“Colombia needs illusions, but not with unrealizable proposals”: Fajardo to Petro after promising five metrocables for Medellín

Reactions to presidential candidate Gustavo Petro's proposal to build five additional cable lines for Medellín were not long in coming if he becomes president. In the last few hours, Sergio Fajardo, one of his electoral opponents, questioned this initiative.

Through his Twitter account, the aspirant of Centro Esperanza differed from the candidate of the Historical Pact and assured that these ideas are “unrealizable proposals”. Moreover, he implied that this initiative is improvised.

He added: “Promising 5 cables without explaining anything, without specifying what they are, is irresponsible. Ruling is not a Nintendo game. That is why we will strongly support the consolidation of the mass transit system by coordinating with the AMVA, the mayors, the Metro and others.”

Fajardo's criticism, in which he also faced several of his other proposals, came in response to Esteban Restrepo, former Secretary of Government of Medellín, who celebrated Petro's announcement, in which this week he announced his idea for the capital of Antioquia in terms of transport and mobility.

“Gustavo Petro has just announced that he will make 5 more Metrocables in Medellín for different communes and districts,” said the former official of the Paisa district on Twitter.

Although Restrepo highlighted the particular announcement of the also leader of Human Colombia, another was the scenario that was experienced on social networks, given that several Internet users joined Sergio Fajardo's questions and launched it against Petro, who is still leading the intention to vote for the presidency today.

“Let him first do the schools he promised and never delivered in Bogotá”; “WOW, hopefully we can see all the mega-schools of Bogotá's mayor's office first and that this does not interrupt the dream of the Buenaventura train to the Atlantic Ocean. They can bring a flying route for garbage collection, just like they did in Bogotá, they are geniuses (sarcasm)”; “He didn't do the subway in Bogotá and now he promises everything on what budget?” , were some of the criticisms that Petro won.

The idea of the five new metro cable trunks for Medellín led several citizens to remember another proposal by the candidate of the Historical Pact: an electric train to travel from Barranquilla to Buenaventura.

The peculiar initiative was announced last March during one of the closing events of the campaign, in which, in front of thousands of citizens, he promised that if he came to power he would develop this train that will connect the more than 1,200 kilometers that separate two of Colombia's largest and most important cities.

“The project starts in the port of Buenaventura, in the Pacific. And by means of an elevated, modern, electric train, it links Buenaventura with the Caribbean ports, including Barranquilla,” Senator Petro proclaimed, while his followers cheered him.

That initiative also dusted public opinion. For example, the then pre-candidate of the Centro Esperanza Coalition, Alejandro Gaviria, published a series of trills in his profile in which he questioned Petro. “Gustavo, no more wagon. We must connect Buenaventura with the Caribbean Coast, that is not in doubt. However, it is not fair that you take advantage of this need to launch populist proposals irresponsibly,” Gaviria wrote.

Gaviria estimated that the construction of the electric elevated train proposed by Petro would cost 550 billion pesos per kilometre, which in the 1,170 extension it would have, would cost a total of 650 billion pesos without risks and construction costs, he said.

“Fiscally this is not feasible. The 4G road program costs approximately 50 billion and the annual budget of the transport sector is 11 billion. Financing this work would mean giving up 5G roads and any other work for the next 60 years”, according to Gaviria.

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