Statement on the closure of the Metropolitan Municipality of Caracas
The World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments and the World Association of METROPOLIS and in particular its Latin American membership gathered in MERCOCIUDADES, FLACMA and UCCI express their concern at the closure of the Metropolitan District of Caracas and the Metropolitan Municipality of Alto Apure last 20 December.
In our urbanised world the metropolitan and proximity governments play a vital role in service provision to communities. Their role in guaranteeing inclusion, cohesion and territorial development is vital to all neighbours.
Latin America is the continent with more city dwellers and in particular Venezuela is one of the 3 countries with most urban concentration in the whole region, with over 90% of the population living in urban areas, this is the reason why the measure is very significant.
The suspension of both metropolitan areas without consultation with the citizens can only be interpreted as bad news and as a limitation of the rights of their inhabitants.
The networks of local governments call for dialogue among all the parties and the respect of the results of the electoral results by the inhabitants of Caracas and Alto Apure. We father recognise the active role played by Caracas in the international networks where we aim at sharing experiences and identify solutions to improve the life of the inhabitants of our cities and metropolitan areas.
In this context we express our solidarity with the elected officials and the workers of the Metropolitan Municipality of Caracas and Alto Apure and we would like to express the hope that both institutions will be reinstated.