The rapprochements between the Claudia López mayor’s office and Petrismo leaders stirred up the political environment in Bogotá. In fact, some councilors, including from Colombia Humana-UP , and candidates for Congress have begun to criticize the president and consider that she could be incurring or very close to a case of participation in politics. /p>
However, some experts consulted by this newspaper indicate that although bridges are being built between the district administration and the leaders of Colombia Humana, it is still not possible to indicate that the president is participating in politics, because the facts that determine that conduct have not been constituted, according to the law.
It was the The same president who told Caracol Television that she had entrusted her chief of staff –until recently the Secretary of Government- to look for Petrismo and tell them to “lower their guard.” “I asked our new chief of staff, Luis Ernesto Gómez, to go and look for the friends of Petrism and tell them to lower their guard. This can’t be the level of pugnacity all the time. They and other options for change have a great chance of leading the country, but they have to lead it by inspiring the best, not the worst, of each one. If they promote pugnacity and hatred in the campaign, they will not be able to unite and govern, if they win. Please tell them that I’m ready, if on my part it’s also necessary to lower the tone, I’ll do it, but please let’s lower the tone. I sent him to that task and I know it went well for him, and here we go.”
After this revelation, Luis Ernesto Gómez told this newspaper that “for a few weeks” there has been a “very constructive relationship with different leaders of Colombia Humana and the Polo”.
The official explained that the interest of the district administration is to “improve relations of government and coexistence in the city” and that is why the message has been “That allow us to raise the level of the debate and process legitimate differences in a better way.” A added: “Also, that allow us to have a more constructive dialogue when there are city processes where we have coincidences.”
El fact caused surprise in the political circles of the city because after the second round in the campaign for the Presidency, when Claudia López supported Gustavo Pedro, the two political leaders distanced themselves and there were more and more confrontations that they had in social networks .
(‘Contamination measures should not be in the entire city’)
Susana Mohamad, councilor of Colombia Humana, declares herself annoyed with the revelation of the president about alleged rapprochements with Petrismo and assured that Luis Ernesto Gómez (today Chief of Staff) held separate meetings with the councilors that make up the Colombia Humana-Patriotic Union caucus and that by qualifying them as Petrismo “he is making them invisible like a bench of four women”.
“They were the ones who said that the aggression should be reduced, to which I said that neither the caucus nor I have attacked the mayor or the administration. That we had a permanent political debate in our role as councilors, that we were still in the opposition and we were not going to stop exercising that iron political control or following up on the unfulfilled promises made by the mayor”, assures the councilor.
Mohamad also points out that “(López’s) participation in politics is not evident, but he is bordering on it. The mayor should rather stay doing her duties and moving Bogotá forward, because things are not very good in the city.”
For his part, the former councilor and current candidate for the Democratic Center for the House of Representatives for Bogotá, Andrés Forero, said Tuesday on Twitter that “while Bogotá is mired in insecurity, paralyzed by immobility and flooded with rubbish, @ClaudiaLópez is dedicated to campaigning and making under-the-table agreements with Petrism.”
The councilor of Colombia Justa Libres Emel Rojas also indicated in the same social network that “the mayor Claudia López and Gustavo Petro are united by their contempt for the public force and their pimping with vandalism. It does not seem strange to me that they end up together again in politics.”
La Councilor for the Green Alliance Lucía Bastidas, who is close to former mayor Enrique Peñalosa, insisted on Tuesday that there had been a meeting between the mayor and Gustavo Petro, but that none of the He assured that it is “obvious” that there is participation in politics of the ma ndataria.
The Green Alliance senator Antonio Sanguino said that what there is is suspicion around “a search for understanding to improve the governance of the city, to defuse the public discussion on the issues of Bogotá”, and points directly to Councilor Bastidas.
“They are suspicious of Dr. Lucía Bastidas, who is not only a supporter of Peñalosa, but also an anti-claudist and an anti-petrist. She cannot be animated by an objective assessment of what is really happening”, Sanguino insisted, adding that “it is normal” that there is this search for relaxation of relations between Petrismo and, in particular, between the district administration and Colombia Humana. .
Carlos Arias, political analyst and professor at the Externado University, considered that “categorically” the mayor is not participating in politics and said that López can build bridges and political alliances to advance her agenda.
“At no time in her statements is she saying or expressing or calling for support from her structures or from herself for the campaign of one or another candidate,” Arias assured.
The analyst added that “that let’s make peace” or that approach has more to do with Claudia’s governability, who “has had opposition from many of the progressive councilors and the progressive structures that remained entrenched in the district administration …”.
However, Arias points out that the president also understands that the polls are showing Gustavo Petro as the candidate with the most votes today and “he does not want to be left out of this exercise” and he is “ opening windows to get closer” to the leader of Colombia Humana.
Faced with the debate on whether the mayor is participating in politics because she met or made rapprochements with Petrismo, Alfonso Portela, former Electoral Delegate Registrar, assures that my you enter or give the elements that the law prohibits, you cannot be blamed for a conduct. “So far it is not true, what there is is speculation.” And he added that although everyone considers Gustavo Petro as a candidate, he is not yet, since they still have the status of senator.