Bogotá’s Metro Project Arrives, But Will It Overcome Years of Political Delays?

For 83 years, Bogotá’s citizens have heard promises of a metro system to relieve one of Latin America’s most congested capitals. On June 4, 2024, the first six metro wagons arrived at Cartagena’s port from Qingdao, China — a long-awaited milestone in a project that has seen countless false starts and political gridlock. Why has progress been so slow? The mayor of Bogotá, Carlos Fernando Galán, hailed the event as a triumph beyond any one administration: "This is not the project of a single mayor; it’s a city and country project involving three national and three district governments." Yet history...