The mayor of Colombia’s capital has told thousands of supporters the city will become ungovernable if he is forced from office.
Colombia’s inspector-general has ordered Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro removed and banished from politics for 15 years, deeming unconstitutional his behavior in a showdown last year with private garbage collectors.
Petro refuses to accept the order and has called supporters into the streets two consecutive nights.
Speaking from a city hall balcony Tuesday night, the mayor said that if the ruling is applied “Bogota will enter a crisis of governability.”
Petro, a former rebel, accuses Inspector-General Alejandro Ordonez of doing the bidding of Colombia’s far right.
Ordonez says Petro violated the constitutional principles of commercial competition and freedom by firing garbage collection contractors and replacing them with a city-run service.
