The former mayor of Bogotá Enrique Peñalosa spoke with ‘Vicky en SEMANA’. After analyzing the insecurity situation in Bogotá, the former president was consulted about the possibilities of Claudia López being president of Colombia in 2026.
“It just seems to me that she is too obsessed with power and is willing to do anything for power. Go from the extreme left to the right, wherever, do whatever. So those people so obsessed with power seem very dangerous to me,” said the former mayor of Bogotá. “He was a Peñalosista, anyway. I hope that he is not going to be president of Colombia, but whatever the decisions of democracy. For now let’s worry about Petro,” he added.
“It is very clear that she was thinking more about the presidential campaign than about the Mayor’s Office. And as for the politicking that took place, it was very serious. About eight or ten thousand contractors were hired who really had nothing to do. Many people cannot fit in the offices, with so many contractors, and not to do more, because there are practically no new works that have been done,” Peñalosa added.
Watch the full interview with Enrique Peñalosa:
Did Claudia López leave the path ready to return and aspire to the House of Nariño? While in 2023 the investment budget for security in Bogotá had a drastic reduction of 38.5 percent, despite the increase in crime, the then mayor, For his part, he did allocate more resources to disseminate the achievements of his administration to the media.
The section by Enrique Peñalosa talking about Claudia López’s eventual aspiration for the Presidency of Colombia:
According to a response sent by the General Secretariat to Councilor Diana Diago, of the Democratic Center, in 2023 10,559 million pesos in guidelines, that is, 2,626 million pesos more compared to 2022. The annual increase is equivalent to more than half of the total resources that the Ministry of Finance had to spend printing property tax receipts for the lowest strata in the city. Even with that money, nearly 900 more microentrepreneurs could have benefited from the Impulso Local program.
The 33 percent increase in resources allocated to advertising in the General Secretariat coincided with the 2023 election year. Although it is necessary to specify that the objective was to make a kind of accountability, with short audiovisual pieces that highlighted the achievements of the administration, the majority of the money and media plans were executed in the months in which the different candidates for the Liévano Palace and the Council advanced their political campaigns.
The resources, according to Councilor Diago’s research, began to be implemented in May 2023, with three media plans ‘Bogotá has a lot to tell in education and poverty attention.’
