[NYTr] Colombia: Election Victory over Paramilitary for "Candidate of the Poor"
 
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:13:55 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
IPS - Oct 29, 2007
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39841

ELECTIONS-COLOMBIA:  

Unexpected Paramilitary Defeat in Cesar

By Constanza Vieira

VALLEDUPAR, Colombia, Oct 29 (IPS) - Night falls and some 200 honking
motorcycles and mopeds make their way along a tree-lined central avenue
of the capital of the northeastern Colombian department of Cesar,
celebrating the victory of governor-elect Cristian Moreno, "the
candidate of the poor," in one of the birthplaces of the far-right
paramilitary militias.

"If either of the other two candidates had won, the victory procession
would be made up of 4X4 off-road vehicles," public university Professor
Gustavo AraC:jo Baute commented to IPS.

Moreno, a 40-year-old black man, was "accused" three weeks ago of being
poor by Jaime Murgas, one of his wealthy rivals in Sundaybs local and
regional elections. At that time, Moreno was third in the polls and
looked like he didn't stand a chance.

But around 44 percent of voters in the department (province) of Cesar
voted for him. "That is why the capacity of the people should never be
doubted," said an excited supermarket worker. "The people know," she
added.

In the regional elections of 2003, blank votes carried the day in
Valledupar, even though no party or movement urged people to cast blank
ballots.

Moreno, who was running for governor in those elections as well, pulled
out of the race because of death threats. People whispered "I'm going
to vote for Mr. White" (an allusion to the "voto en blanco" -- blanco
means white in Spanish).

Hernando Molina, who was left as the single, uncontested candidate, won
the elections in 2003. But he is now in prison for his ties to the
paramilitaries, like a number of other politicians caught up in the
"parapolitics" scandal, which has revealed an intricate web of
relations between powerful political leaders and the illegal armed
groups.

"Here the politicians and important people were all scrambling to meet
with the paramilitary chiefs. They kept going in convoys from here to
La Mesa and Badillo," towns in Cesar where the general paramilitary
headquarters are located, a local resident told IPS.

Only in the last 10 days before the elections did Morenobs triumph
begin to look possible, to gauge by one thermometer of public opinion
-- taxi and motorcycle taxi drivers.

"The thing is, people here are afraid," an analyst who will remain
anonymous for security reasons told IPS.

That is why the opinion polls and electoral projections failed so
miserably. Discretion in Valledupar is a question of survival.

Murgasb family owns the Las Flores estate, an agribusiness venture that
produces biofuels, to the southeast of Valledupar. Several of the
companybs employees filed complaints with the non-governmental
Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) saying they were threatened with
being fired if they did not vote for him.

Morenobs other adversary, Arturo CalderC3n, was secretary of health
under former governor Molina. One of his uncles runs the lottery
business of Enilce LC3pez, who helped finance the first presidential
campaign of rightwing President Clvaro Uribe in 2002 and is now in
prison for money laundering.

"There are going to be killings because of this," people said quietly
in Valledupar when the news of Morenobs victory came out. In a place
where politicians are used to buying votes, people now worry that
punishment will be forthcoming for those who failed to vote as they
were told.

But fear and violence are not unique to Valledupar. At least 21
candidates were killed in different parts of Colombia during the
election campaign.

Moreno ran on a shoestring campaign budget, which in this region means
he did not pay his voters. Although he represented a local political
movement, he was backed by the leftist Alternative Democratic Pole.

Sundaybs elections also brought a few surprises in Colombiabs Caribbean
coastal region, the first and most important area dominated by the
paramilitary militias -- drug trafficking bands allied with the
security forces that in the 1990s declared themselves at the forefront
of the counterinsurgency fight against the leftist guerrilla groups
that had emerged in 1964.

In several important districts in that northern region, public opinion
defeated the candidates with the most visible ties to the
paramilitaries, or "caudillos" (strongmen) of the old traditional,
corrupt political elites, like in the department of AtlC!ntico or the
city of Cartagena.

On the other hand, few were surprised when the power went out in the
department of Sucre just when the votes began to be counted.

One local analyst said the reaction of voters was triggered by the
parapolitics scandal, in which the Supreme Court is investigating
regional political and business leaders for their links with
paramilitaries, who have partially demobilised after controversial
negotiations with the government.

According to United Nations agencies, the paramilitary militias are
responsible for at least 80 percent of the crimes against humanity
committed in Colombiabs armed conflict. The comptroller-generalbs
office has reported that the groups have violently seized 4.5 million
hectares of the best land in Colombia.

More than three million rural Colombians have been forcibly displaced
from their land and their homes.

Until recently, these far-right forces had the elections, as well as
the public administration, in Cesar perfectly organised and under
control. They were the ones who decided who would be candidate and
which towns were to vote for him, or who was to be named departmental
or municipal secretary, for example.

Despite the demobilisation, "paramilitarismo" is still "alive and well;
everyone here knows that," one resident of Valledupar told IPS, adding
that it has merely taken on different shapes. If someone wants to sell
a farm, "as soon as they find out, that person has to pay them a bribe,
or they tell him byou can't sell to such-and-such, you have to sell to
this other guyb," he said, to illustrate their continued power.

The parapolitics scandal so far is playing out at the level of
individual criminal investigations, and has not yet moved to the stage
of political responsibility. Nearly all of those implicated so far are
Uribe allies.

The politicians are accused of involvement in the creation of
paramilitary groups, massacres, selective killings, forced
displacement, election fraud through violence and intimidation, and the
use of public contracts for their own personal gain and to finance
paramilitary militias.

Many of the "parapoliticians," including those from Cesar, coordinated
the election campaigns of their parties from their prison cells,
because Colombiabs laws allow them to do so until they have actually
been tried and sentenced.

In this department, the imprisoned politicians include Clvaro AraC:jo,
who was once the areabs leading senator. He is the brother of former
foreign minister MarC-a Consuelo AraC:jo, who resigned in February when
her brother and father began to be investigated in connection with the
scandal. Another is former governor Molina, the AraC:josb cousin.

But the investigations in the scandal still have a long way to go in
Cesar, as in other regions.

LeC3n Valencia, executive director of the CorporaciC3n Nuevo Arco Iris, a
BogotC! think tank, believes that the legal proceedings that got
underway a year ago will ultimately lead to the arrest of around 60
legislators.

Catholic priest Wilson Becerra, director of the social pastoral of the
diocese of Valledupar and regional coordinator of the MOE in Cesar,
says he hopes that one day Colombians will be able to believe in their
institutions once again.

The MOE, which for the third time carried out election observation
efforts on a national scale, on Sunday, increased the number of
election observers to 10,000 this year. For the first time it was
active in Cesar, but in only three of the departmentbs 26
municipalities. In at least two others, the observers, who are
volunteers, did not find it safe to work.

In Becerrabs view, the most important conclusion to be reached after
Sundaybs elections is that people have begun to "wake up" -- that "they
tried to turn out, to participate."

Hernando Daza, an election official who was transferred shortly before
the elections to the paramilitary-controlled town of Pueblo Bello,
northwest of Valledupar, expressed his concerns to the MOE.

He received death threats in the two weeks he spent in Cesar, where his
mission was to prevent any attempt at fraud from within the local
office of the civil registrar, which was in charge of organising the
elections.

"The rotation and transfer of election officials was a key measure,"
said Father Becerra, who hopes the MOE will establish a permanent
presence in Cesar, "to teach people to love democracy." (END/2007) 

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