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In an exclusive interview with EL TIEMPO en Vivo, the businessman Arturo Calle was dispatched around to the situation of the national business community, hit by the pandemic with prolonged and intermittent closures, in the face of the tax burden that is coming and that has not been adjusted to the new reality.
Calle, a company builder for 60 years, also spoke of the crisis in shopping centers, the need to postpone works and projects that are not funded and politics. In this field, he referred to the mayor Claudia López, the possibilities of Tomás Uribe, facing the presidential elections of 2022, and the candidate of the right.
(We invite you to read: Tomás Uribe talks about ‘Caya’ Daza and the ‘Ñeñepolítica’)
EL TIEMPO extracts the sections in which the businessman says that he is also concerned about the criticisms that different sectors are making to the government.
(Also read: The pandemic and business, the blunt phrases of Arturo Calle)
Is the local government of Mayor Claudia López doing well, in relation to managing the business issue?
Difficult that question, very difficult. Dr. Claudia must be closer to the business community, undoubtedly. She must count more on the business community. He is a quite capable and quite administrative person. But I think that when it comes to having the people who develop the city who pay taxes and who help the economy of Bogotá from every point of view, it is important that you count on them. Any comment on this is very difficult. If I am successful, some applaud me, if I am not successful others criticize me and I am already walking in the world making friends.
Arturo Calle assures that Mayor Claudia López must be closer to the business community.
Bogota City Hall
Claudia López must be closer to the business community, undoubtedly. She must count more on the business community.
Looking ahead to the presidential elections of 2022, do you see Tomás Uribe as the candidate that Álvaro Uribe is going to wink at, the one that Uribe says?
Tomás himself says it: ‘I am a businessman, I only know a business (…) I am not a politician but the son of a politician. But he is not to be a presidential candidate from any point of view and he recognizes that. Arturo Calle told him: ‘Tomás every day they say this and that may hurt the party and maybe your dad.’ Maybe he wanted to, but I don’t think so. Tomás went out the next day in Semana and said the same thing that Arturo Calle pointed out to him. And it is that Tomás does not know politics, he is the son of a politician. He thinks about politics, but he does not know how to reach a presidency because he is not prepared for that.
(We invite you to read: Rectifications to Claudia López: censorship or justice?)
Tomás Uribe has already said that he does not plan to be a candidate and that he remains with his work as an entrepreneur.
Mauricio Moreno / TIME
And it is that Tomás does not know politics, he is the son of a politician. He has his opinion on politics, but he does not know how to reach a presidency because he is not prepared for it
And then who would be the candidate?
So (…) I’m quiet. For now, the country, as for the right, has not found who. That who does not yet exist and they are in the moment. That someone has a year or so left to travel the country, to get to know him and to tell us how a country is run. This country cannot continue to be managed based only on politics. This is an industry and it must be managed as an industry, economy and good investments. They have a fairly long year to go to the ring. If that isn’t done, I don’t know what we’re going to do. But the country knows that this person is not on the right and if he is, that he should go out to visit the thousand-odd municipalities. In a year, two or three municipalities a day.
(In context: They investigate a plan from Venezuela to affect the elections in Colombia)
President Iván Duque and the Minister of Health, Fernando Ruiz, have defended the National Vaccination Plan.
You said that the economy is going through the fear of the vaccine. What do you think as a citizen of the handling that has been given to the issue, including the secrecy around the purchase, together with the delays, compared to other countries?
That subject I do not touch. All I’m saying is that human beings in the world need the vaccine. Why hasn’t it arrived? I do not know. But going to criticize a government because the vaccine has not arrived, it is not good for Arturo Calle. They are negotiations, those who produce it are those who command. And vaccine, overnight, for 7.9 billion people, it is impossible that there is for everyone. I believe the government that soon, in February, they will arrive and we will slowly vaccinate those who correspond.
Arturo Calle says he is concerned about attacks on the government from various sectors.
But we cannot be attacking a government from one side and the other. This government, I repeat, has been good, not bad. But handling like this, with permanent attacks, is impossible. Regarding the attacks, I am very concerned that we are ending democracy and opening the doors to what is not democracy. The discontent towards the government of all economic and social sectors is worrying.
(See here all the articles of the Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO)
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