Carlos Carrillo officially presented his resignation as director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD). The resignation is in the office of President Gustavo Petro, who has not officially accepted it.
Carrillo is awaiting the determination of the president. The official is currently suspended from his position because the Attorney General’s Office preventively removed him from his duties due to alleged political participation.
Carrillo defended the president against accusations that he was unduly intervening in the electoral contest.
“I believe that the President is a man who feels a real affection for the Colombian people. The President wants a better country, he wants a more just country,” the official stated.
And, without directly mentioning him, he referred to the candidate who will dispute the second round with Cepeda, Abelardo de la Espriella. “Of course, I understand the concern that an openly fascist project is ascending in Colombia. When 10.3 million people vote for a candidate who promises to disembowel the other half, the President’s concern is understandable,” he added.
Carrillo has been one of the most prominent officials within President Gustavo Petro’s team. He arrived at the UNGRD after the corruption scandal of Olmedo López, and his mission there was to try to clean up the entity in the face of the web of corruption that developed there.
From that position, he had tough clashes with different sectors of Petrismo, as he was critical of several of the positions and appointments made by President Gustavo Petro. He rejected the designation of Daniel Quintero as Superintendent of Health, linking him as one of the possible names in the shadow of the UNGRD scandal.
Most recently, he had a tough clash with the former director of Dapre and current head of the Adaptation Fund, Angie Rodríguez. The official accused him of alleged mismanagement while he was acting manager of the fund, while he asserted that Rodríguez turned the entity into a hotbed of clientelism.
Due to this last clash, the Colombian president put on the table the possibility of the departure of one or both of them, but supposedly had not materialized the departure due to the guarantees law. However, Carrillo always expressed to the President that he would leave if he asked for his resignation. Now he steps down from office due to the suspension and the proximity of the second presidential round.
JUAN SEBASTIÁN LOMBO DELGADO
Political writing
