After on January 3, 2024, the National Environmental License Authority (Anla) announced the filing of the environmental licensing process for the expansion of the North Highway in Bogotá, arguing that there was a lack of sufficient information to advance with the project, many have been the voices for and against the entity’s decision
One of the first to speak out on the issue was the former mayor of Bogotá Claudia López, who was in office until December 31, 2023. The renowned politician without hesitation blamed the President of the Republic, Gustavo Petro, for wanting to torpedo important projects. in the country’s capital.
“President Petro, respect citizens and democracy. In two local elections in a row, we Bogota citizens defeated their proposal and candidates and defended the continuity of the Bogotá metro. Do not continue ignoring that decision and sabotaging Bogotá for revenge. His government stopped the Regiotram del Norte, it just stopped the expansion of the Autonorte and announced that it will oppose the expansion of Av. Boyacá,” López said through his X account (formerly Twitter).
In the same sense, he demanded that he stop sabotaging and let the governorships and mayors work.
“Stop the sabotage and revenge. You who call yourself a democrat accept the decisions of the polls and the popular will. Get out of the neither do nor let do. Since it doesn’t do it, at least let the mayors and governorships do it. Co-financing well-structured territorial order projects is not a personal favor, but a constitutional and legal obligation. Fulfill it! ”He added.
Given what was expressed by the former president of the capital, who is about to travel to study in the United States at Harvard University, the former candidate for Mayor of Bogotá in the last local elections on October 29, 2023, Rodrigo Lara, also spoke out against the leader of the Green Alliance Party, describing her as “chameleonic and opportunistic” after the taunts launched at the head of state.
“First he campaigned for the Mayor’s Office against the elevated subway. Chosen turned around and aligned herself with the elevated subway. She then campaigned to elect Petro president and claimed that victory as her own. Now she turns around and campaigns at Petro’s expense. Chameleonism – opportunism,” she stated.
For the moment, Claudia López has not commented on Lara’s direct attacks. What he did is that he confronted the president again, after he said that since 2014, when he was mayor of Bogotá, he insisted that the priority work on the North Highway of the Sabana de Bogotá was to raise it in the wetland area so that it does not flood and to rescue the natural flows of water.
To which the person who took the reins of the capital of Colombia from 2020 to 2023 responded: “President, what you thought, but did not do, is what is done with the contract agreed between Bogotá and the nation in 2021 and that “ANI executes to expand the Autonorte: a technical combination of viaduct and box culverts to reestablish the water and ecosystem connection of the Torca and Guaymaral wetlands that fractured the construction of that road more than 70 years ago.”
In addition, he added that what has already been agreed “expands the mixed lanes, exclusive of public transport, bicycle routes and good road services that not only Bogotá Region needs, but the entire country that loses productivity and competitiveness due to delays in entry and exit to its capital”.
Finally, he reiterated that he should not stop the project: “Let this expansion of Autonorte be done. Let Anla make technical decisions and not let it be a bill-bearer for its political revenge,” he concluded. With Infobae