Gustavo Bolívar (Girardot, 58 years old) is President Gustavo Petro’s candidate for mayor of Bogotá. He has been at the top of the polls since his inauguration, after resigning from a Senate seat he held for less than a semester, saying he will return to his job as a soap opera writer. He knows the next two months of campaigning won’t be easy, and not just because of the criticism of the Legislature’s job. The government’s popularity is falling, Bogotá has not voted for a candidate close to a president for 30 years, and Bolívar is the worst candidate according to the same polls. In addition, there is an unprecedented possibility of a second ballot if the winner does not get 40% of the vote and outperforms the second by more than 10%.
Questions. What do you think is the main problem in Bogotá?
Answer. It’s insecurity. I don’t say it, people say it. In all polls, it appears as the first need of citizenship. Then there is mobility, which is not irrelevant because it has to do with quality of life and even mental health, and then there is unemployment and corruption. A few years ago, corruption was the most important issue. But today he is in fourth place.
Q You said that to solve uncertainty, you have to face its causes and not just its symptoms… How do you plan to do that?
R This is based on scientific studies from many universities around the world. When people reach adulthood and develop problems or addictions, they have had deficient childhoods in terms of nutrition and affective deficits. If you want to fight the root causes of crime, you have to take care of the baby, including pregnant women. We must provide children with good nutrition and a quality education. On these two aspects, I have concrete proposals written in the program that I registered with the National Electoral Council.
Q Which is it?
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R First, increase coverage of the School Lunch Program (PAE). Today it works from Monday to Friday and on school days; we want to put it from sunday to sunday and public holidays. Go from the 180-day-a-year child food guarantee to 365 days. That’s our promise.
Q And in education?
R You are not educated by going to school. In Colombia we have the worst reading rates in Latin America, the worst English, the worst grades in math. My flagship is that children in public schools learn English as early as preschool and pursue careers in computer science in their high school years. Nowadays the world needs workers in software development, in programming. This would give them the opportunity to enter the job market much faster.
Gustavo Bolívar, in Bogotá.NATHALIA ANGARITA
Q You have said in interviews that a young person who knows English does not commit crimes. What do you mean by that?
R What I said was that a child who knows a second language and has a technical degree by the age of eleven is unlikely to go into crime. That’s what I said, but they misinterpreted it.
Q The food and education cause is a long-term transformation of the city to improve safety. What do you propose in the immediate future?
R Bogotá has a deficit of 7,000 police officers that urgently needs to be addressed. We have 16,500 and we need about 24,000. To make matters worse, they work two shifts, so the city has 8,000 police officers in the morning and 8,000 at night. And another aggravating circumstance: Half of them work in administrative work. In practice, there are no police in Bogotá. Opportunity makes thieves, and that opportunity is making sure there are no cops on the streets and sidewalks.
Q And how are they won?
R Difficult. I’m campaigning for 2,000 more police officers to be reinstated for retirees who already know how to use a gun, a radio, have experience and are ready. We spoke to these guilds. We also want to develop a community alert strategy. There are about 2,000 community action boards in Bogotá. They receive money for setting up their alarm networks. Security is not an issue for either the police or the mayor; It’s from all over town. All houses will have a panic button. We will replace Immediate Attention Centers (CAI) with Integral Attention Centers and build 60 new ones. If we win, the new CAI will have houses of justice and family judges that will resolve minor conflicts, such as loud noise in an apartment or the sealing of a building, so the police don’t have to deal with it. Finally, we want the city to be divided into four major zones, each with its own commander. Today there is a city commander and that is not enough.
Q Did you know that your closeness and complicity with the student movement, with the first line, provokes rejection in a section of society?
R This is not complicity, but displacement of a historically neglected core of the population. It’s notorious for the right to label young people as terrorists. They are rebellious and have the right to protest, it is in their nature. People have to make a choice: who hit them, who gouged out their eyes, or who killed them? [Jorge Luis Vargas, director de la Policía Nacional durante el estallido social, es candidato por Cambio Radical], and the one who tried to protect them by giving them helmets and goggles. Therein lies the dichotomy. A man who has put the eyes out of hundreds of young people cannot aspire to be mayor, because our youth would again expect violent oppression. That would lead to bigger things, like going to a guerrilla that’s hanging there like wolves, waiting to take the young people away. We can’t allow that.
Q Will the state’s violent response to the marches change and will it use ESMAD during protests?
R I am sure that they will not protest as before, because children and young people are at the center of all the measures that we set out in the development plan and in the government plan of the mayor’s office. I know that if they feel cared for, if there is college, work and food, they will have no reason to protest. If they do it for other reasons, the first thing they do is a face-to-face dialogue: I won’t send managers, I’ll go myself to talk to them and solve the problems through conversations. This is my mood. We will not gas the marches.
Q The second concern of citizens is mobility. Will you go ahead with the construction of the subway’s first elevated line if the mayor lets it run?
R Yes, of course. Currently, the national government is attempting to improve the layout by burying the Caracas Avenue section. Failing this, we will advance on the high haul on January 1st and stick to the established schedule. But obviously we’re trying to improve on that layout and bring it underground.
Q Why insist so much on the subway?
R Putting the subway on the buses is a tech health and engineering breakout. Most buses in Bogotá are diesel buses and people waiting for the subway in the stations will get all the smoke. It’s bad. Second, the pillars of the elevated railway in the Transmilenio stations will collapse because they run every 30 meters. This is an impressive technical breakout. The third is the slum. Experience has shown that the high meters devalue the real estate in the area all over the world. Mayor Peñalosa said it himself: They darken the cities.
Gustavo Bolivar, on August 17, 2023. NATHALIA ANGARITA
Q A few months ago you proposed a tunnel along the southern highway to Soacha. Is this maintained?
R Yes, it was in the National Development Plan and in the conversation I had with the President, we agreed that it will be. I don’t know if it will be ready in four years, but the study, the contracting and the start of the works are ongoing.
Q For the seventh race you said you would rather drive a tram, why?
R This leads to two considerations, one ecological and one financial. The environmental aspect is that the buses pollute the environment even if they are electric. Where do we throw away the 80,000 tires that Bogotá buses produce each year? Electric bus batteries are also toxic waste. That fills the planet with poison. We propose to design rail transport using the energy and hydropower matrix that is dominant in the world today. Even the UN said so. Ms. Claudia López, breaking her own word and deceiving voters, is doing what she said she wouldn’t do: she said she wouldn’t take part in the Transmilenio on the 68, and she does, she said she would wanted a subway and she is building one, said he would not put buses on the seventh and is in the process of doing so. It’s called voter fraud.
Q Why do you think Claudia López is doing these three projects?
R Because there are two clearly defined city models. The one in Peñalosa, which consists of buses, buses and more buses; and that of Petro, which proposes electrification and the construction of an underground subway. Instead of three polluting long-distance lines, we can build one subway line. It takes longer, it’s more expensive, yes; But the city has to present itself well. There are no visionaries here. People don’t think about the city of the future, but anchor themselves in the past, the buses. How is it possible that we continue to build bus lines in 2024? It is absurd with climate change, with the energy transition. To do so is to be blind and mean to the children who will sustain an uninhabitable planet.
Q Now, if you mention President Petro, when was the last time you spoke?
R We call every day. We met in person in Cartagena about a month ago.
Q Do you think being nominated for President is good or bad?
R It is true that during the election campaign I depend heavily on the government’s acceptance, but if I succeed in governing it would be a win-win situation for all citizens because I am close to the President. It is the first time in Bogotá that a president and a mayor are in line, even if they are friends. That guarantees me, for example, that he won’t write me chimbo checks like Santos did to Petro. A friend wouldn’t do that to me. I know that the commitments Petro makes with me will be fulfilled. That’s a powerful message, we can give this city a boost that not even three consecutive mayors could give.
Q Her candidacy belongs to the Petro movement and has a chance of winning in October. What do you think of it?
R I feel the weight, the responsibility. The movement did not succeed in putting up good lists or good candidatures in the territories; In the office of the mayor of Bogotá, we are risking the survival of the Historical Pact. We know that if we don’t win this mayoralty, the President is in for a major debacle. The fact that the head of government is not winning at any important position in the country is very serious. This happened to Duque, who lost Bogotá, Cali, Medellín and all major cities. The Historic Pact is like a full stadium with no good players on the field. We have the people to support us, but there aren’t many good candidates.
Q How is your mood these days of campaigning?
R I’ve added two controls to the campaign, which don’t necessarily help much, but they give me peace of mind. First, not forming alliances with corrupt sectors, zero; I’d rather lose. The other is not receiving private money from contractors or industry. I know this is hurting the campaign’s finances, but it is my policy and I will not negotiate it. So I live quietly.
Q How is it funded then?
R At this point, the campaign hasn’t received a dime. We are waiting for the bank loans to be paid out. I will create a platform, as permitted by the new electoral law, to democratize funding with contributions from ordinary people who can donate anywhere from 50,000 to a million pesos. With what we achieve, we will campaign. Besides, I don’t let a penny in. I don’t want to go through what the government is going through.
Q You’ve talked a lot about the politics of decency. On the left sometimes the end justifies the means. With President Petro we have seen ethical barriers being broken to come to power… What do you think?
R I don’t want to repeat that. It’s not just left, it’s center and right. They always use these methods. I don’t want to have to give the council members who are carrion an authority to back me up. My goal is not to win the mayoralty but to change Colombia’s corrupt political mores. That’s the real change.
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