A key member of President Gustavo Petro’s government in Colombia has resigned, amid the latest corruption scandal to rock the administration.
Finance Minister Ricardo Bonilla stepped down from his office on Wednesday, though he remained defiant in the face of accusations that he diverted funds from Colombia’s disaster relief agency and bought votes on a congressional committee involved with government finances.
“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 defence I am undertaking with my legal team is supported by truth and transparency.”
President Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president, has weathered a string of scandals and legislative setbacks since taking office in 2022. But he stood by Bonilla, even as he accepted the minister’s resignation.
“I know that the accusation against Bonilla is unfair,” Petro wrote in one of two lengthy missives on social media, describing Bonilla 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.
Petro quickly replaced Bonilla with his vice minister of finance, Diego Guevara, on Wednesday afternoon.
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 $10.5m 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 its investigation hinges on alleged “crimes of bribery and possible illicit enrichment”.
The 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.
In October, for instance, when election officials announced they were investigating possible campaign finance violations in Petro’s historic bid for office, the president framed the efforts as sabotage.
“The coup has begun,” Petro wrote on social media.
That probe is also ongoing and involves 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.”
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