Colombia voted for its new Congress yesterday. According to El Tiempo special page it looks like the right has an outright majority in the Senate and that with semi right parties it will be holding quite a comfortable lead. The more so that the potential opposition will be chopped up between the Liberales, Verdes and Polo Democatico. The only parties that would try eventually, with great care, to reconcile Colombia with Chavez, Polo Democratico and Liberal, apparently will not reach 25% of the vote together.
In other words, Chavez has no real friends in Colombia and the right wing can thank him very much for giving it an outright majority and making sure that the next president is going to be either Santos or Sanin. Next June South America will have two vocal right wing presidents at international summits while Brazil elections take place and the Kirchner keep sinking. With the imminent return of Honduras to the OAS and the presence of Panama and Costa Rica, Chavez might want to start skipping International Summits.
Chavez should keep in mind that in politics one never knows for who one is really working.
Couldn't' agree more. I always said that Chavez would the (almost) sole responsible for Colombia electing an Uribista government. So ironically sweet!
ReplyDeletePiedad Córdoba will find a way to help Thugo. She could help Thugo more if she gets reelected, of course. If she doesn't get reelected, perhaps she will try a hunger strike. "Put me in office or I will starve myself to death." I wonder if Lula would be as indifferent to a Piedad hunger strike as he is to hunger strikes in Cuba.
ReplyDelete"Chavez might want to start skipping International Summits"
ReplyDeleteWe can only hope! :)
The return to the right was a given, and just a matter of time. LatAm has been on this pendulum for quite some time. To the left in the 60s, to the right in the 80s, back to the left around 2000. The difference is that this swing seems faster than others, or at least sooner, just 10 years later and not 20. I really believe that Chavez himself helped to hasten the change.
AIO,
ReplyDeleteThat pendulum was pushed by Chavez, but also pulled by Uribe. What current world leader can say he accomplished as much for his country as Uribe did for his? The Colombian people have seen what works.
Daniel,
ReplyDeleteAt least half of the Liberals in Colombia are almost outright Urubistas, if not more.
And many of the Verdes are fiercely anti-Chavista because of what the Reyes laptops revealed about Chavez's complicity in the FARC's long-term secuestration of Ingrid Betancourt, who was the hope of their party.
It's worse for the Polo Democratico than it looks. I chatted with a Colombian friend of mine last night who is on the staff of a Colombian Senator and he tells me that half of the Polo wants to cut all ties to Piedad Cordoba or they may leave to go elsewhere. A new political party may not be unexpected in the aftermath of the vote.
Colombia has never been so united in anything as they are in their opposition to Chavez.
StJacques