from recent news article

$Ecopetrol (EC.US)$ -  two board members have quit following the company's decision to pull out of a $3.6B deal to buy a stake in Texas shale assets from Occidental..

The deal was "fundamental" to the Colombian company's future, and its finances will deteriorate without the resources it would have provided, the two members reportedly wrote in their resignation letter.

Ecopetrol's (EC) board approved the planned purchase of a 30%, but after Colombian President Gustavo Petro ..

The two resigning members - Juan José Echavarría and Luis Alberto Zuleta - are seen as the only two board members who were not political appointees, according to Bloomberg.

"This message of government interference sends a very bad signal," BTG Pactual analyst Daniel Guardiola says. "The independence of a company that is publicly listed in the U.S. is not being respected."