One of the keystones of the Colombian president Gustavo Petro’s political programs is at risk of failure as scandal engulfs his administration. 

Petro’s left-wing movement came to power promising a more equitable distribution of wealth to the citizenry and particularly to the more neglected rural regions of the country. Redistribution has also been a major portion of his program to pacify Colombia’s endemic guerilla and paramilitary violence: by establishing special development regions in afflicted areas, Petro hopes to reduce the social unrest and poverty that drive Colombians to join the numerous guerilla groups and organized crime rings that plague the country. 

Now an unfolding corruption scandal involving members of his cabinet as well as members of his own family threatens to sink his proposed tax reform bill.

One of Petro’s key allies in government was the economist Ricardo Bonilla, the Colombian minister of finance who helped shape the administration’s economic strategy and successfully guided a number of important items on the president’s agenda through the legislative process. Bonilla assisted with the creation of the new budget and the accompanying tax reform, necessary to raise the additional funds the president needs to implement his social programs.

Earlier this year, Bonilla was accused of having used the provision of government contracts to influence Colombian congressional leaders to assist with the passage of key pieces of legislation. Ivan Name, the former president of the senate, and Andres Calle, the former president of the chamber of representatives, are alleged by the attorney general’s office of Colombia to have received millions of dollars in return for their services for Petro’s administration.

The allegations assert that Bonilla was the mastermind behind a scheme to secretly redirect funding from government programs in order to bribe Congressional leaders to assist Petro’s administration in pushing through their new social programs. According to witnesses for the government, Bonilla directed state employees at the Agency of Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) to purchase 40 water tanker trucks at an inflated sticker price, several millions of dollars more than they were worth on paper. Part of the money from the purchase was then allegedly used in an attempt to purchase votes in the Colombian legislature. Olmedo López, the former head of the UNGRD who is also under investigation for his involvement in the scandal, also asserted in court that he was directed by government officials to send portions of the money to the National Liberation Army (ELN), a Marxist terror organization that Petro’s administration is currently engaging in peace negotiations.

Bonilla, Name, and Calles all deny the accusations, and at first it appeared that the affair might blow over without much immediate impact in the proceedings of government. Petro supported his finance minister and assured the public that he was convinced of Bonilla’s innocence in the matter.

That all changed this past week, when Bonilla’s former political advisor testified that the minister had been aware of the corruption taking place in the UNGD. The additional testimony put significant pressure on the minister, and is perhaps related to the events that followed. Bonilla sent a letter Wednesday to the attorney general’s office accusing Nicolás Alcocer Petro, the president’s adopted son, and Ricardo Roa, his former campaign manager, of having abused their influence to induce the mishandling of government contracts at a state power company. For an administration already tangled in allegations of corruption and vice, the blow to Petro must have been particularly hard; his biological son, Nicolás Petro Burgos, is already the subject of a high-profile investigation for having potentially embezzled millions of pesos during his employment as a regional campaign manager during his father’s presidential run.

This step apparently stretched Petro’s political capacity to support Bonilla past its limit. Later that same day, the president made a massive post on X in which he asserted that the allegations of corruption plaguing his administration are the result of elites who despise his attempts at social reform and economic redistribution. The president redoubled his claims that Bonilla is innocent but nevertheless called on the finance minister to step down. “I await his resignation not because I believe he is guilty,” Petro wrote, “but because they want to tear him in pieces for being loyal to the government’s platform and because they want to unconstitutionally overthrow this government.”

Bonilla accepted the invitation to resign and will be replaced by his vice minister, Diego Guevara, but his exit is only the beginning of more trouble for Petro’s government. The corruption scandals will continue to drag the administration down as more evidence is revealed by investigators, and without the former minister’s capable political expertise it will be very difficult for Petro to pass the tax reform bill he desperately needs to finance his social programs. The bill was always going to be something of a hard sell, increasing taxation on Colombian citizens and businesses and expanding the country’s wealth tax, but now it may be on the verge of foundering completely, leaving the new welfare initiatives, the centerpiece of Petro’s campaign platform, in the lurch.

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