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That medium dedicated its opinion space to Claudia López, exactly a week after Oswaldo Muñoz was killed on a Transmilenio bus, for stealing his cell phone, and the mayor gave some statements that suggested that among those responsible for that crime that shook Bogotá were Venezuelan citizens.
A few hours after the country learned of Muñoz’s death, López said: “I do not want to stigmatize, nor was it lacking, Venezuelans, but there are some immigrants involved in crime who are making our lives squares. And then he warned that “whoever comes to earn a decent living, fine; but whoever comes to commit a crime, we should deport him without contemplation”.
Those statements were not only understood by some as a move to avoid responsibility for the growing wave of insecurity hitting the capital, which is not perception, but is proven with figures. They were also seen by others as one more false start of the president that provoked the reaction of the Venezuelan ambassador in Bogotá and even the concern of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Important Colombian media have also criticized López for what he said. Semana magazine reminded him that “words matter” and criticized him that “He used dangerous language again”, this time pointing to “criminals by their country of origin.” There were Internet users who disqualified what was said by that publication, to which they blamed an alleged Uribe tendency, but later it was El Espectador who reproached the capital’s president and told her that his statement was “useless, irresponsible”.
There were those who, like the controversial lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, in a way that has been described as disrespectful, attacked the president personally. De la Espriella compared her to the ‘Joker’, villain of the Batman cartoon.
In the media world, as you can see, the debate was limited to the Colombian sphere. But this Thursday the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional spoke, addressing López reminding him that “the tragedy of the almost 5 million Venezuelans spread throughout the world is unprecedented in the history of the country, but neither in that of the cities that have received them, especially the Latin American ones”.
This medium also finds a distinctive characteristic in the forced migration to which Venezuelans are subjected, and it confronts the mayor of Bogotá: “The xenophobia that has awakened among peoples who call themselves brothers”.
“There is always some local authority that prefers to generalize to explain phenomena such as the increase in crime”Says the editorial of El Nacional in another of its sections. “This is the case of the mayor of Bogotá. […] For her, the explanation for the rise in crime is due to immigration. What the local president shows is that she does not understand social phenomena. Make accusations in this way, generalize about criminal and guilty rates, is to show an alarming ignorance about the social dynamics of Bogota”.
And he wonders (and asks) López: “Shouldn’t a person who is dedicated to politics and tries to govern the destinies of a population know? that crime is a multi-causal issue and that it is very difficult to specifically target a population group?”.
But the medium transcends from the political to the human and poses a fundamental question to López: “And where is the empathy? That which politicians are supposed to exercise to side with those who suffer or those most in need, “says the editorial and recalls that years ago hundreds of Colombians” were warmly welcomed “in Venezuela.
“It seems that those ties and that solidarity are not important for the local president,” the editorial ends. “If you want to ignore the common past, the roots of brotherhood, you can do it, but Venezuelans in need of refuge are human beings who need a handNot a group to reject. It’s as simple as understanding that as mayor, everything you say resonates with the people. Would you rather teach to hate?
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