Daniel Quintero has decided to resign as mayor of Medellín three months before the end of his term. The Independent Movement politician declared that he is leaving office to run for candidate Juan Carlos Upegui, who is in second place in the polls behind Federico Gutiérrez. The announcement was made in the early hours of this Sunday through their social networks. “The reasons that led me to become mayor are the same reasons that led me to decide to resign from office today,” he said in a video posted on Twitter. Quintero insisted that he was resigning because he could not “stand idly by as the usual politicians, through Fico, who was previously an alternative person, use all the tricks to return to power.”
The current mayor of Colombia’s second city said he would be “another soldier” in the election campaign of Upegui, his government’s former nonviolence minister and cousin of his wife Diana Osorio. “Upegui is the only alternative to counter Fico-Uribismo. I’m resigning from the mayor’s office to go out and fight. My weapons will be God and these airmen,” Quintero said in a video seen by more than 120,000 people. The official announcement will take place this Sunday at 9 a.m. at the Acevedo station of the Medellín metro.
I thank God, Medellín and my family for allowing me to be your mayor. Our project must be defended. Upegui is the only alternative to confront Fico, Uribe and the politicians who want to take over Medellín. I will be waiting for you at Acevedo station today at 9 a.m. pic.twitter.com/E6otg9eNe7
— Daniel Quintero Calle (@QuinteroCalle) October 1, 2023
In addition to supporting Upegui, the former mayor will also work to promote the more than 2,500 candidates supported by his independent movement, including Deninson Mendoza for mayor of Cali, David Fajardo for mayor of Cúcuta and José Luis Osorio for mayor of Cartagena.
The National Government issued a decree at 11 p.m. on Saturday accepting Quintero’s irrevocable resignation. Decree 1609, dated September 30, 2023, signed by the Ministry of the Interior Luis Fernando Velasco, appoints Óscar Hurtado Pérez, until today Minister of the Government, as mayor in charge of Medellín. Now it is up to President Gustavo Petro to choose Quintero’s official successor among three current mayoral secretaries: the government, Óscar Hurtado Pérez; the Minister of Security, retired General José Gerardo Acevedo, and the Private Secretary Juan David Duque.
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Daniel Quintero’s early departure had been rumored for days, but gained strength after a heated argument between the president and an opposition councilor. Quintero publicly insulted him after presenting to the council a draft agreement to dilute EPM’s stake in Tigo-UNE. The Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into these incidents. The regulator is also investigating him for alleged political involvement in the 2022 elections.
Last May, in the closing stages of the first round of the presidential election campaign, prosecutor Margarita Cabello decided to provisionally suspend Quintero for his support in a social media video in favor of Gustavo Petro without mentioning his name. Although civil servants in Colombia are banned from participating in electoral politics, Quintero considered the measure a “dictatorial act” and defended that it was not related to the election campaign. “The change in first gear,” Quintero said from behind the wheel of a truck while moving the vehicle’s lever, in the famous video he shared on Twitter – now X –. The same Attorney General’s Office ordered his reinstatement in June after the conclusion of the presidential elections, with Petro being elected president.
In addition to the problems with the attorney general’s office, at the time of his departure from office, former mayor Quintero had his lowest popularity in nearly 30 years, as measured by the Invamer poll. According to the latest poll, the president’s approval rating was 28% while his disapproval was 61.9%. 66% of citizens believed that the situation in the city was getting worse.
Lawyer and academic Ramiro Bejarano expressed his dissatisfaction with Quintero’s decision: “A huge loophole in the law that does not prohibit a mayor from resigning from office in the middle of an election campaign to support the candidate of his choice, using his influence in the administration. “If the law does not prevent this, at least public ethics should thwart this attack on decency.”
Huge legal loophole that does not prohibit a mayor from resigning from office in the middle of an election campaign in order to support the candidate of his choice and to exploit his influence in the administration. If the law does not prevent this, at least public ethics should thwart this attack on decency.
— Ramiro Bejarano G (@RamiroBejaranoG) October 1, 2023
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