President Gustavo Petro and Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva assured that in the consulates and embassies of Colombia in the world they would put career diplomats, perhaps for this reason, now in each appointment they make they are reminded of the promise.
Of the 18 ambassadorial appointments they have made, only 6 have been career diplomats, while the rest are public figures from all sectors: from the former congressman Armando Benedetti, passing through a businessman from Boyacá who is a friend of Petro, to the questioned León Freddy Muñoz.
However, it must be said that 6 of 18, that is, 30% of diplomatic career, is not bad for what has been the tradition in Colombia. And above all, if you take into account that they have placed career diplomats in top countries such as Germany, where this week they appointed Yadir Salazar, a great diplomat, or Switzerland, where they sent Francisco Echeverri, another classic of the Chancellery of San Carlos, as well as the appointment in the Vice Chancellery of International Relations to another of the most recognized ambassadors of Carrera, Francisco Coy.
And also in other countries that are usually coveted by politicians, diplomacy professionals were given the chance, such as in Panama, where they appointed Mauricio Baquero; as well as in Uruguay, Juan José Quintana; in Hungary, Ignacio Enrique Ruiz; and in Guatemala, Victoria González.
But as if President Gustavo Petro were being faithful to the adage that he prays and sins, he is also opening the doors of diplomacy to personal friends of his and his wife Verónica, as well as to politicians under investigation or people affected by investigations.
It has drawn a lot of attention that Petro has chosen questionable profiles, precisely for countries where left-wing dictatorships govern and that have quite delicate agendas with Colombia.
León Freddy Muñoz, the Bellanita politician who was investigated by the Supreme Court for drug trafficking – in a process that has already passed into the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office – gave him the task of speaking with the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega with whom the Colombian State has a thorny agenda.
Muñoz is in Managua while Ortega and the Petro government finalize details to present their evidence before the International Court of Justice in The Hague –the House of Nariño does not have a designated legal team– in the midst of the dispute over the territorial sea and the neighboring islets to San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina.
Armando Benedetti is Petro’s envoy to Nicolás Maduro, he had four open investigations in the Supreme Court, which went to the Prosecutor’s Office. The transit of these folios from one court to another unleashed a dispute within the Court because Judge Cristina Lombana demanded to continue the investigations for the alleged crimes of illicit enrichment, influence peddling, violation of communications and libel and slander; The Prosecutor’s Office did not listen to her.
Venezuela has been one of the main business allies and the goal is to recover trade that had reached 4,000 million dollars a year. In addition to that, Maduro had a leading role in the signing of the Peace Agreement with the extinct FARC and is now the token that connects Petro with the ELN guerrillas for the talks that resume in November.
That list of ambassadors investigated continues with Camilo Romero, the former governor of Nariño, now ambassador to Argentina. Romero was summoned to a disciplinary trial by the Attorney General’s Office for alleged irregularities in the sale of 80,000 cases of Aguardiente Nariño, for $18,000 million, while he was in office, in August 2016.
Another that would end up connected to legal proceedings is that of the new ambassador of Colombia in France, Laura Guillen. She is the wife of Álex Vernot, ex-lawyer of the businessman in the Hyundai case Carlos Mattos and a personal friend of Petro.
However, Guillen’s ratification in that position is pending because his partner, Vernot, was sentenced in September to 72 months in prison for his participation in Mattos’s bribery of a witness.
politicians vs. diplomats
Colombia has some 64 ambassadors and 121 consuls, Petro has only appointed 18. That is why it is still early to evaluate it. While in the United Kingdom all ambassadors must have a diplomatic career, in Colombia only the third part is required.
Another percentage of Petro’s appointments has been from his personal friends. Like Guillén, in France; or the filmmaker Sergio Cabrera, in China. Cabrera lived as a child in that country, where he learned Mandarin; He and Petro are linked to the armed struggle, since he was a member of the Popular Liberation Army before entering the cultural industry.
Another friend of Petro is the businessman from Boyacá Eduardo Ávila, recently appointed ambassador to Spain. This newspaper investigated whether Ávila financed his campaign, but could not verify the information because the Historical Pact has not updated the data on the Cuentas Claras platform about its donors for the 2022 presidential contest.
The appointment of Ligia Margarita Quessep, a lawyer from the Externado University of Colombia, at the Italian embassy has also been controversial. Quessep was born in Sincelejo, she is a countrywoman and a friend of the first lady, Verónica Alcocer.
In a last group are the appointments that had a strong component of inclusion, merit and diversity, such as that of Luis Gilberto Murillo, Sergio Fajardo’s former vice-presidential formula, gave him the Embassy in the United States. And that of Leonor Zalabata, a Wayúu leader, at the UN embassy in New York.
Also in that country, he delegated the retired Major General, William René Salamanca, the consulate in Miami. Salamanca was the one who led the connection with the Police sector. At the OAS, he sent former magistrate Luis Ernesto Vargas, and at the OECD, Luis Fernando Medina, who have years of social and business experience, but not diplomacy.
Such is the discord over the appointments that in August Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva promised the workers of the Palacio de San Carlos that he would favor the race. But his administration ended up applying what governments of the past: appointed politicians, businessmen and even artists.
From the union of workers of the Foreign Ministry they have already raised their voices because, they assure, it is not fulfilling its commitment to put the appointments of experience ahead of those of the friends awarded with embassies.