Colombian Minister Resigns Amid Bribery Allegations

Colombian Finance Minister Ricardo Bonilla has resigned as requested by President Gustavo Petro after allegedly overlooking the bribery of parliamentarians.

A former adviser had last week accused Bonilla of knowing that lawmakers were being paid off in return for backing key reforms promised by President Petro.

“I leave with my head held high, confident that I will convince my investigators that I did not buy silence nor votes from congressmen,” Bonilla wrote on social media.

He denied committing any crimes. “The defense I am undertaking with my legal team is supported by truth and transparency.”

The attorney general’s office alleged that the bribes were paid with $200,000 taken from public funds.

Petro said at a press conference on Wednesday that Bonilla would be replaced by his deputy, Diego Guevara.

He disclosed to reporters that he had asked for Bonilla’s resignation “not because I believe he is guilty, but because they want to destroy him for his loyalty” to the president.

“I know that the accusation against Bonilla is unfair,” Petro wrote in one of two lengthy missives on social media, describing the finance minister as a “true economist, committed to the necessities of his people”.

But, Petro added, “politics and law continued to be based on corruption” in Colombia.

A sweeping corruption scandal has engulfed numerous top government officials, as well as MPs from both the ruling party and the opposition.

In July, the country’s intelligence chief, a close ally of President Petro, resigned after prosecutors accused him of overseeing the bribery of parliamentary leaders to speed up the passage of bills.

Bonilla was the second finance minister to exit Petro’s government. He took over for Jose Antonio Ocampo in 2023, after Petro abruptly reshuffled his cabinet.

The scandal that brought Bonilla down emerged earlier this year when the public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into hefty contracts for the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management or UNGRD.

Some purchases allegedly involved $10.5million contracts for defective water tankers destined for the province of La Guajira, where residents struggle to access potable water.

The former head of UNGRD was accused of influence peddling, in a scandal that grew to include Bonilla himself.

Colombia’s Supreme Court has since indicated that its investigation hinges on alleged “crimes of bribery and possible illicit enrichment”.

Former Deputy Director of UNGRD, Sneyder Pinilla who himself is under investigation has since become a cooperating witness. His lawyers have said he provided evidence of a “criminal structure” linking UNGRD to high-ranking federal officials.

But Petro has largely rejected accusations of corruption within his government.

“The coup has begun,” Petro wrote on social media.

That probe also involved not only Petro but also his former campaign manager Ricardo Roa.

Petro’s son, Nicolas Petro, also received house arrest in 2023 for allegedly accepting money from individuals with ties to drug trafficking, though he has denied his father, the president, knew anything about the scheme.

President Petro tied the cases together in his statement on Wednesday about Bonilla’s resignation.

There are people, he wrote on social media, who want to use the scandal involving Bonilla “to make the economic policy of the government collapse”.

“They are the same ones who now say that Bonilla denounced Roa and my son, when it is simply an anonymous liar from the month of October handed over to the Ministry of Finance,” Petro claimed.

“They want to divide us in fights that they themselves invent.”