Carolina Cosse does not plan to open the project and the opposition is not going to support it as it is proposed. The US$ 70 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to the Municipality of Montevideo (IM) will not prosper, at least before February 17. With this backdrop, the ruling party and the opposition outline two paths to follow before the deadline to vote in the Departmental Board expires.
The opponents, through a table between the coordinators of the benches -one for the National Party, another for the Colorados and the representative of the People’s Party- decided on Monday to go to the IDB to “clarify” technical and legal aspectsas reported to The Observer the white mayor Rafael Seijas. One of them consists of know if the credit can be voted on by components, instead of approving or rejecting it as a whole.
Because there is a fraction of US$ 22.49 million to be allocated for sanitation and drainage for which there are no objectionswhich do arise instead towards the remaining part of the loan –US$ 41.72 million, for example, for waste management–. “What is sanitation, the Colorado Party is totally in agreement with voting for it”declared to The Observer the caucus coordinator of that political force, Matías Barreto.
At the end of last year, Cosse had proposed to the whites to allocate some US$ 12 million of the IM’s own resources to sanitation works, although he did not agree to the request to open credit to reserve long-term financing for this type of intervention, in instead of dedicating it to more quickly expendable bets like new containers and trucks.
This Monday the opposition table made explicit its rejection of that counteroffer: “We are glad that the IM states that it has the capacity to save more than US$12 million. It would then be in a position to allocate them to the acquisition of containers, trucks and other consumable goods. that it requires for its cleaning plan. In this way, it could release funds from the IDB loan to be used where they are most needed: sanitation and stormwater works for highly needy neighborhoods,” they wrote in the letter to which he agreed. The Observer.
The possibility of debating by components is not clear and is one of the issues to be elucidated. The doubt arose at the request of Colorado Tulio Tartaglia at the end of December during the appearance of authorities of the commune before the commission of the Departmental Board. The director of Environmental Development of the IM, Guillermo Moncecchi then replied that “it would have to be seen”, although he pointed out in his opinion that “the approach has to be multi-causal, not as separate components”.
The head of that distribution, Jorge Alsina, gave his opinion to the councilors: “It cannot be separated; if it is separated, the entire operation falls apart. It does not mean that it goes back to zero, but the identification mission was in March; orientation, in May; analysis, in September. So we go back, I’m not saying March, but maybe May.” Faced with this approach, the red Tartaglia insisted on the separation between the different components of the credit, to which the director Moncecchi pointed out that it would be necessary to see what the correct procedure is, beyond the considerations expressed.
On the other hand, the Broad Front in Montevideo –the bench of mayors, the IM, the coordinator of capital deputies, Daniel Caggiani, and the Departmental led by Graciela Villar– will decide this Wednesday the steps to follow. One of the pending resolutions consists of submit the project to a vote despite not having the special majority of 21 votes required to be sanctioned. The Montevideo ruling party is missing three opposition votes to have the approval of the board.
In the left coalition The predominant position is that the text “be discussed and that it be voted on when it is time to vote”, indicated the mayor Martín Nessi. The Broad Front will present the project as it was validated by the IDB in Washington on November 17.
In this sense, the mayor declared this Monday in M24: “For the sake of good politics for Uruguay, this has to be voted on. Until they tell us no, we are going to continue defending the project, without considering for now a scenario that they will not vote for it”. The hierarch accused the capital’s opposition of “minor politics” and launched that “those who have to win here are the people of Montevideo.”
