Bogota’s city council received fierce criticism Wednesday as a photo was released of council-members — supposed to be debating political control in Colombia’s capital — lying on the floor in an apparent samba performance.
On Monday, as the city council was deeply engaged a session on issues of political control, a number of council members preferred to leave the plenary to attend the inauguration of the 10th annual games of the city council, a fun-spirited festive series of games between the city council members around Halloween.
Each year, these politicians’ “Olympics” have a different theme, and this year was designated as World Cup themed in honor of Colombia’s national team qualifying with flying colors.
Things seem to have gotten a little out of hand however, when three Brazilian Samba dancers came out to kick off the festivities to really get the party going. Adorned with red, blue and yellow feathers on their back, high heels, and not much else, the dancers seemed to have livened more than the mood, according to a photo of the event released by radio station Caracol.
The dancers appear to be straddling three councilmen who are lying on their back on the ground.
Other council-members have spoken out against this behavior, primarily because the lawmakers are in the middle of debating very important issues in the country’s capital and this sort of bad press could be damaging the credibility of the institution.
Despite photo proof, Council president Name denies that any councilmen were dancing with anyone that day. The President told magazine Semana that at that moment all of the councilmen were debating very important issues related to public policy in the district.
“The City Council is designated to strip the district of problems, not strip Brazilian Samba Dancers,” said another council-member.
“I don’t see the problem,” said Name.
Sources
- El concejo de Bogotá bailó al ritmo de garotas (Semana)
- En el Concejo de Bogotá hicieron fiesta con ‘garotas’ (Caracol Radio)