[narconews] Feder: Local Elections in Colombia: Uribe's Political Movement Treading Water
 
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:44:45 -0500 (CDT)

October 29, 2007
Please Distribute Widely

Dear Colleague:

An intense election cycle has come to an end in Colombia, and the
results in so far indicate that the legendary support President
Alvaro Uribe enjoys does not run nearly so deep as his cheerleaders
might suggest. In fact, despite nearly six years now in power, the
formation of numerous new Uribista parties, the adoration of the
commercial media and saturation of the airways and streets with his
image, the Colombian people have shown that Bushs best friend in
Latin America does not have the last word in this country.

Most notably, the Alternative Democratic Pole (PDA in its Spanish
initials, the broad left-wing party that, riding the tide of similar
currents throughout Amirica, has put the Left on the Colombian
electoral map for the first time) held on to power in Bogota, the
countrys capital and home to a sixth of its people. Samuel Moreno, a
PDA senator, won overwhelmingly as the citys new mayor, a post
widely considered to be the second-most powerful in the country.
After enduring a desperate (and probably illegal) attempt by Uribe to
prevent him from reaching that post, Moreno will most likely present
an even more aggressive opposition to Uribes program of subservience
to Washington and Wall Streets interests. Though still lacking a
majority on the Bogota city council, the PDA won 12 seats, up from 8
in the previous elections.

Despite long lines and heavy rain most of the day, voter
participation in the capital was nearly 48 percent, the highest ever
in Bogota and higher than many municipal elections in U.S. cities.
This was up from 43 percent in 2003 and from around 20 in the
previous few elections. As tends to be true throughout Latin America,
the more people who come out to vote, the worse it seems to go for
the right...

Read the full story, including a quick look at the new mayor of
Medellmn, part of a political circle that is murmuring about
restarting a debate that had all but died in Colombia... the very
legitimacy of the war on drugs and the possibility of legalization:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2007/10/29/34129/858

 From somewhere in a country called Amirica,

Dan Feder
Editor-in-Chief
The Narco News Bulletin
www.narconews.com

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