Colombia’s defense minister dies of Covid-19

Bogota, Jan 26 (efe-epa).- Colombian Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo has died of Covid-19 at the age of 69, the country’s President Ivan Duque confirmed Tuesday.

“Colombians, with deep sorrow and sadness, I have received the news of the death of our defense minister,” Duque said in a speech he gave at the presidential palace in Bogota .

Duque added that Trujillo died early Tuesday after health complications while battling the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus.

Trujillo, who was also Duque’s chancellor in his first 15 months of his administration, tested positive for coronavirus on January 12 in the Colombian city of Barranquilla, two days after heading a council in the neighboring city of Santa Marta.

The late minister, born in 1951, had a long political career that led him to be Minister of Education, Interior, Foreign Relations and Defense in several governments. EFE-EPA

joc/smq