Leftist's Win In Bogota Seen As Dawn Of New Political Era (Colombia)

[Say_What]

<clips>

BOGOTA (AP)--Bogota mayor-elect Luis Eduardo Garzon pledged Monday to work for the city's poor after becoming the first leftist to win the Colombian capital's top office - a victory that represents a political setback for the country's Marxist guerrillas.

Garzon, the former head of Colombia's biggest labor federation and an ex- communist, declared after his historic win Sunday that his first day in office - Jan. 2 - would be "a day without hunger," indicating a mass distribution of free food.

The beefy 55-year-old, who eschews ties in favor of turtlenecks and sport jackets and who goes by the nickname "Lucho," said though he would aim to help the poor, who comprise about half of the capital's 7 million residents, he didn't intend to forget about the rich - or foment class divisions.

"No one should fear this mayor," said Garzon, the son of a maid who once worked as a golf caddie, adding that he didn't intend to pit "the rich against the poor."

In Sunday's election, Garzon won 47% of the vote against 40% for the government-backed center-right candidate, Juan Lozano, the nation's official election body said. Leftists hailed Garzon's ascendance to the high-profile office as the dawn of a new political era in Colombia, which is being torn by four decades of guerrilla warfare. Not only does Colombia now have the political space for leftists to campaign, but one in which they can score important victories, observers said.

On edit: fix link

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To read story, scroll to title: Leftist's Win In Bogota Seen As Dawn Of New Political Era

[La_Serpiente]

1. I really predict

that the US is going to interfere with South American politics. Venezuela? Bolivia? Now there is hints of Ecuador. Colombia?. Brazil is pretty much a socialist country now.

It's good we have a diametrical ideology in this hemisphere. And if the US does interfere, I hope Brazil intervenes on behalf of the country. In fact, Brazil should pass a doctrine just like the Monroe doctrine. It should say that no foreign power shold intervene in the specific policies of Southern American nations.

[mikehiggins]

2. No longer a U.S. hemisphere

Its funny how things like this happen, but who the hell expected Brazil to become a major player in South America? Here in the US we're so accustomed to considering any nation to the South to be a combination of happy natives and easily purchased politicians that the idea of an effective political and economic opposition growing up there never gets taken seriously.

I think we'd better start looking at that attitude. We're not the only players on the planet, after all, and while we're running our "global empire" scam, there is serious opposition to U.S. hegemony rising up all over the planet. Things may well be getting interesting.

[Johnyawl]

3. Nice thought, but....

...Brazil has neither the economic nor military power to confront the US if bush decides to meddle in South America. And I'd hesitate to call Brazil a socialist country. They have a socialist government at the moment, but they also have a very reactionary upper class with close ties to a military that has over thrown popularly elected goverments in the past. Lulu walks a tightrope.

[David__77]

5. Brazilian nukes.

Brazil could soon, if it chose, develop nuclear capability. That would change things. I do think it has a role to play in terms of Latin American unity and development. They've been a high-tech force over the years.

[belle]

7. OTOH, we *are* spread a bit thin at the moment

That might be the one possible very thin silver lining to this Iraq disaster: the more cred, power and money (not to mention soldiers...sigh) we lose to that black hole, the fewer resources we have to interfere in the southern hemisphere.

Not that that'll necessarily stop * & Co from trying, given their shaky grasp on reality...:eyes:

[E_Zapata]

4. Oh, the CIA had better get cracking!

Snuff that out like a bad cold! Leftists in charge.

So are those 'leftists' in Bogota anything all those 'leftists' marching in Wash on Sat?

Watch...just watch: All that money and arms that Bush recently reallocated to Colombia? It will be retracted. Watch. the USA doesn't support progressive governments as a rule.

[Say_What]

6. INTERVIEW-Political left awakens in Colombia with Lucho

Uh oh, Uncle Sam won't like this--another elected official in Latin America speaking out on behalf of the poor. Also, Garzon wants an administration modeled after Lula's.

<clips>

... "I think Colombian society has changed ... People are tired of so much aggression, so much polarization, so much killing," he added during an interview on Monday in his Bogota apartment building.

Colombian politics has long been bloody business, even before the guerrilla war began four decades ago.

And right-wing death squads have given Marxist rebels a good reason to keep fighting -- they've killed many of those who left the battlefield to pursue public office.

An outlawed militia chief, Carlos Castano, bragged in his memoirs about masterminding the assassination of Carlos Pizarro, who was shot aboard a commercial airplane while running for president in 1990.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2003/10/27/rtr1124344.html

[loudnclear]

8. The Bush cabal is spawning a rash of leftist embracing

Except for EU the trend is definitely to the left.