During the last meeting of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, at the Casa de Nariño, the President of the Republic, Gustavo Petro, made an urgent appeal to one of his closest collaborators, the Minister of the Interior, Armando Benedetti.
The reference, unexpected for the ministers, referred to the current state of the National Printing Office, an institution that, according to the President, has lost importance and operational capacity, limiting its potential for strategic projects such as printing passports and textbooks.
“I add the spoon because Benedetti and the previous interior ministers failed us there, because according to the rules it does not belong to the Ministry of Culture, but to the Ministry of the Interior, the printing press,” he explained.
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Faced with this, Benedetti, knowing how to hide his discomfort, preferred to remain silent. It should be noted that the head of the Interior Department continues to be one of the main defenders of Gustavo Petro’s leadership and, through his social networks, publicly supports the government’s policies, especially on economic issues and social reforms. These initiatives faced difficulties in their legislative process in the Congress of the Republic.
President Petro continued his speech, emphasizing the international recognition of the Colombian document: “Today I have already seen it, I don’t know if they will present it publicly now. We have the fourth best passport in the world. It is very beautiful. It makes me proud to have it.” This positive assessment contrasted with his criticism of the management of the National Printing Company, which he accused of not being on a par with private companies such as El Tiempo and Carvajal in the printing sector.
The President emphasized: “The printing company no longer even produces photocopies, it abandons them by privatizing it as a printing company.” It’s from El Tiempo and Carvajal and I don’t know what else.”
Petro insisted that the National Printing House could take over the production of passports if it met or exceeded the technical capacity of these companies, counting on the technological and knowledge support of France and Portugal. In addition, he pointed to the possibility that the state institution could become a driving force for the printing of free books for schools, libraries and homes by Colombian and Latin American authors, thus increasing its social and cultural impact.
The Colombian leader mentioned an international initiative: “Mexico wants us to have a Latin American book launch with volunteers on December 17th, I don’t know if they have figured that out. Since we have a printing press, we should have that too.” In this regard, he questioned the stance of the National Printing Union, pointing out that there are internal obstacles that are slowing down the company’s growth and modernization.
In his speech, President Petro pointed out that most of the cocaine leaving the country comes through the ports. He therefore called on his cabinet members to improve controls in port areas to prevent drugs from leaking into international waters.
“Cocaine is transported more across the Pacific than across the Caribbean. It is transported more by merchant fleets than by boats. The boats are simply a means of transport for the ships.” Port control is essential and global and American policing coordination is needed,” he said.
In addition, a possible US military intervention in Colombian territory was pointed out due to the high production of cocaine. The Colombian President and his counterpart Donald Trump are not aware of his government’s measures in the fight against drugs.
“Trump is a very uninformed man in Colombia. It’s a shame because he destroyed the country that knows the most about cocaine trafficking.” It seems that his interlocutors are completely deceiving him,” Petro said.
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