Bogotá 2012-1215: Mayor elections and risk society

Abstract

On Sunday 30th of October 2011, all citizens over the age of eighteen with valid and registered identifications, from the city of Bogotá, Colombia, were able to exercise their civic right to elect a City Mayor. An environment of frustration and anger from the capital’s citizens surrounds the 2011 elections, stemming from the suspension of former Mayor Samuel Moreno Rojas, who was prematurely removed from his official post, after a massive scandal of public tendering corruption was uncovered by the press in June 2010 (Caracol Radio, 2011). After having lost multimillionaire sums of public capital to corruption; after experiencing the effects of raising petty crime and property offences; after being bombarded by the media’s reports on never-ending lists of risks the citizens of Bogotá allegedly run; after having endured for years the disappointments of being capital to a country eroded by war and poverty; it is interesting to ask the question, which are the greatest risks perceived by the citizens of Bogotá, and what kind of measures do they support to address them?The main aim of this text is not only to answer the questions; but also to point out, through these answers, the fact that Bogotá does not fit crime control theories that have been used to explain trends worldwide -such as risk society- creating thus the need to acknowledge and analyze the case further.