Colombia's Statistics Chief Sacked for Claiming Petro Did Not Manipulate Statistics
The presidency said he confirmed July labor data without the deeper audits officials wanted and ignored rules requiring advance authorization for public statements.
- On Monday, September 14, President Abelardo De la Espriella dismissed DANE chief Ricardo Valencia just 26 days after appointing him to lead Colombia's national statistics agency.
- Officials accused Valencia of ignoring Directiva Presidencial 001, which requires advance presidential authorization for public statements, stating: "Technical independence, yes; political positioning by a technical body, no."
- Defending the July unemployment rate of 8.1%, the lowest in 25 years, Valencia maintained that DANE's technical independence "is sacred" and claimed he received no prior warnings from the presidency.
- Congresswoman Cathy Juvinao invoked Ley 2335 de 2023 to challenge the dismissal, highlighting that while the law protects DANE's methods, it leaves leadership vulnerable to political removal.
- Valencia's one-month tenure ranks as the shortest on record for DANE, where directors historically averaged 33 months, as economic statistics emerge as pivotal to Colombia's 2027 elections.
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Ricardo Valencia had stated that he did not detect any anomalies in the July labor market data.
Colombia has been rocked by the dismissal of the head of the national statistics agency after his statements on labor market indicators. The Colombian president of the so-called hard right, Abelardo de la Esprija, has dismissed the director of the national statistics agency, after the latter said he had not found any inconsistencies in an indicator published by the previous government. A break with the previous government Abelardo de la Esprija…
Colombia's far-right president has fired the director of the statistics agency because he told reporters he had found no inconsistencies in labor market indicators. The post Colombia: Far-right president fires statistics director because he found "no anomalies" appeared first on in.gr.
The president of Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella, fired the head of the statistical authority after he ruled out inconsistencies in the indicators of the previous left government, a "molesty" of which the former director assured on Tuesday that he had not been informed.
Colombia: Fired DANE Chief Ricardo Valencia Defends His Numbers
Key Facts — What happened. Ricardo Valencia, fired as director of DANE (Colombia’s national statistics agency) on 14 September, is now publicly defending the data that got him removed. — What he said. Valencia told local media DANE’s technical independence “is sacred,” and that he stands by his reading of the July unemployment data. — […]
Colombia's statistics chief sacked for claiming Petro did not manipulate statistics
Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella sacked his statistics chief because he claimed he found no anomalies in labor statistics presented by the administration of former President Gustavo Petro. In a press statement, De la Espriella’s press secretary said that DANE director Ricardo Valencia was sacked for claiming “that he had not found any anomalies […]
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