Colombia's finance minister dodges no confidence vote, for now
The executive committee of Colombia's senate rejected a request for a no confidence vote in finance minister Alberto Carrasquilla over his alleged involvement in an initiative that allowed municipalities to issue bonds to finance water projects, which ended up with local authorities accumulating large debts.
The decision was announced by one of the three members of the senate executive committee, second vice president Ángela Lozano, who also was the only one to vote favor to bring the vote to the main floor of the upper house.
According to the resolution she posted on her Twitter account, the other two members of the committee, including senate president Ernesto Macías, voted against the motion petition as they considered that it was "not appropriate."
In response, Lozano said that the decision against the motion to hold a vote of no confidence "violates fundamental rights such as freedom of expression, political control and political participation."
In statements to Radio Caracol, senator Jorge Robledo, who submitted presented the original request to hold a no confidence vote, called the rejection a "tremendous mistake" and claimed that the senate president had violated the constitution.
However, the lower chamber of congress could review the motion. The leader of the chamber of deputies, Alejandro Chacón, told daily El Tiempo that members of the legislative body have been discussing the possibility and that some have started gathering signatures to promote a vote in the chamber.
Carrasquilla has been accused of profiting from the water bond program through a consulting firm that advised municipalities that participated in the initiative, which was kicked off thanks to a regulatory change that the minister authorized when he first served as finance minister during Álvaro Uribe's presidency.
As a result of the program, 117 municipalities that issued bonds ended up accumulating debts of over 440bn pesos (US$143mn) and local development agency Findeter carried out a bond swap to help them.
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