I do not share the cabinet’s decision”he affirmed while assuring that he is not against any of the reforms presented so far.

Likewise, he assured that during the months that he was in charge of the Ministry of Culture, what he did was work for the rights of artists.

Petro appointed Aurora Vergara, a sociologist who was vice-minister of Higher Education, in that portfolio, while replacing Urrutia he appointed Astrid Rodríguez “so that with new energies they can culminate the process of reforms begun.”

The head of state did not say who will replace Ariza as Minister of Culture, although the Presidency indicated that, for the moment, the musician Ignacio Zorro will be in charge.

The dismissals of the three ministers come hours after Petro met this afternoon with heads of political parties to get support in Congress for the health reforms, which have already been presented, and labor and pensions, which will begin to be implemented. be discussed next March.

With information from the EFE agency*