Colombians face austerity measures

[Say_What]

This guy is like Bush--the Colombias didn't vote the auserity measures he wanted, so he's gonna go ahead and do them anyway. So goes *democracy* in Colombia--with US backing of course. </sarcasm>

<clips>

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has announced plans for new economic austerity measures in the wake of an apparent government defeat in a referendum on political and economic changes.

In a televised speech, Mr Uribe said the government respected the outcome of the referendum last weekend, but he said it would have to find ways of achieving the same objectives.

He said he would present reform plans to Congress and would consider public spending cuts and tax rises, among other measures.

The final outcome of the referendum will not be known until counting finishes later this week, but provisional results suggest that at least 11 of the 15 government proposals failed to gain enough support.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3227985.stm