BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo resigned on Monday as a political crisis shook the government of President Gustavo Petro, following his decision to appoint a controversial political operator as chief of staff.
In a letter posted on X, Cristo said that he wished to pursue objectives such as supporting the implementation of a 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia “without limitations” and wrote that “frustration should not allow Colombia to return to an era of political and social exclusion that generates violence.”
Two government ministers resigned last week after Petro named Armando Benedetti as his chief of staff, and scolded his Cabinet for not executing government programs, in a televised meeting that descended into heated discussions and tearful recriminations.
On Sunday, Petro asked all of his government ministers to resign so that he could select a new Cabinet to tackle several challenges, including a growing security crisis. More than 50,000 people in the northeast of the country were forced to flee their homes in January as fighting surged between rebel groups.
Cristo said that he had informed Petro about his plans to resign last Thursday. In his resignation letter he did not refer to Benedetti’s appointment as chief of staff.
The minister of the environment and the minister of culture also resigned last week, saying in interviews that they did not want to work with Benedetti.
A former senator from Colombia’s Caribbean coast, Benedetti is an experienced political operator who helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Petro’s 2022 presidential campaign, but has also been accused of corruption and violence against women.
Unlike many members of Petro’s Cabinet, Benedetti is not affiliated with left-wing parties, and was once a supporter of the conservative leader Alvaro Uribe.
In 2023 Colombian news magazine Semana published recordings of a heated conversation between Benedetti and one of Petro's closest aides in which Benedetti claimed he had raised almost $4 million for the Petro campaign and hinted he had obtained the money from illegal sources.
In the recordings, Benedetti threatened to take down the government if he was not rewarded with a Cabinet position for his work during the presidential campaign.
Last week Benedetti was charged with corruption by Colombia’s Supreme Court in a separate case, where he is accused of interfering illegally in government contracts awarded to a digital security company in 2017.
Under the Petro administration Benedetti has served as Colombia’s ambassador to Venezuela, and as ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, a post that had been vacant since 1999.
Last year, Benedetti’s wife filed a police complaint in Madrid, where she claimed that he had ripped off her clothes and threatened her with a knife. She has since retracted the accusations, which Spanish authorities did not pursue due to Benedetti’s diplomatic status at the time.
Some members of Petro’s cabinet have openly criticized Benedetti, saying that he cannot hold such an influential position in their progressive government. Environment Minister Susana Muhamad said during last week’s televised Cabinet meeting that “as a feminist and as a woman,” she would not sit in cabinet meetings with the former senator.
Petro defended Benedetti in the meeting, saying that he believed in second chances, and accusing those who criticized Benedetti's appointment of being “sectarian” leaders, who are unwilling to build political coalitions.
Sergio Guzmán, a political analyst in Bogota, said that during the 2022 presidential campaign, Benedetti built alliances with politicians on the center and the right which mobilized voters for Petro, despite ideological differences with the left-wing leader.
“Petro is not just looking at the immediate impact of his Cabinet, but how to position a successor for the 2026 (presidential) election," Guzmán said. “And for that, having a political operator is mission-critical.”
FILE - Colombia's Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo, right, speaks with Special Representative and Head of the U.N. Verification Mission in Colombia Carlos Massieu, before an event marking the 8th anniversary of the peace agreement signing with the FARC in Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
ST. LOUIS (AP) — World champions Ilia Malinin and the ice dance duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates will anchor one of the strongest U.S. Figure Skating teams in history when they head to Italy for the Milan Cortina Olympics in less than a month.
Malinin, fresh off his fourth straight national title, will be the prohibitive favorite to follow in the footsteps of Nathan Chen by delivering another men's gold medal for the American squad when he steps on the ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.
Chock and Bates, who won their record-setting seventh U.S. title Saturday night, also will be among the Olympic favorites, as will world champion Alysa Liu and women's teammate Amber Glenn, fresh off her third consecutive national title.
U.S. Figure Skating announced its full squad of 16 athletes for the Winter Games during a made-for-TV celebration Sunday.
"I'm just so excited for the Olympic spirit, the Olympic environment," Malinin said. “Hopefully go for that Olympic gold.”
Malinin will be joined on the men's side by Andrew Torgashev, the all-or-nothing 24-year-old from Coral Springs, Florida, and Maxim Naumov, the 24-year-old from Simsbury, Connecticut, who fulfilled the hopes of his late parents by making the Olympic team.
Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova were returning from a talent camp in Kansas when their American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter and crashed into the icy Potomac River in January 2025. One of the last conversations they had with their son was about what it would take for him to follow in their footsteps by becoming an Olympian.
“We absolutely did it,” Naumov said. “Every day, year after year, we talked about the Olympics. It means so much in our family. It's what I've been thinking about since I was 5 years old, before I even know what to think. I can't put this into words.”
Chock and Bates helped the Americans win team gold at the Beijing Games four years ago, but they finished fourth — one spot out of the medals — in the ice dance competition. They have hardly finished anywhere but first in the years since, winning three consecutive world championships and the gold medal at three straight Grand Prix Finals.
U.S. silver medalists Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik also made the dance team, as did the Canadian-born Christina Carreira, who became eligible for the Olympics in November when her American citizenship came through, and Anthony Ponomarenko.
Liu was picked for her second Olympic team after briefly retiring following the Beijing Games. She had been burned out by years of practice and competing, but stepping away seemed to rejuvenate the 20-year-old from Clovis, California, and she returned to win the first world title by an American since Kimmie Meissner stood atop the podium two decades ago.
Now, the avant-garde Liu will be trying to help the U.S. win its first women's medal since Sasha Cohen in Turin in 2006, and perhaps the first gold medal since Sarah Hughes triumphed four years earlier at the Salt Lake City Games.
Her biggest competition, besides a powerful Japanese contingent, could come from her own teammates: Glenn, a first-time Olympian, has been nearly unbeatable the past two years, while 18-year-old Isabeau Levito is a former world silver medalist.
"This was my goal and my dream and it just feels so special that it came true,” said Levito, whose mother is originally from Milan.
The two pairs spots went to Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, the U.S. silver medalists, and the team of Emily Chan and Spencer Howe.
The top American pairs team, two-time reigning U.S. champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, were hoping that the Finnish-born Efimova would get her citizenship approved in time to compete in Italy. But despite efforts by the Skating Club of Boston, where they train, and the help of their U.S. senators, she did not receive her passport by the selection deadline.
“The importance and magnitude of selecting an Olympic team is one of the most important milestones in an athlete's life,” U.S. Figure Skating CEO Matt Farrell said, "and it has such an impact, and while there are sometimes rules, there is also a human element to this that we really have to take into account as we make decisions and what's best going forward from a selection process.
“Sometimes these aren't easy," Farrell said, “and this is not the fun part.”
The fun is just beginning, though, for the 16 athletes picked for the powerful American team.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Amber Glenn competes during the women's free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Alysa Liu skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Maxim Naumov skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Madison Chock and Evan Bates skate during the "Making the Team" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Gold medalist Ilia Malinin arrives for the metal ceremony after the men's free skate competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
