There are 62 candidates, distributed in 10 lists, who are disputing the seven seats in the House of Representatives that Atlántico has.
EL TIEMPO spoke with the heads of the list of four of those registered for the March 13 elections and asked them about the future of the country, as well as about works or projects that they will promote for the region.
Jesús Godoy, Luis Luque, Marlys Maldonado, Jesmi Barraza and Armando Zabarín did not send their responses, while Beatriz Eugenia Vélez withdrew her candidacy.
On this occasion, four of the candidates respond to three specific questions formulated by EL TEMPO:
What proposal does your party or movement have to reactivate the country after the pandemic and in the face of the employment crisis and possible inflation?
What regional projects are they committed to promoting and obtaining national resources?
In the Atlantic there are many communities that use water that is not suitable for human consumption. What would you do to solve this problem?
German Gomez (Common)
1. We propose a great dialogue that allows targeting poles of economic development that generate a true reactivation of the economy, one that starts from the needs, realities and potentialities of our country. It is necessary to invest in agriculture, industry, tourism, technologies, etc., all of this guaranteeing the participation of the State, in alliance with private sectors, primarily cooperatives and SMEs.
2. Our seat is mainly due to the department of Atlántico, there are many demands here, but perhaps we could start initially based on three key axes: economic reactivation, public services and citizen participation.
3. What has been lacking, apart from the pertinent investments and technical adaptations, is really an accompaniment, a thorough inspection of the contracts and the state of execution.
That will be our task from the seat in the House of Representatives: to make effective political control of citizens in matters of fundamental interests, including access to drinking water and permanently.
Sandra Leventhal (New Liberalism)
1. We have guaranteed food for our citizen. With what social capital can we be productive? Obviously, we have to reactivate our productive apparatus, but we have to start thinking about the well-being of the citizens of our country.
2. The Atlantic is an agricultural pantry of the region, our duty is to strengthen it not only with planting, but also with the way of managing water, the way of harvesting through tertiary routes, the way in which peasants can reach with their crops to the end customer without intermediaries to begin to dignify their work.
The informality in the Atlantic, which is more than 60 percent, also shows us an opportunity, we have productive capital with a great entrepreneurial spirit, great creativity, resilience and the need to have a decent income; we have a duty to strengthen this population and for this the entrepreneurship law, 2069, is a fundamental tool, entrepreneurs, mostly young people, in addition to opportunities and education in entrepreneurship, need access to business alternatives, professional mentoring, solid support to move your business forward.
3. There has not been the political will to solve something so necessary. We are also talking about the abuse in the way certain resources are distributed, so we have to make a real restructuring project of how the heritage of the Atlantic people is being used, and I am going to fight that fight because I am going to come to the Chamber to represent My apartment.
Agmeth Escaf (Pact for Colombia)
1. While Iván Duque dedicated himself to protecting big capital and bankers, a government of the Historical Pact will ensure that it supports small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, who were the main victims of the pandemic. Thousands of small companies went bankrupt thanks to a blind policy of the current Uribista government. But not only blind, also inhuman. He helped those who did not need help and unprotected those who did.
2. What Atlantico needs most is decent public services. Most municipalities lack aqueduct, sewage and drinking water. Electricity, in addition, is a very expensive service.
3. The issue of drinking water is a priority. And it is true, not all neighborhoods in Barranquilla have water. But things get even worse when we go to other municipalities such as Repelón, Suán, Santa Lucía, Manatí or Luruaco. Malambo, which is very close to Barranquilla and is a riverside municipality, has no water. That is unworthy and that is what must first change. For decades, traditional politicians have stolen the treasury destined to build these aqueducts and water treatment plants. In Gustavo Petro’s four-year term, that will change. The Caribbean will have water and decent life.
Modesto Aguilera (Radical Change)
1. Rationalize the tax structure to promote small and medium-sized enterprises, since there is a focus for job creation there; analyze the extension of stimuli and subsidies created during the pandemic; strengthen the country’s export capacity and continue with investments in infrastructure that improve competitiveness. Do not touch the family basket with respect to VAT.
2. Comprehensive recovery of the Mallorquín swamp, Caribbean regional train, projects that are part of the Agroindustry and Food Security Plan, the construction of deep waters in Barranquilla, recover the draft of the Magdalena River and the Ciénaga-Barranquilla viaduct.
3. In the budget that we approved in the last legislature, 300,000 million pesos were allocated exclusively for drinking water and basic sanitation, which has been focused on those rural populations where these services are currently lacking. Likewise, continue to increase the budget so that in the Caribbean region, especially in the department of Atlántico, we have an optimal service of drinking water and basic sanitation, this would result in national and foreign investment, which is one of the bets that we have for the new quarter.
BARRANQUILLA
