BOGOTA (Reuters): Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro will name unionist and former vice-minister of labor Edwin Palma as the country’s new energy minister, as part of a cabinet reshuffle, a source in Petro’s office said on Thursday.
Petro asked all his ministers to present their resignations earlier this month, after a tense televised cabinet meeting where several high-ranking officials objected to two Petro appointments.
Petro has replaced nine major ministers, following the definitive resignations of the interior and environmental ministers and his acceptance of the resignation of the former energy minister, Andres Camacho.
Palma, the former head of major oil union USO and board member at state-run energy company Ecopetrol, will be charged with pushing Colombia’s transition away from hydrocarbons like oil and coal and toward renewable energy, a pet policy of Petro’s which has faced numerous hurdles.
Companies from around the world have proposed developing 69 offshore areas in Colombia’s first offshore wind energy auction, the South American country’s National Hydrocarbons Agency announced earlier on Thursday.
Former environment minister Susana Muhamad, along with several others, resigned over Petro’s appointment of Armando Benedetti as a top adviser – despite allegations against him of violence against women and influence peddling, which he has denied – and Laura Sarabia as foreign minister.
Petro doubled down on his backing of Benedetti on Tuesday, naming him as incoming interior minister.
Benedetti, previously Petro’s ambassador to Venezuela, and Sarabia, who has held various posts and is one of Petro’s closest advisors, were both briefly pushed out of the government in 2023, amid a probe into missing money and allegedly illegal phone intercepts.
