Hello again: Colombia, Colombia. Today there was a national "paro" - more or less a national strike, called by the CUT and other trade union federations. It is pretty hard to tell how big the response was, but it was not overwhelming. The Plaza Bolivar, the main plaza in Bogotá, was maybe half-full, twenty thousand people, for the main demonstration. The issues are many, to many to count, but they start with the government's austerity program and include the government's agreement to allow more or less unlimited US access to Colombian military bases (often talked about as two or seven US bases). A very large part of the turn out consisted of students from the National University, which is the traditional center of the Colombian left, and which is under special attack in the austerity plan. The austerity plan is very schizophrenic, since it involves stimulus for construction from now until the elections next year, but severe cutbacks in areas like education. It all makes sense in terms of mobilzing middle class Colombian voters to the polls to elect Alvaro Uribe to a third term in office, if he can overcome a constitutional crisis which is simmering with the Supreme Court. The Uribistas are in chronic crisis, but they are so corrupt that they can be united by a telephone call from the US embassy and enough favors and cash passed out under the table that the thick hatreds amongst them can be put aside. This is what happened when they suddenly changed their minds in the Congress and voted to approve a change in the Constitution to allow Uribe to run for a third term. The Uribista vase is not happy with Uribe, and a lot of them will not vote for him on the first round of the next presidential election (assuming he is a candidate), but they will vote for him ont he second round in a run off with the Polo Democratico. The Polo itself is moving to the right. Its primary election was won by Gustavo Petro who favors running a coalition campaing with the Liberal Party. Carlos Gaviria, the long time lader of the Polo lost that primary. In an interview after his loss, with El Tiempo, he characterized the Polo as "tepid social democracy" - a characterization which is all too unfortunately accurate. Where things are going here is anybody's guess. The right is in crisis, but the country has moved to the right. The left has moved to the right, partly because of the military defeat of the FARC. The USA is positioning its Colombian pawn for a future war with Venezuela. The current president of the country ismoving onto the Fujimori path. And in Choco ...watch the video below (choco is just to the southwest of Panama). Anthony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AbhL2holDg ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
