Everything converged and everything fed into everything else
Cabinet crisis: Education Minister Alejandro Gaviria and two other ministers removed amid disagreements over healthcare reform and policy direction. Approval ratings collapse from 56% to 40% in six months; disapproval rises to 51% as ambitious reform agenda faces congressional resistance.
- Approval rating fell from 56% to 40% in six months; disapproval rose to 51%
- Education Minister Alejandro Gaviria and two other ministers removed Monday
- Petro's son Nicolás under investigation for alleged narcotrafficking connections
- 79 police officers and 6 workers detained in Caquetá; 1 police officer and 1 campesino killed
Colombian President Gustavo Petro's government experiences a tumultuous week marked by cabinet reshuffles, plummeting approval ratings, security incidents, and a scandal involving his son under fiscal investigation.
Gustavo Petro arrived at the presidency eight months ago with a mandate for change. By early March, his government was burning on multiple fronts at once.
The week began with a cabinet purge. On Monday, Petro removed Alejandro Gaviria from his post as Education Minister—a heavyweight who had openly questioned the administration's health reform proposal championed by Minister Carolina Corcho. The same day, two other ministers departed: Patricia Ariza from Culture and María Isabel Urrutia from Sports, both leaving amid visible friction. Gaviria, in a parting gesture, quoted Shakespeare at his book launch on Wednesday: "When the sky is so charged, it clears only with a storm." The metaphor proved prescient.
That same Wednesday, the Invamer Poll—Colombia's longest-running survey, dating to 1994—revealed the depth of the damage. Petro's approval had collapsed from 56 percent at his August inauguration to 40 percent. Disapproval had surged from 20 percent to 51 percent. The shift was stark and accelerating. A separate analysis from the Speak consulting firm noted that what had begun as a period of optimism had transformed into widespread discontent. Only one major government initiative—the restoration of relations with Venezuela—retained public support. The timing was brutal: Petro was simultaneously pushing an ambitious legislative agenda through Congress that included sweeping reforms to health, labor, and pensions, each facing substantial resistance.
But the political weather was about to worsen. On Thursday, Petro made a startling move: he asked the prosecutor's office to investigate his own brother and his eldest son. He was preempting a scandal. Day Vásquez, the ex-wife of Nicolás Petro Burgos, had come forward with allegations that the president's son had connections to smuggling and drug trafficking networks. According to her account, Nicolás had solicited payments from businessmen who believed they were contributing to Petro's campaign, then kept the money for himself. The prosecutor's office opened a formal investigation. Separately, Petro's brother Juan Fernando was already under scrutiny for allegedly visiting prisons and offering drug lords sentence reductions and judicial benefits in exchange for payments—part of what investigators were tracing back to January as possible narcotrafficker funding tied to promises of inclusion in the government's "total peace" initiative.
Security deteriorated that same Thursday in Caquetá, a rural department in the south. Campesino protests against an oil company turned violent. A police officer and a campesino were killed in the confused clashes. Then came what many observers called a kidnapping: 79 police officers and six workers were detained by protesters. Defense Minister Iván Vélasquez had to travel to San Vicente del Caguán on Friday to secure their release.
The courts added their own blows. The Council of State suspended a presidential decree that had granted Petro authority to set energy tariffs. The Constitutional Court, meanwhile, signaled it could suspend laws as a precautionary measure while reviewing challenges—a shift in jurisprudence that carried immediate implications for the health reform debate, where voices were rising that the proposal should be treated as a constitutional statute rather than an ordinary law.
Ricardo Ávila, a senior analyst at El Tiempo newspaper, called it the worst week of Petro's presidency. "Everything converged and everything fed into everything else," he said. Eugénie Richard, a political communication expert at the Universidad Externado, offered a longer view. Petro had arrived with enormous appetite for change, she noted, and the higher the initial hope, the steeper the fall. The cabinet crisis would likely resolve itself. The popularity crisis was more serious. But the accusations against his family posed the deepest threat—they undermined the very message of transformation that had elected him. In Colombian politics, scandals were routine. What mattered now was whether this government could recover its footing before the damage became structural.
Citas Notables
When the sky is so charged, it clears only with a storm— Alejandro Gaviria, quoting Shakespeare at his book launch
What began as a period of optimism has transformed into widespread discontent and growing rejection— Analysis from Speak consulting firm
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why did Petro remove his education minister in the middle of a legislative push?
Gaviria was openly skeptical of the health reform that Corcho was driving. Petro needed unity on his cabinet to move his agenda through Congress, so he chose to remove the dissent rather than negotiate it.
And the timing—removing ministers while his approval is already falling—that seems counterintuitive.
It is. But the real problem wasn't the cabinet shuffle itself. It was what came immediately after. The scandal with his son broke almost simultaneously. You can't separate the two in how people experienced that week.
What exactly is his son accused of?
Taking money from businessmen who thought they were funding Petro's campaign, then keeping it. His ex-wife says he had connections to drug trafficking networks. The prosecutor is now investigating whether narcotraffickers were funneling payments through him.
Did Petro know about this before it became public?
He says no. He actually asked the prosecutor to investigate his son and brother preemptively—which suggests he saw the scandal coming and wanted to get ahead of it. But that move itself signals a loss of control.
The approval rating drop—16 points in six months—is that recoverable?
Technically yes. But the problem is structural now. He came in with enormous hope for change. That hope is what gave him permission to push hard reforms. Once that hope evaporates, the reforms become harder to pass, which makes the hope evaporate further. It's a spiral.
And the courts blocking his energy decree—is that just procedural?
On the surface, yes. But it's symbolic. He's being checked from multiple directions at once. When that happens, even procedural losses feel like a pattern of weakness.