Friday, 2 September 2011

The nine lives of Colombian politicians

Pastrana
Today's El Espectador newspaper reports that ex-president Andres Pastrana could become the next leader of the Colombian Conservative Party.http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/politica/articulo-296401-andres-pastrana-seria-el-nuevo-jefe-del-partido-conservador
This is important in two ways.
            1. It reveals the trend in Colombian politics for longevity. 
            2. It represents a potential further shift in power away from Alvaro Uribe - who only a year ago left office as Colombia's most popular president (ever?). 



In Colombia those politicians (that aren't assassinated) seem to live forever. Colombian politicians can occupy top jobs throughout decades, often disappearing off the scene only to return later on in life.

This is in stark contrast to the UK where retiring or booted out Prime Ministers usually skulk to the back-benches of the House of Commons before being elevated to the House of Lords. No former Prime Minister would be seen dead for example running for Mayor of London. But earlier this year Alvaro Uribe was widely tipped as a (potentially unstoppable) candidate for Alcalde of Bogota.

Pastrana took a more conventional route to power by becoming Mayor of Bogota (at the end of the 80s) before president in 1998, leaving office in 2002. After a period of time away from high office, Pastrana became the ambassador to the US in 2005 (a position he admittedly held for a very short period of time).

Pastrana enjoys strong links with the US; when president he was responsible for signing the Plan Colombia -with President Clinton. Colombia then became the US's number one ally in Latin America.

In his own country as well as within the international community, Pastrana is widely respected for his efforts to bring about a peaceful solution to the internal struggle in Colombia - through dialogue with the ELN and the FARC. It was these views on the security situation in Colombia that led Pastrana to become highly critical of his successor as president, Alvaro Uribe whom he claimed had a secret pact with the Paramilitaries.

Pastrana's public views were controversial. Together with his opposition to Uribe's efforts to seek re-election, a collision course was set.  
Uribe in combative mode

The Conservative party was once one of the strongest supporters of Uribe. So, if Pastrana is to return to front-line politics and lead the Conservatives what does this say for the party's current view of the ex-president?

The Conservative party have been with Uribe since he established the Colombia First party - the movement that brought Uribe to power in 2002. Later, elements left the Conservative party to join the Party of the U, the platform from which Uribe sought to change the constitution (again) to permit him to run a third time. Others stayed in the party, but remained loyal to Uribe.

Salazar
Jose Dario Salazar, the current leader of the Conservative party is seen as an Uribista. The Conservatives are part of the coalition that supports President Santos, but Salazar himself has appeared to criticise the president for certain policies seen as 'un' or indeed 'anti' Uribista in nature. http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/17583-uribe-supporters-up-in-arms-over-government-contract-for-uribe-critic.html Pastrana himself criticised this as an act of disloyalty. http://www.radiosantafe.com/2011/02/09/andres-pastrana-pide-a-su-partido-apoyar-y-no-criticar-al-presidente-santos/

Should the Conservative Party accommodate a non-Uribiste as leader after the elections in October...would this represent an important shift in power in Colombia? Certainly it would have been impossible for Pastrana to have held the position when Uribe was at the height of his powers.

Just before the congressional and presidential elections last year, The Economist published an article claiming that Colombian politicians were 'all Uribistas now'.http://www.economist.com/node/15726677 Only a rump of Greens and socialists ( Democratic Pole) were against him. That's clearly not the case now.

As we've found out though, Colombian politicians have a knack for hanging around and getting another shot at it. Don't write Uribe drown/off just yet.

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