Bogotá

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Petro government blame officials for Bogota trash shambles

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Is Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro’s administration shifting blame for the fiasco of the city’s new garbage collection service onto the officials charged with its operation?

It certainly seemed so when Petro’s Health Secretary Guillermo Jaramillo was dispatched to the airwaves yesterday to call for Aguas Bogotá chief Diego Bravo to resign.

Bravo is a former hand-in-glove collaborator of the mayor but for Jaramillo the chaos of the first days of the city’s new waste disposal system is his fault, and perhaps his fault alone

… et tu, Petro?

On 18 December Petro kicked out the private operators who had collected the over 7,000 daily tonnes of rubbish, “nationalizing” the service and placing it in the hands of those he is now forcing out of office.

Petro’s ability to govern Bogotá has been called into question following a catastrophic start to this new system. The mayor has failed to ensure Aguas Bogota have at their disposal the most basic of infrastructure – the dust cars themselves.

Improvisation, poor planning and a total absence of administrative control have been blamed for the depressing scenes of Colombia’s capital awash with the uncollected detritus of household, hospital and industrial waste.

For many Bogotanos Petro’s flagship policy is not only unnecessary – why fix what aint broke? – it is also imprudent and inexplicably poorly executed.

For the mayor’s detractors then, it will seem more than a little rich that Petro appears to be hiding behind his officials.

Health Sec Jaramillo will face accusations of shameless scape goating by calling on Diego Bravo to go. Jaramillo claimed Bravo “fooled” Petro, providing “less than truthful information” about Aguas Bogotá’s plan. So according to Jaramillo, Petro is guilt free, a man let down by those around him rather than a source of blame himself?

Meanwhile Petro, on holiday until after the New Year festivities are out-of-the-way, continues to defend his plan despite the farce of the last ten days.

News emerged today that the dilapidated vehicles Petro has been forced to loan from New York could be prevented from arriving in Bogotá because of their poor state of repair. Pictures of the ancient and rusting trucks have dismayed the 8 million residents who anxiously await their deployment.

The city is traditionally quiet over Christmas and New Year as many desert the streets for the beaches. The fear is that once work resumes and Bogotá springs back into life the government will have failed to resolve a problem of its own making.

That Bravo’s head should roll is perhaps cause of little controversy, but Bogotanos will not be hoodwinked into thinking he is the real culprit.

Category: Bogotá, Comment
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“Discipline Petro”, Ombudsman

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Colombia’s Ombudsman has today filed a request with the nation’s inspector general to begin disciplinary hearings against Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro.

Jorge Armando Otálora, the “Defensor del Pueblo” confirmed in the early hours of the morning he had moved to bring Petro’s actions, which he considers to be a threat to the health of Bogotanos, to the attention of the recently re-elected top prosecutor Alejandro Ordonez.

Otalora has labelled Petro’s “improvisation” amid the troubled start of the new garbage collection model which yesterday plunged Bogota into chaos “gravely” unacceptable.

The Ombudsman accuses Petro of failing in his duty to protect “the fundamental rights” of Bogota’s eight million souls and has asked the authorities to step in to protect the city.

The mayor’s new plan to place refuse collection in the hands of the public sector has been roundly criticized for its lack of operational robustness, its lack of planning and its woeful execution on day one.

Bizarrely the mayor has failed to ensure Aguas Bogota, the subsidiary of the city’s state-run aqueduct in charge of the new operation, the delivery of the dust carts necessary to patrol the city’s streets.

Aguas Bogota must wait months until new carts are delivered and in the meantime has sent for reinforcements from New York.

In a further twist, these borrowed trucks will not arrive until the end of the year leaving Aguas Bogota yesterday to adopt drastic measures, rolling out a makeshift and apparently illegal float of vehicles in its first day of operations.

The Ombudsman has indicated it will take action against the mayor for the use of these vehicles which he argued placed the lives of workers at risk.

Meanwhile President Santos has indicated that if the plan continues to flounder he will, within days, step in.

The Ombudsman when asked whether he should wait before lodging the official complaint argued that the legal statutes state that a governor is responsible for his actions as soon as he begins to execute them. It is a legal decision, he argues, based on a dereliction of duty and a lack of planning that threatens the livelihood, security and health of the capital’s population.

Petro also looks set to lose today his right hand man, Guillermo Asprilla who appears to have been kicked out by Inspector General Alejandro Ordonez and preventing from occupying public office for up to 12 years.

Less than a year into his government Petro is hanging on for dear life. Bogotanos are today asking when he will start to govern.

Category: Bogotá, News Review
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Why I’m not supporting the campaign to kick Petro out of office

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I am a fierce critic of Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro. I think his government has failed. I think his government has divided the capital when we looked for unity and harmony after the disastrous Samuel Moreno regime.

As Petro stood proud on the day of his inauguration he promised us a “politics of love” but he now stands accused of pitching poor against rich, private industry against public and state owned institutions, of even picking fights with his closest aides who have left his government in droves over this long 11 months since he walked through the door to the Leivano Palace. In short, Petro has shown us a politics whose qualities are closer to hatred than to love.

Petro has spent a life time as an opposition politician, and he seems unwilling to let go of this attack dog mentality. Sadly, our mayor seems incapable of administrating with maturity or competence.

I was not one of the mere 30% who voted for him last year, but I was willing to give him a chance.

But Petro has gone out of way to alienate rather than to win over his critics. There is very little sense that the mayor governs for the whole of Bogota; those who voted against him have been shunned, and ignored.

So it is little surprise that there are those who feel Petro is unfit to run Bogota. Congressman Miguel Gomez of the President’s U Party even believes the mayor should be forced from office. This month Gomez officially launched the campaign to dispose the mayor via an article in the 1991 constitution which permits the revocation of a mandate through popular support.

In January, Gomez will start the process of collecting the 280,000 signatures necesary to take the campaign forward. If he clears this hurdle the movement must encourage 55% of the number of those who voted in the last mayoral election (approx. 1,234,000) to mark yes in a ballot on the revocation. So, around 617,000 “si” votes are needed.

With Petro’s unpopularity higher than 60% it does not sound that too far fetched. However, no mayor has been deposed via this article since it was first introduced in 1994.

What appears certain is that Bogota must endure a long, arduous and bitter campaign.

Although Petro has been – until now – a calamitous mayor, I will not join the campaign to oust him from office and here’s five reasons why:

Like him or loath him, Petro was democratically elected. And elected to serve a full four year term.

With peace talks ongoing in which we are promising the FARC an opportunity to demobilize and enter politics it is less than helpful for them to see a former guerrilla, Petro, forcibly removed from office.

The first year of any mayor is difficult. Until September, Petro’s administration was effectively delivering what Samuel Moreno had planned. The outgoing mayor’s plan – whereever you are in Colombia – runs for around 9 months after the boss has left office. Petro has only had a question of months implementing his vision for the city.

Why should Bogota lose another year of government while the mayor defends himself against these attacks? The district authority has been paralized for too long, and has delivered too little over far too many years. How would Bogota benefit from a further period of schlerotic non-management? Bogota does not want a mayor who spends his time fighting opponents while the transport network grinds to a hault and the rubbish piles up on the streets and in the parks.

The revocation helps no one but the extremists. A fight of this kind helps Petro. We know that the mayor wants to run again for president of the republic. A campaign by the right will do him good, will allow him to position himself as the voice of the poor and the destitute, the white knight pitched against the overbearing power of the mafioso right. We must not let Petro present himself as a savior, as Bogota’s Evita – for he is not!

Yes, Bogota deserves and demands better than the mayor we have. But Bogota also deserves a politics based in serious administration of the very real problems that face our city. We do not want a polemicized “them versus us” debate, we do not want to give the mayor the opportunity to fight against the “paramilitary mafia” as he labels it.

We want Petro to get on with the very difficult job he has. We want Petro to stop fighting and to start governing. We want a Bogota based on progression not on regression and class warfare.

I do not support Petro’s government, but no I don’t support moves to remove him just a year after he was elected.

This article was written for Colombia Reports.

Category: Bogotá, Comment
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Petro’s mayoralty decomposes

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Bogota’s new garbage collection system began amid chaos this morning as tonnes of rubbish lay strewn across the city’s parks and streets.

Even before today Gustavo Petro’s plan to kick out private operators in favour of state run Aguas Bogota had been met with anguish by many Bogotanos who fear the mayor has based his decision on ideology and politics, not on what is good for the city.

By the early hours of this morning, the full scale of the disastrous start to the new regime became apparent as citizens published on social networks photos showing whole neighbourhoods under piles of plastic bags. The Colombian capital was awaking to scenes reminiscent of the 1980s – when EDIS, the baby of the city councillors was in charge of waste disposal.

From his bunker in the mayoral palace in the Parque Bolivar, Petro tweeted in defence of his plan claiming all was functioning well. BluRadio’s popular morning programme told us the mayor had accused “paramilitaries and terrorists” of being behind a plan to discredit the new regime, suggesting the pictures were politically motivated fakes. Nestor Morales, the show’s host, scoffed at the mayor’s “paranoia” as his reporters on the scene confirmed what thousands of Bogotanos had already reported.

President Santos has promised to keep out of the fight- for now – rightly insisting that the national government must respect the decision of the district. Santos will not stand on the sidelines for long, however, and has indicated that action will be taken if the situation is not resolved within days.

A rocky start was expected, but it is clear what has been billed as D Day for Petro has begun even more abjectly than imagined for this deeply unpopular leader. But why when the district has had months to prepare for this hand over?

Colombia Politics has reported before on the apparent lack of planning at the heart of the district government. Petro, unable to buy the necessary dust carts has had to borrow from New York until new, commissioned vehicles, are delivered (these carts are only just arriving in the country and will not be ready until next week). And oddly the mayor has been forced to seek to subcontract back some of the private providers in what he labels a “transition period”.

These fundamental flaws in the plan which Petro has tried to present as teething problems were known about before. What has just emerged as the reason behind the particular delay in collection on this, the first day of operation, is the stuff of farce.

According to reports, the clock had run down on the private operators’ contracts as midnight struck, meaning these companies downed tools. Seemingly unaware or unprepared for this fact, Aguas Bogota failed to deploy its makeshift fleet of ancient carts in either sufficient number or in appropriate time, leaving a significant part of Bogota’s 7,000 tonnes of waste dumped on the roadside.

Despite having months to prepare, Petro’s administration has been accused today of improvisation and incompetence.

There is little doubt things will improve – it is difficult to see how they could get worse. But the question remains – why has Bogota’s Mayor decided to focus efforts on repairing a service that did not appear to many Bogotanos to be broken? Why, when the city is in need of decisions on transport investment, on education, on housing for the poor is the mayor devoting his energy to something he until now has only managed to make worse, not better?

Bogota demands better.

Category: Bogotá, Comment
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Petro must be allowed to govern

Bogota Mayor, Gustavo Petro faces a campaign to remove him from office less than a year into his mandate. While I agree the mayor has been under-performing, an impeachment would be a slap in the face of the capital’s electorate.

Last month a group of local lawmakers, led by Conservative Telesforo Pedraza started to seek the signatures necessary to revoke the capital´s district mayoralty, and in the process topple Petro.

Pedraza took to the radio waves to announce his campaign:

“What good it would do if the Mayor of Bogota were revoked. It would let people know that the administration of the city cannot be based on improvisation.”

According to the Bogota house representative, Petro´s crimes are both an ad hoc approach to government, and blatant clientalism.

Pedraza accuses the mayor of an acute case of ´initiativitis´, in which he announces with great fanfare – on a ´daily basis´- a new proposal to end this or to improve that. Petro must ´think before speaking´ Pedraza argues.

Perhaps more critical is the house reps´ asertion that the former M19 guerrilla uses his patronage to appoint hopelessly unqualified individuals to top positions in the administration.

Indeed, Petro is expected shortly to face legal proceedings into (among other things) this purported carousel of ´jobs for the boys´. Inspector General, Alejandro Ordoñez is anticipated to start the ball rolling once he is re-elected in the coming weeks, and may yet take the matter out of the hands of Pedraza´s campaign and directly rule Petro unable to govern.

How strong Ordoñez´s case is we will have to wait and see.

If Petro is not removed by Ordoñez then Pedraza´s argument that he should be deposed because of incompetence should also be resisted – it is an entirely anti-democratic proposal.

However bad you feel Petro is doing, he was elected democratically – and elected to serve a full four-year term. He must be allowed to continue to govern.

It is clear there are some in Colombian politics who cannot accept that a former guerrilla is in power. Petro has spoken of dark forces working to paralyze his administration. Well, the mayor is doing a pretty good job of paralyzing Bogota on his own – resignations from his top team are virtually a monthly occurrence and Pedraza is right to point to the improvisation of a mayoralty that seems never to have located its compass.

But Petro is evidently right to point to the fact that there are some who want him out, who actively want him to fail. This is not healthy either for the political system, or, more importantly, for Bogota.

And if we are honest it is not fair to label Petro a total and utter failure, despite the attempts to paint him so.

It would be unfair not to point to the successes of the regime.

Yes, Petro is working to reduce the cost of water for the poor, yes the homicide rate in Bogota is the lowest in a generation, yes perceptions of the security situation are reported to have improved, and yes, the adjustment of the pico y placa (peculiar transport management programme that seeks to restrict the number of days on which any given vehicle can use the roads) has not been an unmitigated failure. Yes it is also true that his proposals for treatment for drug addicts has attracted some support from the Santos government.

The list of buts is longer, of course. It is simply wrong, however, to argue that Petro has not done achieved anything in his short time in power. He might have focused on the wrong things and it might be true that he would be better to devote 100% of his time on fixing the city´s shocking transport, than wasting time banning bull fights.

But Petro was not elected to deliver centre or right-wing policies.

Plenty of people I speak to who voted for him last year are happy with at least part of his administration. To remove Petro from power by political force would be to deny these people their voice. Petro won the election fair and square – and those who campaigned for him deserve to see their man given a chance.

So it is with relief that El Espectador newspaper today reported that Pedraza´s campaign is failing. The daily broadsheet spoke of the ´gradual disolving of the desire´ to effect a coup, referencing comments by MIRA senator Carlos Alberto Baena who argued Petro needed the ´support´ of the political class to overcome Bogota´s problems.

Baena is right. The problems that face Bogota are great, and for the good of a city, Petro must be shown the errors of his ways – yes – but institutionally undermined – absolutely not.

President Santos understand this and the appointment of former mayoral candidate, Gina Parody could well prove a smart move to start to force the mayor to deliver on this promises, to work with the government.

Petro entered power in January after decades as an opposition politician. Now in government this former M-19  ideologue has very little time to prove himself, and to prove the critics wrong. Unless there is a judgement against him by Ordoñez, he must be allowed to get on with the job. He can only get better, can´t he?

This article was written for Colombia Reports

 

Category: Bogotá, Comment
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Petro versus Parody, the battle for Bogotá?

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has named former mayoral candidate Gina Parody his adviser for Bogotá, adding another member to the political team that will take the government through to the 2012 general election.

Parody was beaten by Gustavo Petro in the race to be Bogotá mayor last October, and has since been one of his most vocal opponents.

Some see the move as a hostile act by the president, others as the perfect platform for Parody to launch a bid for the mayoralty next time round.

For Petro the decision was not welcome, an appointment he was not informed of first hand, but instead through the media.Despite this snub the mayor claimed he would apply his famous mantra ´the politics of love´ to his interactions with Ms Parody.

Within hours, however, this love turned sour as Petro dismissed the new presidential adviser, arguing that he would only deal with the nation´s head of state direct.In reply, Parody appeared on the programme ´Pregunta Yamid´ to argue that for the good for the city the mayor would have to respect the president´s decision.

This was an inauspicious start to a relationship that Bogotá needs to work.

The city remains in crisis with a government that has failed to tackle the major issues, instead choosing to focus on peripheral, populist and improvisational politics. Sure, bull fights might have been banned, but what, Bogotanos ask, has the mayor done to improve the catastrophically creaky transport network?

Petro is an unpopular mayor who has disappointed even many of those who share his politics. Since coming to office in January, his administration has looked chaotic, with splits from head to toe; there have been almost as many resignations from Petro´s top team as there have been months since he set foot inside the Liévano Palace (the mayoral seat of power).

A poll taken at the end of last month, showed that less than half of Bogotanos approve of the mayor´s government, and that this figure is heading south.Santos understands that Bogotá is the most important territory in the land, and he cannot afford the city to fail. International businesses come first to the capital and its 8 million souls are an engine-house for economic growth.

The difficulties of the capital are not the fault entirely of Petro. A series of disastrous mayoralties has created the feeling of a city in decline, despite record foreign investment. Without serious transport and security improvements, Bogotanos will continue to despair for the future.

The question is whether the arrival of Parody is good for Bogotá, will she help improve its administration, or act as spanner in the works, undermining Petro´s authority?

Although the start has been less than promising, it is important to note that Parody can no longer be the voice of opposition; she must work with the mayor. It will be less easy for her to attack – ultimately she will either share the blame for failure or the credit for success.

She has been hotly tipped to run again for mayor in three years´ time, and her chances are now dependent on positively impact the government of the capital. For Petro the appointment is clearly a slight. But he too must make it work.

He will no doubt begin see the benefit of having Parody inside the tent (removing his principal opposition). Parody may find Petro difficult to work with, but she will do well to remember that his authority trumps hers.  He is the elected politician; his mandate (despite the growing opposition) was secured at the ballot box.

Parody is a political appointment, and she must speak for the president not for herself.

The signs are at least good that Parody will work well with Santos. It is well known that the Casa de Nariño values highly Parody´s political talent. In 2006, when Director of the U Party, Santos placed his new adviser at the top of the list of candidates for the senate elections. He saw her then as he does now, as a rising star.

Bogotá has been badly run for years.

Petro has been a polemical mayor, dividing the public and so far failing to deliver on the promises of his campaign. In the coming months he will face corruption charges which threaten to paralyse his administration. Bogotá cannot afford to sit and wait for the mayor to be cleared or convicted.

The city needs strong leadership. It falls to Parody to help Petro save his mayoralty from disaster.

We wish her well.

 

Category: Bogotá, Comment
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Petro’s absent government. Is anyone in charge of Bogotá?

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Gustavo Petro lost yet another key member of his team yesterday as Fernando Rey, head of the Transmilenio, the city’s public transport system, joined the long list of politicians to desert the Mayor of Bogotá just seven months into his four-year term.

Rumours are circulating that the Progressives, Petro’s political party, are making succession plans, actively seeking an alternative to their faltering leader.

As Petro recovers at home following a second operation in as many months on a serious brain injury, and as the Mayor’s closest allies one by one jump ship, the nation is beginning to wonder whether anyone is governing Bogotá.

Petro, the eternal opposition politician.

Gustavo Petro is a politician better suited to opposition than to government. The polemical left-winger made his name as a combative congressman leading the charge against the Uribe government who he accused of rank corruption. The ex M-19 guerrilla became the voice of the disenchanted, the indignant (before this was a movement), and secured a significant following, propelling him to fourth position in the presidential elections of 2010.

In 2011, Petro formed his own party and launched a campaign to win the mayoralty of Bogotá, ahead of the establishment candidate Enrique Peñalosa. In January, Petro was sworn in, taking on his first job as a governor. His anti-government attack-dog politics were supposed to make way for a more mature and statesman-like style.

No sooner had Petro taken up office, however, and the questions about his ability to take control of the capital were heard not only in the media but also on the streets of the sprawling city. The truth is Petro has not made the shift from opposition – he continues to rage against the machine he is supposed to drive.

The criticism of Petro is not only evident among voters, who overwhelmingly disprove of his administration, nor is it restricted to the thousands of column inches that on a daily basis pour scorn on his ability to lead; the real blow that strikes against the mayor’s credibility comes from within his government (the members of which are showing an alarming rate of attrition).When Petro came to power he gave jobs to his closest allies. But even these true believers of the Petro philosophy appear unable to live with the man now he is in power. Navarro has left, as has Noriega and García-Peña.

Alongside this, several ministers have been replaced and functionaries lower down the food-chain have been moved, chucked-out or have simply walked away.Some of this can be put down to the usual ebb and flow of government, but the almost constant stream of bad news coming out of the Liévano Palace is eroding a confidence in his capabilities that was weak from day-one.

Petro has also had bad luck. He is currently incapacitated with a cerebral condition that has threatened his life. In the course of a few weeks Petro has had twice to leave the stage while medics tend to his condition. Unfair as it might be and as uncharitable as it appears, Petro’s absence has left a power vacuum – made all the worse by the fact that his right hand men have been resigning on an almost monthly basis.

The announcement yesterday of the resignation – for the second time in the Mayor’s painfully young period in office – of the head of the Transmilenio is disastrous news. Bogotá’s number one problem is its woefully inadequate public transport network and the resulting lack of mobility across the city. Major innovation and major investment is required to deliver a fit-for-purpose system.

Unfortunately for Petro, he is seen by many as unable to provide a strategic vision for the future; he vacillates on supporting key infrastructure such as the metro, and fails to set out a clear and defined commitment to anything. Without a man in charge of executing the plan should it ever arrive, Bogotá’s commuters wonder if rather than when they will see the promised change.

The independent on-line publication, La Silla Vacía has reported on rumours that the Progressives are working on a strategy to sustain the Petro government until a year from now when they will consider replacing him. The concern is that Petro won’t even last that long – whether through ill-health, through public discontent or through the legal processes state officials are running against him.

Right across the board Petro is accused of displaying a reckless absenteeism, an inability to develop a plan for the future. The government relies on policy improvisation not on structured planning. Bogotanos plaintively wonder when Petro will start to govern. Even his own party appears to be losing faith. Councillor Angélica Lozano, elected on the Progressives’ platform, yesterday tweeted ‘No to improvisation, respect Bogotá’.

As this website argued last year during the mayoral elections, Bogotá is a city that needs strong leadership from a man with real vision and a determination to repair the damage caused by the neglect of previous administrations. Instead of this, however, we are left with the impression that the city is drifting, that it is either ungovernable or ungoverned.

Colombia’s capital was once considered the Athens of Latin America, she deserves better than a leader who appears willing only to manage her decline.

Category: Bogotá, Comment
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Gustavo Petro useless or ruthless Mayor of Bogotá?

Gustavo Petro is a ruthless politician, or he is a useless one. The Mayor of Bogotá faces heavy criticism today for his decision – only five months into his mandate – to demanded the mass resignation of his cabinet.

According to most commentators, the Petro administration is in crisis. These critics point to a string of high-profile departures (even before last night’s political massacre) in particular to Antonio Navarro’s (effectively his second in command) sudden exit three months in, and conclude that Petro is unable to run a government.

 

The public are equally sceptical of the way the mayor is governing Bogotá, and disapproval ratings are running at 65%.  No one can deny it has been an unhappy start to the Petro regime. But this crisis today represents, for this website, an opportunity for Petro to regain the initiative. He may well not be the best administrator, but the decision to sack his cabinet is a political calculation, a bold move that might just work to re-position his government, and provide the impetus it needs to recapture the confidence of Bogotá.

 

 

What is wrong with the Petro administration?

 

 

Petro is unpopular. Bogota is in chaos; this is the assertion heard as much in the posh cafes of Parque 93 as it is in the rough cantinas of the city’s southern barrios. It is difficult to disagree with such a widely held view.
In fairness to Petro, Bogota was in trouble before he took hold of the reins. The Samuel Moreno administration (Petro’s predecessor) was disastrous. It left a series of deep-seated problems that now require immediate attention. The difficulty for Petro is he is yet to provide the evidence that he is equipped to resolve these issues.
Take transport – the area of policy that needs the most urgent action. It is no exaggeration to say that Bogota’s public transport network is at breaking point – major works are required, while others scheduled to have been completed years ago remain unfinished, underfunded and victims of the alleged corruption at the heart of the Moreno government. But, Petro’s approach to mobility in the capital has failed to reassure.
Although Petro argues that the issue is the most important of his administration, Bogotanos still await a clear plan or solution to the problem. His contradictory announcements on whether a metro system will be built or whether the city needs a light-rail system have caused confusion, and leave the impression of uncertainty at the heart of the mayoralty.
It has not helped, either, that the new bus system designed to come into effect on 2 June failed to do so because of a walk out of technical staff supposedly in protest at Petro’s penchant for ambivalence.
Petro’s Development Plan for Bogotá
The inability to make a decision is the most frequent criticism thrown at Petro. Last week, Petro pushed through his Bogotá Development Plan, the programme of commitments and policies the administration will seek to deliver during the lifespan of the mandate.
This plan has been slammed, precisely because it represents a series of compromises, volte-faces, uncertainties and contradictions – there were over 600 amendments to the final text. The airwaves have been full of those who argue that the plan is incoherent, that its promises are near impossible to keep and will saddle the public purse with huge debts.
Even more damming is the claim that the plan omits many of the more eye-catching commitments Petro made during his election campaign. Will Petro deliver free water to the poorest, for example, will he build the colleges he promised on the campaign trail? What has made him change the focus of his mandate, where has this recent policy shift come from?
Petro argues that he has amended his policies to reflect the reality of the Bogotá he inherited. But, it is the same Bogotá whose streets Petro canvassed last year.
Petro – the politician brain
Perhaps the critics of Petro are too harsh, however. In order to get his plan through Bogotá’s council it was inevitable that he would have to accommodate changes to his proposals. The majority of councillors are opposition members – and many of them will be viscerally opposed to Petro’s left-wing politics.
Politics is the art of the possible, and Petro is playing the game. In an earlier post, I argued that in order to win the mayoral elections last year, Petro had decided to move to the centre, and to appear a more pragmatic politician. Had he not done so, he would have been unable to win over the middle classes, frightened of his polemical views.
The same pragmatic Petro can be seen behind the decision to sack his cabinet. Petro understands that public opinion is not with him at the moment, that his administration has started off badly, and that it is failing to deliver on the fine rhetoric. What better way of making a major statement than to sack the people charged with this delivery? Sure it’s bold, and it could give the impression of a sinking ship – at least in the short-term. But it offers Petro a clean slate, an opportunity to regain the initiative, and set about achieving the goals the plan sets in place.
The most important move will be who Petro chooses to put in place in his new cabinet. Petro knows that if he is to keep the council on his side, which he must do if he is to secure the funding agreements for his projects, he must build a coalition. He cannot continue to govern solely with the friends he had placed in his old cabinet.
Given this, Petro appears likely to reach out and bring to the table members of the opposition, from the U Party and from Cambio Radical. A year ago when the campaign for Bogotá mayor was getting under way, it would have been impossible to imagine Petro – who was still viewed as a left-wing firebrand, an anti-establishment figure – working with the right-wing parties of the Santos administration.

 

 

Petro’s administrative qualities have been questioned, but his politics are adroit. There is no precedent for the sacking of the cabinet immediately after agreeing the development plan. It is expected that the mayor sticks with the secretaries that drew up the document.

 

 

But Petro likes the unexpected, and Petro administration that brings together those on the right and the left would offer an echo of perhaps the arch-pragmatist in Colombian politics – President Juan Manuel Santos.

 

 

Petro’s poor start to his time in office could yet lead to a successful mayoralty. No one doubts Petro’s ability to appeal through wise words, but he has failed so far to deliver. He must choose a new cabinet that is competent enough to do this dirty work for him.

 

Category: Bogotá, Comment