In the midst of harsh attacks and accusations, The Council of Medellín could not even agree this Wednesday to approve the agenda and define whether to vote on an appeal filed by the Mayor’s Office with which it seeks to revive the sale of EPM shares in UNE.
In a tense session that only lasted a little over an hour, the government coalition and the opposition once again held a heated confrontation, after last Tuesday a vote that almost revived the project was disrupted at the last minute.
During the first few minutesthe councilor of the Party of La U, Luis Carlos Hernández, who was in the eye of the hurricane, gave his version of what happened in Tuesday’s session, rejecting the accusations made by other councilors who accused him of lending himself to a “dirty move”.
As this newspaper reported last Tuesday, although the project to sell EPM’s shares in UNE has already collapsed four times (three in the First Commission and another in plenary), in a lightning move the government coalition modified the order of the day and almost approved the revival of the project.
Although the session had started as a political control debate to discuss the scrapping scandal, After two hours of discussion, Hernández got up from his chair and left the Council chamber.
Taking advantage of his absence (key, for being one of the opponents to the sale of UNE), the councilor for the Independent Movement, Carlos Mario Romero, one of the close allies of the mayor of Medellín Daniel Quintero in the Council, He proposed at the last minute to discuss a new appeal of the project, seeking that it reach the Second Commission, where the government forces are in the majority.
Although this vote could not take place, after several councilors outside the government bloc decided to break the quorumHernandez’s departure was viewed with suspicion by many of them.
In his remarks on Wednesday, Hernández remained that the controversy change in the agenda would have been made behind his back.
“I have received attacks because of those comments that were made yesterday, threats, criticism and offenses that have tarnished my good name”, raised the councilman, maintaining that he had decided to leave the premises to attend to a political commitment that he did not specify.
“I had to leave for political leadership issues”, he expressed, describing as false the versions that pointed out that he had devised a strategy with the quinterismo in exchange for alleged perks.
“Many of us have been absent from the sessions here,” Hernández told the other council members. “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” he added.
“Yesterday I was miserably attacked by some comrades in this room,” he continued, rejecting the suspicions formulated by councilors such as Daniel Duque, Alfredo Ramos and Sebastián López in the session last Tuesday.
Regarding his position in the sale of UNE, the councilor maintained that he would maintain his negative vote in case it is put to the vote again and asked those three councilors to rectify their remarks.
After that intervention by Hernández, Duque, Ramos and López expressed their public apologies towards him and invited him to intensify his work of political controlo to the district administration.
Along with these frictions, this Wednesday’s session was also characterized by a marked polarization environment.
With the stands full of opponents of the local governmentwho shouted harangues and displayed posters rejecting the sale of UNE, for more than an hour the councilors engaged in a crossroads of attacks.
An excited audience shouting slogans like “UNE is not for sale!” and “Quintero out!” the session was takenrepeatedly interrupting the interventions of various councillors.
In the midst of the disorder, the president of the Council Lucas Cañas Jaramillo began to warn that he would adjourn the session in case order was not imposed, being in turn questioned by councilors such as Julio González, from the Democratic Center.
“The bars came to demand that transparent debates take place on the table. no tangles”, said the opposition councilman, criticizing in turn that harangues in support of Mayor Quintero were allowed in the stands, just as it happened during the installation of the sessions last weekend.
“We haven’t even approved the agenda. Let’s define some rules of the game for us to move forward”, expressed Cañas Jaramillo.
After several interventions by other councillors, tempers remained heated and Cañas ordered the session adjournedagain leaving in suspense the fate of the appeal for the sale of UNE.