Last Monday, February 27, in the middle of a presidential address, Gustavo Petro, surprisingly announced the departure of the Ministers of Education, Culture and Sports. “I appreciate the services provided by the ministers Alejandro Gaviria, María Isabel Urrutia and Patricia Ariza (…) With their contributions they have contributed to enriching the debate and initiating the changes for which the country voted”, commented from the Casa de Nariño the head of State.
The controversial announcement not only surprised public opinion, but also former ministers who would have found out moments before the presidential address. Patricia Ariza precisely pointed out during an interview on the radio: “I would have loved if he had told me looking into my eyes.”
But he has not only referred to President Petro, the former Minister of Culture and artist told Semana magazine that he wanted and even still does, to have a meeting with Verónica Alcocer, to whom he suggested that the term ‘first lady’.
“I would advise you to remove it, I don’t think there are first ladies and second ladies and third ladies. That must stop (…) Women are not first, but much less second, as they have wanted to put us in the history of humanity. We are all first.”
Ariza stressed that she does not like the term ex-minister, that she wants to be called an artist, which she has never ceased to be. In the same way, she indicated that she perceived an atmosphere of gossip, something that he believes could have influenced her departure from the Culture portfolio. “Something was damaged, something was broken and I would like to know what. I didn’t want to leave, but you can’t be where you don’t want to be”.
They told me that I was not to their liking
In another intervention in a media outlet, Patricia Ariza was a little more specific with the rumors that came to her in which it was commented that she was not liked by Verónica Alcocer, another of the possible reasons why she never had an appointment with her. .
“I have sent her many times to say that I would like to talk to her, but she never gave me an appointment. They told me that she didn’t like me, and well, I’m not a gold coin to be liked by everyone. I think that things should be solved face to face and looking into each other’s eyes.
The previous director of the Culture portfolio was emphatic in highlighting that she will continue to make art and different creative proposals, regarding the future of the National Government she wished a good present and future, although making a small observation to President Petro ‘you are a silent man’ :
“Mr. President, I hope that you do very well in the Government, if you do well, we all do well. I will continue fighting for change, I believe in it. He was traveling to the municipalities to see the cultural richness and amazing diversity. I recommend the music of this country, it is wonderful, extraordinary. And I recommend that you talk more with people, you are a silent man and it is worth talking without any objective”.
Letter to Patricia Ariza
The departure of Patricia Ariza from the Ministry of Culture continues to give people something to talk about, since there are conflicting versions about whether or not the presidency warned her, there is also a rumor circulating that the first lady had something to do with her departure from the national government, and that the new minister in charge, Jorge Zorro, is close to the presidential family. The latter, hours after it became known that Ariza was no longer at the head of the ministry, addressed a letter to her predecessor in which she praised her work as a minister and said that she will embrace her legacy.
“We embrace his legacy with deep respect because thanks to his dedication and work the paths were consolidated to give Cultures, Arts and Knowledge a stellar role in the construction of a country where we all fit: The country where change This is how the letter from Minister (e) Zorro begins in his letter, to later acknowledge Ariza that “his work has laid the foundations for a vibrant and exciting future for our country where we will return to the notion of culture as a transforming motor of history”.
The minister (e) Zorro also pondered that in the seven months of Ariza in front of the ministry he has led the design of a legislative package to update the relationship “State-artists, experts, managers and cultivators”, among which stands out the law of music, the statutory law of the artist and cultural groups, the reform of the theater law, the updating of the culture law and the memory and truth law. Zorro also highlighted that former Minister Ariza has also contemplated “the transition from an orange economy, which did not have a comprehensive vision of the diversity of cultural expressions, to a creative, cultural, popular, own and alternative economy; essential basis for cultural change. with Infobae