The Medellín Mayor’s Office reported that the mayor Daniel Quintero will be outside the country once more. The administration indicated that during the next few days Quintero will participate in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York (USA), an event that since 2008 establishes cooperation alliances between leaders of the public sector, the private sector and civil society with an emphasis on aspects such as climate resilience, health equity and inclusive economic development. According to the Mayor’s Office, the mayor of Medellin received an invitation direct from the former president of the United States, Bill Clinton, to attend the first face-to-face meeting of this event since 2016.
According to the information provided by the mayor’s office, on Monday, September 19, the mayor will attend the reception event for the guests at this meeting organized by the Clinton family, among whom prominent leaders of the Pakistani activist, Malala Yousafzai; former British Prime Minister Tony Blair; philanthropist, businesswoman and advocate for women, Melinda Gates; the queen consort of Jordan, Rania Al Abdullah; the director of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Qu Dongyu; the director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; among other international and US authorities.
On September 20, he will be at a private event in which equity, intersectionality of cities, climate and justice will be discussed.
Quintero will participate in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) with a presentation on “Proposals and solutions from Medellin for problems of global importance in a private round table.” According to the mayor’s office, the president will present the actions that the city has developed around climate change mitigation and adaptation to the effects of this phenomenon on the climate.
Quintero’s stay will coincide with the presence of President Petro in New York Well, precisely on Tuesday, September 20, he will address the UN General Assembly for the first time, where he will speak regarding the climate crisis and the need to turn the fight once morest drugs on its head. Petro will have the fifth turn in the Assembly, an honor that no president in Colombia had had until now.
While Quintero attends this international meeting, the Secretary of Economic Development, Alejandro Arias, was appointed as mayor in charge of the District of Medellin.
The international departures of Daniel Quintero have been provided with controversy. His last trip had been in July, when he went to Europe where he met in Italy with President Gustavo Petro. The justification for this trip had various versions. First, the Mayor’s Office said that it was a personal license requested by the president. Then Quintero said that it was a work trip and finally, following a right of petition raised by Todos por Medellín, the mayor’s office replied that Quintero had requested vacations between July 1 and 12.
At the end of 2021 it became known that a trip that the mayor had made to Barcelona, Spain, to participate in an event on official behalf had concluded in Miami (USA), an unauthorized scale and whose stay and expenses were paid with public resources.
Of course, Quintero has not been the only president criticized for his international outings. Governor Aníbal Gaviria’s trips have raised criticism among citizens and the political opposition. While he was traveling in Chile, last July, the tragedy occurred in Tapartó where two children died following a landslide that buried his school. At that time, the department was facing one of the most critical moments due to the rainy season. This year, the governor of Antioquia was also in New York and Guadalajara, in meetings on climate and urban planning.
