The re-elected councilor of Neiva, Lourdes Mateus, announces that she will accompany the government of German Casagua, as long as, according to her, she does not side with the political houses that surrounded her campaign. “He criticized many of the actions of this administration,” the leftist leader reminds him.
Councilor, how did the voting go in the last elections?
I am absolutely happy and grateful, especially with the citizens, because we came to the Neiva Council with a vote of 1,118 votes four years ago, with a very particular situation and that is that I had been in seat 19, which curiously was displaced by the opposition statute, at the time the now elected mayor, Councilor Casagua. That meant that I could not assume the seat from the beginning and that I had to wait two years for Professor Leyla’s resignation for her to run for the Chamber and at that moment, I assumed office on November 21, but with an initial vote. of 1,118 and at this moment, since we have a vote of 2,003 votes, we almost double the number of votes compared to the first time.
Why did he inhale again?
The main reason is because I’ve only been there for two years, I haven’t turned two, I’m turning two now on November 24th. We left things soaking. The landing of that National Development Plan at the local level. We continue to contribute to this process that neither begins with Lourdes Mateus nor ends in Lourdes Mateus, but rather we are simply part of that transition that citizens demand for the transformation of politics in the region and we can contribute from there, since we we will always do.
What do you think about being the only woman on the Neiva Council for the next four years?
The decrease in political participation was more evident in all single-member positions, in the mayoral positions where there was evidently a drop in the participation of female candidates but in public corporations there was no real decrease in the participation of female candidates, which What there was was an instrumentalization of the political parties, of the independent movements, regarding the participation of women and I mean that it was an instrumentalization, it was because these women who participated in the formation of the lists, did so simply to fulfill a legal requirement. That is an instrumentalization of women in politics, and I have no hesitation in saying what this is political violence against women. Instrumentalizing women to meet legal requirements is using them as fillers, it is using us as fillers in politics and that is something that we have to put on the agenda.
You were united with the now elected mayor German Casagua in several debates against Gorky Muñoz, what role will you play against Casagua now that you will be mayor?
With the elected mayor we shared some agreements to defend citizens, in moments of crisis that coincided with my arrival to the Council, which were basically the defense of public resources and citizens, really against one of what I consider, It has been the worst administration in the history of this city and this did not measure political color or anything. We are going to accompany the government of German Casagua, as long as he clearly defines siding with the citizens and not with the political houses that may have been surrounding his campaign; However, I will be vigilant to defend citizenship, when necessary.
How do you think Gorky Muñoz fared as mayor?
I believe that Gorky Muñoz’s administration was like a hurricane for the city. So, it was Hurricane Gorky Muñoz Calderón and after the hurricane passed, well, what do we have to do as citizens? The first thing we have to do is clean up all the mess he left behind. This has been a disastrous administration, one that may take us a few good years to recover from. German Casagua fully knows the situation, he was a councilor of this city, he criticized many of the actions of this administration; We hope that his government does things well.
In your opinion, what are the biggest concerns of Neivans?
I think that social issues are quite diminished after this government, so we have needs. For example, the financial problems in our city, where there is no clarity about the management of public resources, with an administrative reform that occurred in this administration that caused the staff to double. There are investment problems in the city, our schools are failing; We have serious problems with the PAE, health problems, problems with Las Ceibas, the road situation, security issues; It is that we have all the areas with extremely acute problems that become the great challenges over which we are going to exercise political control and those who are going to manage the city’s public resources.
