Cielo Rusinque, who was supposed to be the new chief of staff of the Petro government, but her appointment fell in the last 24 hours. With kind approval
Palace appointments come after a series of negotiations, considerations and counterbalances. Fitting someone into the structure is complex because everyone’s interests overlap. The arrival of Cielo Rusinque to the all-powerful chief of staff, the position closest to Gustavo Petro, was taken for granted this week. Rusinque herself confirmed it to those around her and later made it known in the media, and that seems to be the main reason for her downfall. His arrival meant appointing someone to a key position three months after the early departure of Laura Sarabia. However, the appointment went wrong in the last 24 hours.
“I would like to thank President Gustavo Petro for his vote of confidence. I will not be in government at the moment. If anyone knows and has the authority to decide who accompanies him where, it is him. “In Casa de Nariño there are no power struggles, there is a daily struggle for the good of Colombia,” wrote Rusinque this Wednesday in X. This is one of those messages that confirm with denial what has happened in the last two days around his election . Rusinque, a close confidant of Hollman Morris, an old ally of the president, was hasty in announcing her nomination for a position for which Petro requires absolute discretion.
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The position to which she was to be appointed had not been filled for three months, as Sarabia was fired due to a scandal involving illegal wiretapping and polygraph tests. Petro has now brought Sarabia back for the presidency of the DPS, the ministerial body responsible for providing social subsidies. That was the position Rusinque has held so far, one of the most important in the government, as she manages a budget of more than $4.5 billion. It seemed as if there was a change of cards, each one recording the other’s position. “I will be close to the president, as has been said since yesterday, I saw the news spread in some media. We are waiting for the implementation of this decision. I will accompany him, yes, manage the agenda and, well, whatever obligations or tasks he has, and well, we are waiting for that to come to fruition, in principle I understand that it will be this week,” said Rusinque on Blu Radio.
Speaking on W Radio, he said the president himself informed him of the decision: “The one who informs me is the president. I think it is a matter of making the decision.” First, the director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency of the Republic (DAPRE), Carlos Ramón González, commented on this. “Then President Petro confirms this possibility to me (and) tells me that I will be close to him and address the issues on his agenda,” Rusinque said. “Frankly, I don’t think these allegations should be overstated in my case,” he said. With this last sentence he was referring to the entire aura of power surrounding Sarabia, who was seen by many ministers as the great bearer of the government due to her proximity to the president.
Sarabia eventually returns to government and Rusinque, a constitutional lawyer and activist who rose to prominence in Paris after a public confrontation with former President Iván Duque, is killed by tectonic movements in the Casa de Nariño, the presidential residence, caused by poor time management were sidelined. Petro has still not filled the void left by Sarabia, which has caused him great pain. Right now he doesn’t want to fill it with anyone, at least not someone who doesn’t have secrets.
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