The Administrative Department of Presidency (DAPRE) is the most important office of the Casa de Nariño. There passes the hiring of the entire central government staff; Even more recently, resources for public policy programs and infrastructure works are designated, the logistics of the security schemes of the entire presidential family, and the agent of the first president.
But the Dapre does many other things. For example, it is the office that approves the appointments and commissions of the Ministries.
That’s why Who is in charge of the DaPre has the keys to the power of the government. If a minister needs to urgently appoint an official or send him commission to a region of the country, he has to request the administrative development of that task from the DaPre.
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As if that were not enough, the entity’s main office is next to the president’s office. That is the reason why Laura Sarabia became for several months, not today, the most powerful woman of the government. Sarabia was the one who decided who approached Gustavo Petro, who arrived in Palacio, where the head of state was going and what was the detail of his day to day.
Today that agenda is controlled by two people: Angie Rodríguez and the current Interior Minister and Office Chief, Armando Benedetti. Benedetti arrived again in the government six months ago; First he was high advisor and then won the most recent round of power to his former advisor becoming chief of the portfolio in which he wanted to be since the historical pact won the elections.
And with that triumph He moved from the palace core to Sarabia, with whom he now develops a front war that will have more chapters to come. The Foreign Minister attended the Prosecutor’s Office this week and delivered new evidence that could put Benedetti in trouble.
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For its part, Rodríguez is a Christian woman who worked before with the Minister of Health, Guillermo Jaramillothe other influential man in Nariño’s house. Jaramillo rHe echoed Rodríguez to replace Sarabia and thus came to officealthough nobody knew her in the government and did not have an outstanding role of activism in Petrism.
His presence next to Petro is notorious and It has become increasingly present. On the marches of May 1 he was next to the president while he raised Bolívar’s sword in the filing of the popular consultation. In the midst of his Petro speech He turned several times to point her and on one occasion she even hugged her and put her hand on her shoulder.
Rodríguez He pointed out at the beginning of the speech the flag of the Liberating Campaign of Bolívar that Petro used in his rhetoric to talk about “freedom or death.” He was smiling all the time without taking a millimeter of the Head of State and helped him hold the document of the consultation questions when he began to read for the protesters.
He was even going from figures like María Fernanda Carrascal, Daniel Rojas, Cielo Rusinque or Martha Peralta. On one side was Rodríguez and the other the Minister of Culture, Yannai Kadamani.
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“The Minister of Culture must be there, Because Bolívar’s sword is national heritage. The specialized officials by my side, took care of the sword at all times, ”Petro said on the latter.
In the DaPre there is another powerful official who is José Alexis Mahecha, the administrative and financial director. Both have made a pair that seems to obey Benedetti and Jaramillo’s line. And that has made tensions with Sarabia.
An official of that office interviewed by El Colombiano told the detail of the problems that workers have had in recent months.
On the March of May 1, several entity officials forced to go to the Plaza de Bolívar To be in the streets with the government and to put t -shirts for the “yes to the consultation”, like the one Rodriguez used next to the president.
“My boss told me: What do you want? Is that or go find work “. The same person assured that this had happened in the March 18 march. “We didn’t want to leave because we don’t want to be part of those political fights But whenever there is some manifestation they tell us that kind of things that are threatening, ”he added.
Another source told this newspaper that there have been several cases of people who were asked to resign to once again hire them with lower salaries. “They have taken about 32 people more or less. We do not know if these days arrive more listed. New people are coming out and there are no explanations about why they get officials who have been here for years and just want to work. There are colleagues who have a salary category and tell them that they have to lower that salary category. They were renounced and now they are in security studies to hire them again with lower salaries. ”
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In that context, there was another revealing event that demonstrates the tension and war with Sarabia. This week this newspaper revealed that Vice Chancellor Daniel Ávila resigned from his position.
The official lived in Washington and had problems for some commissions that were requested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Daniel goes for personal issues, since he could not change his residence to Colombia. And in the DaPre they were not approving their commissions to DC. At this time I am waiting for a public function for the restructuring of the Foreign Ministry. Rosa Villavicencio will be in charge of the Vice Ministry of Migration. Unfortunately, the approval of commissions of the Ministry officials is difficult, ”Sarabia told El Colombiano.
But as a result of Ávila’s resignation there were other people who reacted. “Ironic, because it is the same way that Laura” punished “ministers And other officials who did not follow their line – denying commissions and appointments necessary for the entity’s work, ”said a former minister who was until recently in the president’s cabinet.
Rodríguez published a photo with the representatives of the banking sector with the phrase: “The Credit Pact was the central axis of the most recent meeting of the director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency of the Republic, Angie Lizeth Rodríguez with Alobancaria, where the great advances achieved in this strategy were highlighted.”
Immediately, Sarabia, who was the official who led that initiative, The trill commented on his personal account, remembering that it was his management. “The Credit Pact has had exceptional advances in access to resources since its inception,” he wrote.
Beyond discomfort and distance, There are gaps that mean. In Petro’s march last Thursday, in which the president has used more symbolisms so far, They were not Sarabia or the first lady Verónica Alcocer. Nor was the vice president France Márquez Ni Gustavo Bolívar.
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The latter delivered his renunciation letter on Wednesday and a day later decided to take to the streets from Cali with the vice president, who is at the time of greatest separation against the president throughout the government. That fact did not go unnoticed by those who are interested in competing for the presidential candidacy.
While in the government the differences are accentuated and Petro reduces their closest circle, the workers of the Dapre, especially those who have been working with several governments for years and decades, claim not to understand the paraphernalia of a demonstration to demand the Congress to approve labor rights, if a few steps in the house of Nariño those same rights are not respected.
“This had never happened to me. That one threatens the work if it does not go to march is a humiliation,” The source concludes.
The Dapre answered El Colombiano after sending a questionnaire. They confirmed that 33 people have left in recent months for resignations and for movements of the entity. And about the threats to go with the government, they said the following:
“This office has not requested and even less pressed or threatened to officials or contractors to attend the demonstrations made on March 18 and May 1,” they replied.
They also added that: “On the labor situations that have been presented in the DAPRE in the last three months, it is informed that the labor guarantees of the public servants of Dapre have been respected at all times; that the decisions made arise from the obligation to respect the law that imposes the duty to accept resignations formulated in due form and withdraw from the service to officials of free appointment and removal, in order to improve the service”.
