The Washington Post this morning takes an in-depth look at Antanas Mockus, the Colombian presidential candidate everyone is talking about these days. “Some have called him ‘a little strange,’ as Mockus acknowledged Thursday in an interview with the paper. But “soon Colombians may be calling him president,” according to Juan Forero. Antanas Mockus rise has come about “because he differs so markedly in style and substance from Uribe,” the report writes. He’s described himself not as “anti-Uribe” but “post-Uribe,” pledging to continue popular policies of his predecessor, like the fight against armed groups, but also promising “civility and transparency.” “It is like the people feel the need to believe in a process that calls for people to be good,” he tells the paper’s Andean correspondent at a campaign stop in the north of Colombia.
Former president Andres Pastrana agrees that Mockus and his running mate, Sergio Fajardo, are something new in Colombian politics. “People in Colombia are tired of corruption, old-style politics, and Mockus and Fajardo are now trying to represent this new politics.”
But beyond his eccentricities [which include a “super citizen” spandex suit, a very famous public mooning, and the fact that he was married atop an elephant!], Mockus lacks a certain oratory charisma, according to some. “He’s the natural ‘anti-politician,’” says the Post, giving “long, pedagogic answers, laced with references to Kant and Kierkegaard.” The opposition has called him naïve with one Uribista challenging Mockus earlier in the campaign by saying “you do not confront the challenge of the guerrillas with mimes and sunflowers.”
To that Mockus has provided a different sort of message: “I don't want to run a government laced with hate. The guerrillas may make me indignant, and I will fight them. But I will not hate them.”
In other news today:
· The four South American nations (Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela) leading a possible boycott of an upcoming EU-Latin America cooperation summit over the issue of Honduras appear to have gotten their way. On Thursday, Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Angel Moratinos, said he had to “rescind” his country’s invitation to Mr. Lobo in order to save the summit. The AFP has more on the issue this morning, writing that Spain’s statement was followed by one from the Honduran Foreign Minister, Mario Canahuatim who said Honduras would now only be participating in a Central America-EU meeting which follows the larger summit. BBC Mundo, meanwhile, captures President Lobo’s frustration over the whole ordeal. “I feel that the arrogance, the high-handedness of a few, is punishing an innocent people.” Bloggings by Boz seconds that opinion, saying the strategy of the UNASUR countries who threatened the boycott is going to be “about successful as the US policy on Cuba” in the long run.
· Also from Honduras, Honduras Culture and Politics has analysis and insights about a recent Pepe Lobo statement, indicating that just maybe the president will be extending a return invitation to Mel Zelaya, allowing him to reenter his country without fear of arrest.
· The new issue of the Economist reports on the Paraguayan government’s fight against the Paraguayan People’s Army. Here’s the magazine’s take:
“Taking on the EPP may endear Mr Lugo both to wealthy farmers and to peasants who fear the guerrillas’ wrath, and has enabled him to project an image of firm leadership he has hitherto lacked. Meanwhile, civil liberties advocates who might oppose the policies—perhaps recalling the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner, who renewed emergency powers every 90 days for 35 years—appear to have been mollified by the measure’s short duration and modest scope.”
· In neighboring Bolivia, meanwhile, the government of Evo Morales is confronting the first workers’ strike since his presidential term began in 2006. The strike – which this week included industrial workers, teachers, miners and public health workers – comes after the government put a cap on wage increases. According to IPS reporting, Economy and Finance Minister Luis Arce defended the wage cap this week, arguing that while the this year’s increase was the smallest since Evo came to office, it was still well above the 2009 inflation rate. BBC Mundo says the strike could go on for days after a COB trade union leader said earlier this week that workers would be out of the workplace for an “indefinite” period of time.
· Also on Bolivia, El País reports on the controversy that has come with President Morales’s attempt at judicial reform, as mentioned here earlier in the week.
· From the AP, news that Venezuelan prosecutor’s have withdrawn “conspiracy” charges against former governor and opposition leader, Oswaldo Alvarez Paz, replacing that charge with others of “publicly instigating delinquency” and “spreading false information.”
· Al-Jazeera has the latest on indigenous protests in Ecuador, reporting that clashes between police and demonstrators occurred Thursday in front of the National Assembly. For its part, Congress tried to diffuse demonstrations by saying it is willing to “sift through observations and suggestions from all sectors to approve the best law possible.” President Correa, however, has called those demonstrating against the bill “liars.” “Water belongs to the indigenous people, but also to the mixed-race people. The water belongs to everyone,” he declared recently.
· An interesting piece at Global Post today looks at organized crime networks that are connecting Italy, Africa, and Latin America. The story comes as Italian mob boss and narco trafficker, Vincenzo Roccisano, goes before a New York judge this week. Roccisano, experts say, “revolutionized the supply model for trafficking drugs from the Americas to Europe over the past two decades.” According to the report, his Calabria-based syndicate, 'Ndrangheta, has handed over distribution operations in the US to Mexican cartels while “focusing its efforts on shipping drugs from Latin America to West Africa.”
· NACLA has a report on the Oaxaca human rights defenders who were killed in a paramilitary ambush last week. In particular, Kristin Bricker looks at concerns of “paramilitarization” in Mexico.
· And with opinions today. At Foreign Policy in Focus, Laura Carlsen of CIP’s Americas Program also writes on the Oaxaca attack –and what she calls “layers of impunity and injustice” that have covered crimes in the state for years . Also at FPIF, Coletta Youngers, senior fellow at WOLA, writes on the progress and shortcomings in shaping a new US drug policy under the Obama administration. CEPR’s Mark Weisbrot in the Guardian explains why he believes Venezuela will not face an economic collapse, a la Greece. And Teodoro Petkoff has some critical words about UNASUR’s decision to select Nestor Kirchner as its first secretary general.
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