Corporations such as municipal councils and departmental assemblies emerged with the purpose of strengthening democracy through representativeness and the variety of voices. That is, so that the reds and the blues, the allies and the opposition, those on the right and those on the left have spaces. It is its reason for being, in addition to exercising political control over local administrations.
That is why the complaints that emerged during the week in several cities in the country, from Bogotá to Valledupar, are worrying: majority political sectors made use of hegemonic creativity so that the opposition had no space in the formation of the Board of Directors.
In Valledupar, for example, the La U party declared itself in opposition and councilor Manolo Fernández was chosen vice president of the Council despite the fact that he campaigned against Ernesto Orozco, current mayor of Valledupar.
Taking advantage of the majorities to crush those who think differently is not democratic and weakens political plurality, already hit in a department like Cesar. The practice spread throughout the country, in our region it extended to La Guajira. It is already known that these coalitions also appoint dependent comptrollers, but more than those of the collegiate bodies of the leaders in power.
In regions like these where the control bodies are ‘controlled’ by politicians united in a single large government bloc, there is no respite for the opposition.
But the controversies surrounding the election of the representatives have also been in the news in the Cesar department. Although it is a contest based on merit, that is, the best qualified must be chosen, complaints of fraud abound.
Is it impossible to organize competitions to occupy public positions without being questioned about corruption? Accusations, scandals, attacks, bad practices only scare away from public practice those who want to do things transparently.
Pan American. The Government expanded the coup
Documents are becoming known: the Minister of Sports Astrid Rodríguez, a teacher at the Pedagogical University of Bogotá whose sporting merit was making some publications on sports, and without any experience of public service, was appointed minister (replacing María Isabel Urrutia whose merit He had been an Olympic weightlifting medalist, but had not organized anything), 3 months ago in the minutes of the meeting with his own signature he said that the Ministry already had the US$8 million ready; The former Minister of Finance José Antonio Ocampo asserted that they were budgeted but he cannot conceive of the Ministry’s apathy; and a letter from the Mayor’s Office of Barranquilla in which, in addition to warning that payment must be made for the serious consequences that would entail not doing so, it indicates that the other capitals of the Coast, including, expressly, Valledupar, as the government had requested, could be sub-headquarters of some disciplines. Not just Barranquilla anymore. We already know that the government did not pay on the 30th and spread the disappointment to the entire Coast.
The entry Minorities and controls matter was first published in El Pilón | News from Valledupar, El Vallenato and the Colombian Caribbean.