Two weeks ago Colombian President Gustavo Petro criticized the entire Colombian cabinet and demanded resignation from the whole cabinet, throwing the government into chaos. Thus far, the environment and labor ministers have resigned, as well as the two heads of DAPRE, a state agency that manages a lot of state funding, have resigned. With these resignitions Petro has made some appointments that have faced much controversy. One appointment has been, “scandal hit”, while another has been accused of violence against women. Overall, with the resignations and appointments, Petro isn’t very popular right now, and the government is struggling to stand steady amongst all of this movement.
Petro is Colombia’s first left wing president in their history so it comes as no surprise with his policies and ideas, which are newer to the Colombian government, that there would be some rocky starts. However, because his left wing running is so new to the country, it’s possible that within the next few months, Colombia will experience the changes of a new party. Though, because of his adamancy for government change and the way he publicly criticized the Colombian government, I can’t see Petro lasting very long, and it is likely that he won’t be serving again as President.
Though Colombia has a presidential democracy that is not likely to change, their policies and the change in government is likely to be altered thus affecting relations with other countries which could cause interstate conflict which would then increase the intrastate conflict the country is already experiencing. In the future, the interstate conflict caused by a rift between President Petro and President Trump over migrant deportation flights. This isn’t good for Colombia as the US is its biggest trade partner. And the US has military bases in Colombia which provide the country with some degree of American protection so more riffs between Petro and Trump could mean declining US Colombia relations.