The minister is currently facing accusations of alleged acts of corruption that the nation’s leader described as unfair.

“I am leaving with my head held high, confident of convincing my investigators that I did not buy silence, nor votes from congressmen, nor indicative quotas (a mechanism traditionally used by the National Government to manage its interests in Congress), nor did I commit any crime for personal gain,” reads Bonilla’s letter. He added that he made the decision to take on his legal team in defense of himself as a citizen, stripped of his status as a public official, and to concentrate on the process and avoid any damage to the future of the government in its public agenda.

“These harsh episodes leave lessons on the institutional design of the Interparliamentary Commission on Public Credit. The permanent delays in the granting of non-binding concepts lend themselves to maneuvers that leave the minister in charge in a bind,” he also commented.

He also asserted that the country’s finances are in good health and fiscal stability, despite the internal and external circumstances that he had to face.

“I hope that the government of Change, in the final stretch of its mandate, consolidates the beginning of a new Colombia with more inclusion and less inequality,” he said.

Earlier in the day, the president asked for Bonilla’s resignation, not because he believes him guilty of what he is accused of, according to what he said, but because opposition sectors “want to tear him apart” for being loyal to the government program.

“I therefore hope for the resignation of a great colleague and honest professor, Dr. Ricardo Bonilla, Secretary of Finance of Bogotá Humana, who left it at its best financial moment, and great Minister of Finance, who took Colombia out of the recession due to the over-indebtedness left by [Iván] Duque,” he said in reference to the previous ruler.

He added that Bonilla’s mistake was his academic naivety, which led him to disobey his instructions not to trust the Uribe officials (alluding to the followers of former President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2008) of the Ministry of Finance who, he said, cheated from the beginning.

Bonilla’s resignation occurred after a former employee of the aforementioned ministry accused the minister of alleged acts of corruption, against whom Petro claims a campaign of discredit is being woven.

Later, the local media RTVC Noticias indicated that the person who disclosed the accusations against the minister has ties to the opposition party Centro Democrático.

ef/ga/ifs