Labor strikes, indigenous protests, a slowing economy — these are some of the dark clouds looming over the last two years of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s second term in office that threaten to eclipse his sky-high approval ratings.
Uribe, a conservative first elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006, has a 78 percent approval rating according to a Gallup poll last month. He remains the most popular head of state in Latin America — though his popularity appears to be slipping.
The government’s woes have been multiple: truckers on strike in August, and a six-week strike of court workers that ended this month. Even sugar cane cutters went on strike in the middle of last month.
PHOTO: EPA
And since Oct. 10 thousands of indigenous Colombians — representing about 3.2 percent of the population — have been holding protest marches demanding the government fulfill a promise to hand over land. They are also angry at what they say are abuses on their community carried out by leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and army soldiers.
Uribe faces a potentially major headache as political egos begin to sharpen ahead of the 2010 presidential election. One outcome was Congress’ refusal to approve an Uribe-supported reform of the judiciary.
Abroad the president also faces the possibility of losing his main benefactor, as US President George W. Bush, a staunch Colombia supporter, is less likely to be replaced in the upcoming election by fellow Republican Senator John McCain — who visited Colombia in July — than by Democrat Senator Barack Obama, who leads in US opinion polls.
Bush and McCain are strong supporters of a US free trade agreement with Colombia, while Obama and the Democrats want the agreement delayed to obtain more human rights protections, especially for Colombian labor leaders.
In December the UN Commission on Human Rights is to look closely at human rights in Colombia, including studying a report from non-governmental organizations charging that the Colombian state “tolerates” and even “supports” thousands of crimes carried out by right-wing paramilitary forces.
Uribe “is at a crossroads,” said a foreign diplomat stationed in Bogota who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“There is a multiplication of protest marches, often turning violent, and the government seems to be on the defensive with sometimes aggressive reactions,” the diplomat said.
Early this month Uribe issued an emergency decree granting officials extra authority to handle the court employee strike. They went back to work, but the decree remains in effect.
Over the last week and with the indigenous protest gaining strength, the government charged that the group had been infiltrated by leftist rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). It then charged union leaders plotting a general strike with maneuvering the workers to destabilize his government.
“President Uribe should now show his leadership capability, because he’s always had everything in his favor,” said Leon Valencia, a political analyst and former guerrilla fighter.
“One doesn’t live off of ‘Democratic Security’ alone, and the government must understand that,” Valencia said, referring to the name of Uribe’s policy of keeping rebels far from the large cities that has allowed many Colombians to resume normal lives.
Out of a population of 42 million, about half of all Colombians live below the poverty line — and they want answers to “a series of unfulfilled promises concerning salaries and other benefits,” Valencia said.
Uribe must make an effort to overcome this difficult juncture at a time when the state, economically strapped because of the global financial crisis, will have increasingly fewer instruments to use to calm the unrest, Valencia said.
Colombia’s economic growth, which reached 7.5 percent last month, is forecast to be below 3 percent this year. One sign of the coming slump is that industrial production dropped 0.6 percent last month, the first drop in nine years, one business survey showed.
“The government is strong and will remain strong,” said a business leader with close ties to the president, speaking on condition of anonymity and hinting darkly that the current unrest is being “financed from abroad.”
In one sign of flexibility Uribe has agreed to meet with indigenous protesters today on a march towards Cali, Colombia’s third most populous city.
The indigenous leaders, heading a column of some 30,000 protesters, said they want the president to deliver 200,000 hectares of promised land and negotiate peace with the FARC guerrillas.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not