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Last week Colombia had its off-year elections: Governors, mayors, departmental deputies (assembly people), city councils, and other local offices. The most important result was the very unsurprising loss by the Polo Democratico in the mayoral election in Bogotà, the country's largest city and the capital, to the zombie-like retread who has apparently risen from the political graveyard, former mayor Enrique Peñalosa. To make the loss even more humiliating, the Polo's candidate Clara Lopez came in third behind Peñalosa and Rafael Pardo. Peñalosa was backed by the country's big construction companies, the municipal transportation cartel, Cambio Radical - the party of the country's Vice President - and heir apparent of President Juan Manuel Santos - and by the Conservative Party. Pardo, the Minister of Labor in santos' cabinet who briefly served as acting Mayor of Bogotà when outgoing Mayor Petro was suspended, was supported by some of the country's biggest Banks and by the Liberal Party. Lopez was supported by the widow of Julio Mario Santo Domingo - by far the richest woman in Colombia, and by her own party and assorted unions. The left had won the mayoralty in Bogotà three straight elections before this. Rather than using their victories to strengthen any movement in the streets, they did almost everything and anything else. The first of the three mayors, Lucho Garzon, used the job as a stepping stone into the cabinet of Juan Manuel Santos. The second, Samuel Moreno, used the opportunity to organize the massive wholesale robbery of the city. When the scandal was blown open by then-Polo Senator Gustavo Petro, it led to the unraveling of an enormous corruption scandal which nearly destroyed the Polo. The Polo split, with Petro forming the Progresistas which allowed him to win the next mayoral election. While Mayor, Petro managed to make enemies of most of his friends and allies, and earn the bitter hatred of the ctiies middle class, without gaining any new friends or allies, and leaving the Progresistas a nearly dead shell of a political movement that could not even field its own candidate for mayor this time around. The Polo did win some city council seats, a couple of departmental governors seats, and still has the possibility to come back as an electoral force. if Peñalosa cold come back after his corrupt administration, almost anything is possible. How does this fit into the peace process? These elections were a clear victory for the architect of that process, President Juan Manuel Santos, and for his hand picked successor Vice-President Gèrman Vargas Lleras. The parties of Santos' colaition: his own Partido de la U, Lleras' Cambio Radical, and Pardo's Liberal party were the clear winners all around the country. The Uribistas were even bigger losers than the Polo. They lost both the governorship of Antioquia and the mayoralty of mediìn (the capital of Antioquia) the stronghold of the Uribistsas so-called Centro Democratico Uribista. Their candidate for mayor Fracisco Santos (cousin of the president) came in a miserable fourth place. This means Santas et al. will be able to complete the peace process without major obstacles from the militarily right. it also means their already dominant bargaining position with the FARC will be even stronger. More later, Anthony _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
