Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Colombia: Winning an election the old-fashioned way?

Pres. Juan Manuel Santos won re-election yesterday, and many are displeased, but the most vocal is former president and now senator Álvaro Uribe, who accuses Santos of electoral fraud, buying votes, and allowing the FARC to intimidate voters.

In his statement yesterday, Uribe charged Santos of “the biggest corruption in history, in the name of peace”, by

  • handing out money to legislators to buy votes,
  • offering government money to mayors and governors to make them illegally participate in the Santos campaign,
  • buying votes
  • violating the law
  • using State funds to publicize the Santos campaign
  • failing to counter threats of massacre against Zuluaga voters from terrorist groups such as FARC and criminal gangs
  • failing to counter violent pressure from terrorist groups so voters would vote for Santos

Here’s his speech (in Spanish)

“Santos prevaricated by not rejecting armed terrorists’ support who forced [people] to vote for him and threatened to massacre Zuluaga’s supporters”

Many Colombians are concerned that under a peace deal many thousands of rebels will form drug-trafficking gangs.

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Colombia: Zuluaga change of heart?

In an apparent change of heart, Colombian presidential runner-up Oscar Iván Zuluaga declared that he would not suspend the peace negotiations with the FARC taking place in Havana.

He did, however, assert that “we shall continue our fundamental demand, the cease of all criminal action against Colombians.”

Zuluaga

did not say how long he would give the FARC to declare a ceasefire, a condition it has rejected until now, but said he softened his stance at the request of Conservative Party leader Marta Lucia Ramirez in exchange for her support in the run-off vote campaign.

Call me a cynic, but this looks to me like a statement purely for local consumption, designed to diffuse Santos’s false choice of it’s-Santos-or-war, redacted after internal polls may have shown that it would favor his election on the June 15th runoff.

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Colombia: Who will be the next president?

Today’s the first round of the Colombian presidential election.

I say the first round because it’s unlikely that current-president Santos will get a large enough majority to avoid a second round.

Uribista Óscar Iván Zuluaga was making headway until the video scandal popped up:
Colombian Presidential Candidate Stumbles Over Campaign Allegations
Conservative Óscar Iván Zuluaga’s Surge in Pre-Vote Polls Hurt by Flap Over Videotapes

A 55-year-old former finance minister who has centered his campaign on sharply criticizing Mr. Santos’ peace talks with Marxist rebels, Mr. Zuluaga became entangled in the scandal after one of his campaign workers was arrested on May 6 for allegedly spying on Mr. Santos’s emails and those of guerrilla commanders participating in negotiations taking place in Havana, Cuba, with the Colombian government.

Eighteen days, two viral videos and numerous denials later, Mr. Zuluaga just can’t shake off accusations he was directly involved in what prosecutors here call a complex case of computer hacking.

Zuluaga denies involvement with the spying that the Santos campaign accused him of orchestrating.

Santos, however, had a scandal, too,

another scandal took off on May 8, when Mr. Zuluaga’s most powerful supporter, former President Álvaro Uribe, alleged $2 million that may have been tainted by drug trafficking was funneled into Mr. Santos’ 2010 presidential campaign. The Santos administration denied accepting funds from drug traffickers, and prosecutors said Mr. Uribe didn’t presented evidence.

Al-Jazeera has Five reasons to care about Colombia’s polls
Arms dealers, coffee drinkers and potential holidaymakers, take note.

5) Colombia is now the closest Western ally in South America, bucking the left’s pink tide

There’s enough dissatisfaction that Colombia Politics blog advises, If no one deserves your vote, vote “en blanco”. The Miami Herald speculates, Analysts say it’s far from clear how badly Zuluaga will be hurt by the scandal, but some have suggested it may sap enough votes to put another candidate into the second round against Santos.The Brazilian psychic predicts Zuluaga will be the next president:

As Drudge says, developing . . .


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Colombia: “Peace is not in Havana”

Presidential candidate Óscar Iván Zuluaga has had it with the FARC peace talks hosted by the Communist Cubans,

“Peace is not in Havana,” he said in his nomination speech. “The national agenda isn’t up for negotiation with the FARC.”

“I have never believed in this [peace] process because it’s based on a mistaken premise,” he told El Tiempo newspaper. “A legitimate state cannot sit down on equal terms with an organization that commits terrorist acts and finances itself through narco-traffic.”

While relatively unknown, Zuluaga has the backing of former president Alvaro Uribe, who would be a shoe-in for the Senate, while current president Juan Manuel Santos is increasingly unpopular.

Negotiations with the FARC have gone over a year.

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