Santiago Guarderas, mayor of Quito: The Metro is a white elephant underground

Santiago Guarderas has a year and a half left as mayor of Quito. Since his possession, replacing Jorge Yunda, on September 30, he began the administration with a government plan with four axes: economic, social, territorial and governance.

In an interview with EL UNIVERSO he acknowledges that the Metro de Quito is stagnant, because the management model for its operation and maintenance has not yet been defined. It was only on October 22 that appointed the new manager of this company, Efraín Bastidas.

Since October 1, an intervention plan began in the historic center that ended with clashes between informal merchants and metropolitan agents. The insecurity and poor condition of the urban road network are other problems that he hopes to face in these 18 months of administration.

With the 2021 budget reform, the award of new contracts for urgent matters is foreseen, although there are barely two months left until the end of the year. The time you have to resolve the demands of Quito, you know, is too short.

How do you analyze your first month in office as mayor?

I think it has been positive; We have addressed many of the plans and axes of our government plan and taken actions that were not taken for two years. The Municipality has not been in the best conditions and we are advancing in a process of ordering. The problems are complex, deep, require a lot of attention and concentration.

What does your project for the intervention and recovery of the historic center consist of?

We have been doing it since October 1 and it will culminate in December, when we already have cultural activity. It has involved a first phase of census and inventory and socialization. Then, a stage of awareness with the groups that are part of the problem. There you have people on the streets, drug addicts, libadores, regularized and unregulated self-employed workers, sex workers and people (tourists) who come to the Historic Center and who, obviously, seek comfort, security, cleanliness. The task is not so easy, right now, in this interview, we have a group of non-regularized (informal) self-employed workers who resist change.

And what do they ask for?

They say they want to work (in street sales), but we have indicated that it will be in the spaces of the Municipality, with order and discipline. We are offering to regularize them, but they simply want to keep their business in the mess that has always existed.

Non-regularized merchants maintain that in the places where they would be relocated their sales would not be the same.

I had the opportunity to visit two sites in the historic center. At La Merced Shopping Center, their representatives told us that there are many spaces available. Then we went to the market in San Francisco and, likewise, they told us that they are willing to receive them. Unfortunately, the merchants do not want to do it, they want to occupy the space that is not allowed.

His tenure as mayor has 18 months left. In this period, will the Metro already be working?

It is my aspiration, my desire, for that I am working, so that the Metro operates in the shortest possible time. As I have said on previous occasions, I am not going to sell smoke. If you ask me when, I will not say it, because at this time I do not have the tools and instruments to tell the public precisely that on that date we will do so. What those who are working on the technical structuring of the project have told me is that we can do it next year.

If there is no date for the Metro to start operating, what will be done in the next 18 months?

The Metro should have been in operation since 2018. Practically four years have passed and we still have no clarity on this issue. The appropriate decisions have not been made… But I am already determining the timetable for it to work.

You have already seen in black and white the situation of all municipal companies, including the Quito Metro. What are the worst performers?

There are so many companies and secretariats that, in 30 days, one could not claim to know their reality. But, undoubtedly, the entities that always had problems are the Drinking Water companies, the Transport and Public Works companies, the Quito Metro, the Mobility Secretariat, the Metropolitan Transit Agency, the San José Board of Trustees, the Inclusion Secretariat, Ministry of Health … There was a total abandonment.

In this context of abandonment, the people of Quito demand more security. Although citizen security is the responsibility of the Ministry of Government, it is possible to accompany the Municipality. What will you do from your position on this problem?

First, security is a competence of the national government and control of public space corresponds to the Municipality. In fact, we have worked on several actions that allow Quito to be a safe city. Apart from having permanent dialogues with the national government, the leadership of the National Police and the Armed Forces, we have established the reactivation of the security table.

On the other hand, we have had dialogues with the Electric Company for the renovation of the lights and we have their commitment that they will do so in the historic center, on 10 de Agosto avenues and in Maldonado. We have worked with the Public Works Company (Epmmop) to make an aggressive intervention in parks, gardens and green spaces. We are launching a process to acquire motorcycles for the National Police and to rehabilitate the UPC (Community Police Unit) and the UVC (Community Surveillance Unit).

We are also in a comprehensive plan so that the cameras can connect with the ECU911 … That is, in terms of security, we are reaching where the powers give us, but, beyond that, it is a matter that corresponds to the national government.

What is the Rayo de Quito project about, which was announced after the meeting with the Minister of Government, Alexandra Vela?

It is a concentrated operation that the Police will carry out, in which all government and municipal entities will participate. I cannot give you specific details, because we would be warning the (criminal) organizations. The Police, who will coordinate the operations, have informed us that it begins in November.

There was a reduction in guards in metropolitan parks, there was -for example- the attempted assault with a knife on cyclists in a video that went viral. How are citizens going to be protected in metropolitan parks?

We are doing the control. Let us remember that we only have 1,300 metropolitan police, which are insufficient. Next year, possibly 300 more will join. This implies economic resources that we are anticipating in the budget for 2022, but the Police is the one that can help us with a greater number of troops.

In addition, we are signing agreements with the Chamber of Commerce so that private companies can also help us on the theme of parks. We have almost finished an agreement with the theme of the Chaquiñán (park that goes from Cumbayá to Puembo).

So that they manage the parks?

So that they take care of the security of the park.

In exchange for?

In exchange for support for the city. Let them say that the park is being cared for by the Chamber, in that there is no problem.

The streets of Quito are very dilapidated. What is being done to mitigate this?

We are bumpy, my commitment has been bumpy.

Are you bumping more? Jorge Yunda (the mayor removed) also said “we are potholes.”

I have not talked about resurfacing. Remember that it is not a matter of going to the street tomorrow and resurfacing. No, you must have studies, know the type of soil, asphalt or if paving stones or paving is required … Once you have those studies, you have to follow the public contracting process.

So, it is not a question of saying tomorrow we will pave. That takes a long time and that is why I have never talked about resurfacing, but about patching. We have come across some avenues in which studies already exist and we are finalizing those processes. For example, you have the El Guambra bridge. But what we are doing is an aggressive pothole, because that’s what it gives us. Taking into account the climate, we are in a winter season, it is not easy to do all the processes that we would like so that Quito no longer has holes or craters, in some cases.

What is it going to do and what not in what is left of management?

I aspire to fulfill the four axes that I have indicated: economic, social, territorial and governance. But my priority is the Metro, roads, safety and health.

What will not be done?

I will not be able to resurface all of Quito or change the mobility system, nor can a different management be implemented with (solid) waste … I hope to take the first steps, although I will not achieve it, but I believe that I am capable of leave those projects on track so that the new administration can fulfill them.

Will he be a candidate for mayor in 2023 to give continuity to those projects?

In these 18 months that I have left, what I am looking for is to comply with my work plan. Imagine being thinking about reelection at this time (in 2019 he was elected councilor in the same movement as Jorge Yunda, then he was appointed deputy mayor) when I have issues that keep me awake every day. I prefer to do what I can do.

And what is stopping you from sleep?

The Quito Metro. Because I want to give Quito this monumental, iconic work, an emblematic work. Obviously today we have an underground elephant, a white elephant underground. (I)