Colombian left wins in major cities after violent campaign

[Robbien]

Source: Monsters and Critics

Bogota - The left-wing opposition to conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe swept important mayoral elections in Bogota, the country's capital, and the country's next-largest cities Cali and Medellin, the Central Electoral Commission said Monday.

In Bogota, left-wing candidate Samuel Moreno obtained 43.7 per cent of the ballots in Sunday's election, relegating former mayor Enrique Penalosa - backed by Uribe - to 28.1 per cent, and analysts expected the trend to be maintained as more votes were counted.

. . .

After a violent campaign in which at least 30 candidates were murdered, some 27.5 million Colombians were called upon to vote Sunday for 32 governors, 1,098 mayors, 418 regional legislators and 12,030 members of local councils. There were a total of 86,449 candidates.

'The report is that people are defeating fear,' former Argentine foreign minister Dante Caputo, leader of a 125-strong observer mission from the Organization of American States, said Sunday. 'There are problems, there is no denying that. But the important thing is that neither the threats, nor the kidnappings, nor the actions with homemade bombs have scared off people,' Caputo stressed.

The Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the extreme-right paramilitaries and other armed groups targeted candidates for killing in recent weeks.



Read more: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/americas/news/article_1369625.php/Colombian_left_wins_in_major_cities_after_violent_campaign

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IPS News asks the question: What was the going rate for a vote?

"About 100,000 pesos (50 dollars)," says Víctor Raúl Mosquera, the ombudsman for the northwestern Colombian department (province) of Chocó. In this jungle province, which is rich in natural resources yet where the people are the poorest in Colombia, "elections are the business opportunity of a lifetime for most people," Mosquera said.

Some voters were paid in kind: "a dozen planks of wood, a dozen zinc roofing sheets, a toilet bowl, sacks of cement, or cans of paint," he said. "It isn’t easy to control. They tell the people, go to such-and-such a place and pick it up."

[Robbien]

1. Narcosphere has a great article on how the election progressed

BOGOTÁ: An intense election cycle has come to an end in Colombia, and the results in so far indicate that the legendary support President Alvaro Uribe enjoys does not run nearly so deep as his cheerleaders might suggest. In fact, despite nearly six years now in power, the formation of numerous new Uribista parties, the adoration of the commercial media and saturation of the airways and streets with his image, the Colombian people have shown that Bush’s best friend in Latin America does not have the last word in this country.

much more
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2007/10/29/174446/42

So it appears this so called by the media "widely popular president" is aa widely popular as the one here in the States.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Love that article! Found the info. about the surprise ending in the Cartagena election fantastic!

From your link:

In Colombia’s most famous port city, Cartagena, the hated pro-Uribe mayor’s hand-picked successor was beaten in a surprise win for an independent, center-left, feminist candidate named Judith Pinedo. Cartagena’s current mayor, Nicolás Curi, is notorious for representing the worst of the coastal political class. The crime rate and the gap between rich and poor in Cartagena – already Colombia’s most unequal, racist city where a light-skinned elite lives in luxury surrounded by a black majority enduring the country’s most grinding urban poverty – only increased under his administration.

Went to her website:

http://www.judithpinedo.com/fotos.htm



Judith is in the foreground on the right. One look at how little the Colombian government has invested in that part of Cartagena tells you all you need to know about what kind of mountainous job any new mayor will have who cares about the POOR in Cartagena as well as the very small group of wealthy white elites.

Good gawdalmighty!

The article also says she has the backing of leftist Senator Gustavo Petro. What a fine supporter. He's someone the Uribe government likes so little he has to keep NINE bodyguards with him at all times.

[Bacchus39]

4. it looks like a typical residential area in latin america

of course you have no idea.

Cartagena is one of the areas where the government invests most since it is tourist destination. of course, you have no idea.

here is a pic from the colonial "rich" part of Cartagena. see all the rich white people



?v=0

[Robbien]

5. By paying attention to what is happening

in Latin America, one can see how hard it is to reverse the corporate elite domination once it completely rules.

It is like looking into the future for the US if we continue on the track we are currently on.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Oh, boy! You're going to want to be sitting down to read this one!

ELECTIONS-COLOMBIA: The Going Rate for Votes
By Constanza Vieira and Diana Cariboni

QUIBDÓ, Colombia, Oct 29 (IPS) - What was the going rate for a vote? "About 100,000 pesos (50 dollars)," says Víctor Raúl Mosquera, the ombudsman for the northwestern Colombian department (province) of Chocó.

That was the price of votes in Chocó in the parties’ primary elections for Sunday’s provincial and local elections.

In this jungle province, which is rich in natural resources yet where the people are the poorest in Colombia, "elections are the business opportunity of a lifetime for most people," Mosquera said.

Some voters were paid in kind: "a dozen planks of wood, a dozen zinc roofing sheets, a toilet bowl, sacks of cement, or cans of paint," he said. "It isn’t easy to control. They tell the people, go to such-and-such a place and pick it up."

Which parties did this? "The conservatives, the liberals, all of them!" he said, referring to the two traditional parties.

But he qualified his statement: "Not the Polo (the leftwing Alternative Democratic Pole), nor Zulia Mena’s party; they didn’t stoop to that." Mena, a former congresswoman who represented black communities in the 1990s, was standing for mayor of Quibdó, the provincial capital, as the candidate for the Liberal Party.

It used to be even worse. "They would hold onto people’s identity documents, and only hand them out on election day. Now they are more subtle, they manage things more discreetly," Mosquera said.
(snip/...)

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39844

[tom_paine]

6. "Now they are more subtle, they manage things more discreetly,"

Sounds likethe Columbian Bushies are using the same techniques as our Bushies, and like ur Bushies have grown less violent and more subtle since they ruled the Bushfederacy in the 30s-the easrly 70s and now again in the 21st Century Imperial Amerika.