Gustavo Petro, a few hours after taking office as the new president of the Colombians, continues to appoint ministers. On this occasion he revealed the name of who will lead the Justice portfolio.
“Néstor Osuna, Externado lawyer and former magistrate of the Superior Council of the Judiciary, will be the Minister of Justice. Judicial independence, the fight against corruption and citizen access to the judicial system will be pillars of a reform of justice”, reads the official profile of Gustavo Petro on Twitter.
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Osuna did not hesitate to be grateful for Petro’s appointment. “I feel very honored and grateful to President Gustavo Petro for appointing him as Minister of Justice. I am committed to working in his team to achieve the change that so many millions of compatriots long for,” the Externado University graduate wrote on Twitter.
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This was not the only charge that Petro announced in the last few hours. The leftist leader also announced who will be the head of the Housing portfolio. “The Minister of Housing will be Catalina Velasco Campuzano, expert woman in habitat and planning. One of her responsibilities will be to lead a true public policy for social housing in Colombia, ”Petro wrote on the same social network.
Gustavo Petro’s cabinet continues to take shape. One of the first names to be known was that of José Antonio Ocampo as Minister of Finance, a designation that was a priority to bring calm to the markets, which after Petro’s triumph on June 19 showed signs of nervousness.
Another of those who will be in the close ring of the new president will be Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva, an experienced man on the political stage.
Leyva Durán was a congressman, candidate for the Presidency in 2006 and Minister of Mines and Energy in the government of then President Belisario Betancurt, in 1984. In addition, he participated in the peace negotiation in Cuba.
Former magistrate Iván Velásquez will join the Defense portfolio, a man considered relentless in the fight against corruption. He is recognized because during his tenure at the Supreme Court of Justice as an auxiliary magistrate he was an investigator of the so-called parapolitics.
In the Ministry of the Interior will be Alfonso Prada, former Secretary General of the Presidency of the government of Juan Manuel Santos. One of Prada’s priority missions will be to achieve coordination with the Congress of the Republic so that the most important projects of the Petro administration are approved, including the tax reform.
For the Ministry of Environment, Susana Muhamad, former councilor and secretary of the Environment of the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá, was appointed. during Petro’s administration in the capital.
Alejandro Gaviria, who landed in the Petro campaign in the second round, rewarded him with the Ministry of Education.
In the Ministry of Health, Petro chose the psychiatry specialist Carolina Corcho, one of the biggest critics of the EPS, who will have the complex mission of taking action in the face of constant complaints from citizens about non-compliance in health matters.
The ministerial team of the new government is completed by four more women: Cecilia López in the agriculture portfolio, Gloria Inés Ramírez in the Ministry of LaborPatricia Ariza at the Ministry of Culture and María Isabel Urrutia at the head of the sports portfolio.