Uribe dealt big setbacks in a pair of elections (Colombia)

[Say_What]

<clips>

BOGOTA, Colombia - A former Communist labor leader and ardent critic of President Alvaro Uribe's security policies won Bogotá's mayoral race Sunday, giving Colombia's beleaguered left its most prominent political perch in decades.

Luis Eduardo Garzón, who once headed the country's largest labor federation, received 47 percent of the vote for what is considered Colombia's second-most-important political office.

His nearest rival, Juan Francisco Lozano, a former television executive identified as the candidate of Bogotá's upper classes, conceded the race early Sunday evening.

Garzón's victory, which will not be officially certified for several days, culminated a weekend of voting that was both a remarkable setback for Colombia's well-liked president and a renaissance of sorts for a leftist political movement debilitated by years of violence.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/7113306.htm

[Say_What]

1. Colombia: ICFTU appalled by murder of women's rights activist

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Brussels, 27 October (ICFTU OnLine): After being abducted from her home then forced into a taxi, Esperanza Amaris Miranda was murdered in cold blood and her body abandoned in the street on the evening of 16 October in Barrancabermeja.

Esperanza Amaris Miranda was a member of the Popular Women's Organisation (OFP) and a women's rights activist. The OPF, which for over 30 years has defended and promoted women's rights in Barrancabermeja (Santander) and the surrounding areas, had been declared a "military target" by paramilitary groups following the organisation's refusal to collaborate with them. Its members are constantly being issued with death threats, which is why the organisation's leader, Yolanda Becerra, had already asked the authorities to provide protection so that the organisation could continue with its work.

The ICFTU and its Women's Committee once again reaffirm their total solidarity with all working men and women living under the scourge of violence and impunity in Colombia. "The Colombian government must immediately order an exhaustive and impartial investigation into the assassination of Esperanza Amaris Miranda, to identify those responsible for the crime and bring them to trial," wrote Guy Ryder in a letter addressed yesterday to the Colombian president.

http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991218543&Language=EN

[Say_What]

2. Colombia president weakened at polls

Colombians say no to a referendum that included austerity measures such as:
*Freezing public workers' salaries
*State pensions
*Regional auditing offices
*Funding education and healthcare
*Destination of oil revenues
*Congressional voting
*Numbers of congressmen
*Role of congress
*Government funding of regional projects

<clips>

...On Saturday, President Uribe suffered a reverse in his plans to transform the country's political and economic system.

He called a referendum to seek public backing for 15 reforms, but it seems most did not get enough support to be validated.

Delays in counting mean the full result is not likely to be known until later in the week.

The low turnout in the referendum is blamed on confusion caused by the complex questions and fear of violence.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3216941.stm

[Judi Lynn]

3. What a spin, huh?

The low turnout getting blaimed on the complexity of questions and the peon's fear of violence? Oh, right. (Poor dim natives need a rigid, brutal right-wing government to keep them in line?)

Here's a photo of Bogotá. A google check says there are 6,837,800 people living there:



Info. on the eternal spraying at the behest of the U.S. government:

(snip) Colombia Court Nixes Spray Program (the Gov't will appeal)
Posted by bill 07.19.2003.

Here is an article from AIDA (Asociación Interamericana de la Defensa del Ambiente, www.aida2.org) and PANNA (Pesticide Action Network North America, www.panna.org) on a Cundinamarca Court's ruling to halt the glysophate sprayings.

Three recent Colombian court rulings emphasize the health and environmental damage of the aerial spraying to eradicate coca and poppy crops. On June 25, 2003, a Superior Administrative Court of Cundinamarca, Colombia, ordered a stop to the spraying of glyphosate herbicides until the government complies with the environmental management plan for the eradication program, and mandated a series of studies to protect public health and the environment. In May, a Colombian Constitutional Court ordered the suspension of spraying in indigenous territories until the government consulted with the indigenous people of the Colombian Amazon. A State Council also recently ordered full compliance with an environmental management plan approved by the Ministry of Environment.


"a victory for both public health and the environment of Colombia"
Yamile Salinas of the Colombian Ombudsman's Office called the Cundinamarca decision "a victory for both public health and the environment of Colombia." Salinas added that, in applying the Precautionary Principle, "the court affirms that the significant and potentially irreparable risk posed by the spraying is reason enough to suspend the fumigation program." Those risks have been demonstrated in numerous reports of illnesses from exposure to the herbicides including the death of two children, well-documented extensive losses of food crops, and reports of wildlife damage.

Since 2000, the U.S. government has provided funds (as part of a U.S. aid package now approaching a total of US $2.4 billion) for the spraying of potent formulations of glyphosate in Plan Colombia, an aggressive counter narcotics program that has displaced thousands of farmers from their lands.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

(snip/)

http://colombiaupdate.com/Members/bill/panna/view