

Managing cities

Bogotá's rise and fall

Can Enrique Peñalosa restore a tarnished municipal model?

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Readers' comments



This is just one of the problems here in Bogotá, and as sayd by one of the other commenter´s, Transmilenio is far for being good for this gigantic and messy city... It´s the lack of vision of Bogota as a real metropolis, organized and even secure, the conformism, arrogance,etc, etc, including the robery every where, from the ones we see in the street to the big jackpot winners, right from the top... The administrators of this city wich make it bleed to dead. So, it´s every where and not new, unfortunately, for some including me, it still hurts...
Not politicians, just citizens...


It will indeed be strange this ellection with one candidate only. It has to be one only; otherwise a serious publication like The Economist would not publish an article that does not at least mention two or more contenders.

Ricardo Urdaneta

Interesting article. It shows Mr. Peñalosa is very adept at navigating the international news cliques: he's had very positive coverage also in the NYT.

Just to add some context: Transmilenio is NOT Mr. Peñalosa's idea. It had been floating around before he became mayor, and was copied to its every detail from Curitiba's (Brazil) transit system. It is a great system, but it is not enough. Mr. Peñalosa was able to implement it because of his heavy handed, autocratic ways, which may or may not be good for a mayor, but which has generated very strong feelings against him. More importantly, he was able to implement it because his predecessor, Mr. Mokus, left him the city's coffers full.

The most enduring feature of Mr. Peñalosa's implementation of Transmilenio was the very poor quality of the works, which have had to be redone time and again. It would be interesting to see an inflation-adjusted comparison of the cost of the lanes built by Mr. Peñalisa (with repairs) and those being built now. The rebuilding of these lanes, bie-the-by, heavily share responsibility for the present traffic mess.

The most striking feature of your article, however, is that it fails to mention other contenders in the race, some of which are equally capable or technocratic, some of which backed Mr. Peñalosa in his heyday, but who lack his ego, sense of self-righteousness and populist streak. If your newspaper is really interested in the race for mayor of Bogotá, you should take a look at Mrs. Luna and Galán.

Vladimir Carrillo

The transformation of Bogota is a process that started with a special by-law, promoted by a not so popular major: Jaime Castro. Subsequent majors had better chances to make significant changes. Mockus and Peñalosa made notorious public works because the first of them sold part of the local power company. After that, the possibility of achieving heaven fixing roads is a problem of taxes, whose limit is really close. Road's building and manteniance pay politics, because contractors are the main sponsors of succesfull campaigns. That's true for all local politicians (Peñalosa's family has received benefits of many contracts) and is the basis of most of local corruption.
Transmilenio, the high speed bus system, the former major's one hit wonder, is an improvement to transportation system in Bogota but it doesn't work 24 hours, soaks up city's police and has helped to increase the excess of motorcycles, messing the traffic.


This time Peñalosa faces a challenge that he did not face before: that of being associated with corruption. One of the big scandals of the current major Moreno had to do with contracts granted to the Nule brothers, in one of the more expensive and disastrous scandals the city has known. This scandal did not limit itself to the city administration, but also strongly involved the national government led by Alvaro Uribe, whose son Tomás have close ties with the Nule and have allegedly helped them to get some of the polemic contracts. The toxic endorsement by Uribe, summed to some doubts that have been casted on the relations between Peñalosa and other corrupt contractors involved in Transmilenio, will constitute a great obstacle for Peñalosa to mantain his image throughout the campaign for local elections.

Francisco Park

Is that just serendipity? Bogotá's TransMilenio bears a striking resemblance to Seoul's public transportation system. My kudos to Colombia for being a trailblazer in this magnificent and futuristic system. Unfortunately, rampant corruption in Colombia has held back the system from becoming an exemplary model for other countries. Korea's inexorable and relentless march toward betterment and Colombia's chronic scourge of corruption serve to reinforce my belief that any innovative ideas cannot evolve into a full-blown success unless corruption is wiped out once and for all. However, that doesn't show signs of abating in Colombia.

ahmed limam

I just spent a month in Bogota after having visited it a year and a half ago and I must say that traffic is a complete mess. Last time I was in town the El Dorado avenue was being worked on for an extension of the TransMilenio towards the airport. A year and a half later what has changed? Nothing. There has been no noticeable advances in construction but, as The Economist rightly says, more choking points throughout the city. What's the point of adding more construction work when the previous ones haven't be completed?

Add to the dreadful congestion the disgusting fumes that come out from "busetas" along with the city spread out from the Andes in every direction for hundreds of miles (Bogota grew horizontally) and every trip to work or back home or to visit family or friends becomes a true calvary.

I don't know what the solution can be but I wonder why (a) they start construction projects before the previous ones are completed (b) the city doesn't have a mix of low and high rise buildings. With more people living and working in tall buildings the area you have to travel to diminishes (c) why doesn't the Colombian government encourage people to stay in/move to other cities and towns. A big part of the problem in Bogota is the relentless growth of its population. Everybody wants to come to Bogota (I really wonder why, Medellin has a better climate, Cali is more exciting, Cartagena is dazzling beautiful), they should be encouraged to stay where they are from with of course jobs, housing and...transportation investment there.

Ahmed Limam


sorry to say, but this is an idiotic article probably wirtten by some foolish sympathizer. This article says more by what it omits than by what it says, in this sense i recommend it, in the other it aint worth it. As many comments have highlighted, TRANSMILENIO is peñalozas fault, bogotas model is peñalozas fault. I will go even further. Bogota today is peñalozas fault he taught not inly the present mayor how to effectively steal his way to the moon, but all the small town mayor of the country. No they build expensive side walks that rapidly deteriorate, sutpid building for "urbanization" proyects that are nothing but a charade for graft. the difference with peñaloza is that he is a sleaquier grafter than mister moreno how is basically un ashamed and stupider.the bogota of peñaloza would be owned by peñaloza and his cronies, as is private transmilenio. never have I seen a more sistematic grafter. and now some dushbag is propocing that peñaloza can save us from the dump he built f0r us. pray not.


While we talk about corruption in Bogota, which is evident, why don´t we read the article at the link below? At the same time, why don´t we ask economist.com, about when are we going to read of the paramount scandals of the past Colombian administration lead by AUV 2002-2010. I don't know why I'm under the impression that obtectivity is toppled by ultra conservative jurnalistic views in this publication.



I don't think people should make such a scandal over Uribe backing Peñalosa. After all, the U party is a center-right party and the Green party is center-left. It does not surprise me that both parties coincide in some ideas. It is definately not true that the Green party is exclusively an oposition towards Avaro Uribe. They may not like him, but that doesn't have to mean that they disaprove of all of his actions and ideas.


It's going to take a strong Mayor to pull Bogota out of the caos it now faces. I believe the next Mayor needs to put a halt on the Metro until the Transmilenio system is completed. The system works but poor management of the city and the amount of construction allowed to go on at the same time has caused the downfall of Mayor Moreno. The Mayor had the power to regulate the closing of major roads in the city but did not consider the effects it would have on buisnesses and the general public.


Excellent description of Colombian politics and the spaghetti dish it has become since the last presidential election.
One thing is for sure though; the present mayor has been outstandingly incompetent and glaringly corrupt. Corruption has gone far beyond what could be considered as "normal" and froze the advancement of most of the 200 construction projects for most of two years. One thing seems to be a constant though, when a projects starts everything on its path is destroyed and let to sit until investigation begins into where the money has gone.
If construction starts on the carrera septima the city center will be in effect isolated from the rest of the city. It is inconceivable that this project could initiate in May when not a single one of the projects started under Mr. Moreno have been delivered as of today. As mothers often say, "Start what you have finised, dear" but Mr. Moreno is a third generation corrupt politician, maybe he was given a different set of values. Though I am a foreigner living in Bogota I have been here long enough to vote at mayoral elections and will be sure to sanction any candidate connected to Mr. Moreno, have I ever despised a politician as thoroughly? Certainly not.


This is a pretty good article. Peñalosa is going to be the mayor of Bogotá. The Green Party is committed to renew the confidence of the people of the city. Finally, I don't know why you missed Lucho Garzón, he is part of the three "tenores".

Juliette des Esprits

As a true "bogotana", I have always been a fan of Peñalosa the man responsible for completely changing the face of Bogotá during his tenure. A city that had had little or almost no quality of life, into one with bikeways, open spaces, public libraries in low-income neighborhoods (among other achievements) plus a modern transportation system(Transmilenio) now criticized by some people with little or no memory of what public transport has always been in this city: dirty, uncomfortable, crowded,with no regard for the user's comfort or safety, whose drivers are forced to work abusive long hours under the system imposed by the city's transport mafia bosses, called "guerra del centavo" (the more users, the more they get paid which means filling buses and minibuses to full capacity)and so forth and so on. Of course Transmilenio buses (clean, safe, spacious with unheard-of-before features such as reserved spaces for the disabled, special seats for senior citizens,etc.)are now overcrowded. People naturally prefer to ride in them than the horrid "busetas" and the rest of Bogotà's transport contraptions. The city's never ending population growth has meant more and more people in need of public transport which means more and more Transmilenio routes all over the city are needed and which had already been planned but were not built or flagrantly boycotted (as has been the case by the present mayor Samuel Moreno's administration)by Peñalosa's succesors. Indeed, passenger demand for Transmilenio has by far surpassed its present capacity, thus,the now much criticized overcrowding. Like,I suppose most of Peñalosa's voters during the last elections must now be saying: "Don't blame me. I voted for Peñalosa."

Pascual Serrano

This article is unclear. Peñalosa was indeed the “father” of the “TransMilenio” idea like solution to the massive transport in Bogota, obstructing the construction of a subway, in a city that has the population of a Central American country. And it is exactly which has failed with "the TransMilenio bus…horribly overcrowded”. Peñalosa, his family and his social group are part of the local oligarchy profiteers of this business. The later administrations of the assumed "left wing party Pole” followed the same program of Peñalosa.


Sure, Bogotá has problems, but this is a good illustration of the things one has to admire about Colombia. The important thing is that this is a real election. People seem to have a reasonable handle on what the issues are. Relatively few Bogotaños -- and none on these pages -- claim that all their problems are due to, or that all the solutions can be obtained from, some other nation, class, religion, ideology, or leader. From a global perspective, the particular issues are not all that important; but the process seems extraordinary by any standard.


As a student of urban planning I view Mr. Penalosa very favorably. I also tend to admire "technocrats" who do their jobs well and leave the politics out of tough decisions.


Bogota’s situation is the consequence of an awful administration, which awfulness was expected. Peñalosa and others, included Antanas Mokus, green party’s outstanding figure, had foretold what is happening. Unfortunately, people in Bogota voted based on untenable promises rather than on the previous good results already shown by Peñalosa, who sadly might loose the next campaign again to another demagogue because I do not think that voters had learned their lesson.

Andres Pulido

I think this article doesn't contain the hole information and its favoring Peñalosa. Transmilenio has never been an optimal solution for mobility problems in Bogotá. In Peñalosa as Mayor times, We had several transportation options besides transmilenio, thst's why then it wasn't so full, but now is our only choice, and it's impossible to ride on a bus like that with dignity. Peñalosa is corrupted as well, his family is owner of one of de biggest concret companies, wich supplied transmilenio's construction and an infinity of constructions around Bogota; particularly we remember in Bogotá the "Bolardos" wich were small concrete posts built "to keep away cars from public spaces" which most of them (I think over 80%) were replace by other ones, mostly following changes in the transmilenio infrastructure.

Peñalosa is not a hero, neither is Moreno. Colombia is sunk in corruption and crime.


this article is all right!!! samuel moreno alias "torompolo" is a mediocre and corrupt political


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