With nine votes in favor and ten against, this Thursday night the Council of Medellin rejected the Mayor’s request to reconsider the study of the project with which it is sought that EPM sell the shares that it still has in UNE. The decision was immediately answered by Mayor Daniel Quintero, who even asked the National Government to “explore a Nationalization of Tigo to recover stolen public resources.”
The president referred again to the fact that the city lost $3 billion pesos and was supported by his cabinet, former officials, followers and political allies who turned to the networks to comment on the Council’s decision.
The councilors who voted for the proposal not to be reconsidered again were Julio González, Luis Carlos Hernández, Luis Bernardo Vélez, Daniel Duque, Simón Pérez, Dora Saldarriaga, Leticia Orrego, Claudia Ramírez, Sebastián López and Alfredo Ramos.
For their part, Aura Marleny Arcila, Fabio Humberto Rivera, Juan Felipe Betancur, Carlos Mario Romero, Jaime Cuartas, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Babinton Flórez, Lina García and Nataly Vélez voted yes. It should be remembered that Carlos Ríos declared himself unable to vote because he has a brother in UNE and that Lucas Cañas was unable to vote because was recused in the first hours of the debate.
The heated debate, included fights, shouting and strong confrontations, It was marked by the interventions of the different councilors, who recalled not only what they think about the sale of the shares, but also took their clothes out in the sun and pointed at each other.
Some considerations
Councilman Simón Pérez, from the Todos Juntos movement, once again insisted that the project would constitute a detriment to public heritage, given that the Medellín public conglomerate would lose an asset that would allow it to strengthen its connectivity and bring the internet to the most vulnerable areas.
Councilman Luis Bernardo Vélez, who resigned from the Independent Movement, spoke in the same vein, also describing the discussion as unnecessary wear and tear, given that the project had already been scuttled by the plenary and by the First Committee three other times.
“We shouldn’t be here,” said Vélez, insisting that if the mayor’s office was sure that the public supported the sale, it should submit it to a referendum.
For his part, councilor Daniel Duque, of the Alianza Verde, listed the multiple scandals in which the municipal administration has been involved and He reiterated that there was no trust in the district administration.
The Democratic Center bench also insisted on this last point, recalling the disagreements that led to the floor of the negotiation that had begun in September.
In the end, the Secretary of the Treasury, Oscar Hurtado, took the floor to reiterate that the project as such was not being voted on in the debate, but an appeal request made by the Mayor’s Office so that the sale proposal be reconsidered after being rejected on several occasions.
Hurtado stated that they will continue to present the project if it is possible and necessary, which contradicts a bit the messages that they made on social networks, before the debate. Mayor Daniel Quintero and his adviser Juan Pablo Ramírez, They made it clear that they would no longer insist.
“This afternoon’s debate is lost. The mess that Tigo caused us with UNE and those responsible for it will go down in history,” said the president, while Ramírez said: “Today will be the last time that the administration presents a draft agreement that allows the recovery of public resources invested in UNITE. The opposition councilors will not have another opportunity to prevent the robbery of the century from the citizens of Medellín for 3 billion pesos.”
Hurtado went on to speak of the technical importance of the sale and assured that the resources obtained from an eventual sale, $2.8 million, would not enter the Quintero mayor’s office, precisely what generates the distrust of several of the councilors who voted no.
Now, it remains to be seen what will be the decision made by the Mayor’s Office, since it is not known if it will insist and resubmit the project, which has been the most controversial discussion of this period of the Council.