#Bogotá

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Colombia´s May Day protests end in violence

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May Day protests in Bogotá ended in violence on Wednesday with police firing tear gas, stun grenades and using water cannon tanks to disperse crowds in the Plaza de Bolivar and along Carrera Septima.

According to police, 65 people were arrested and three have been formally charged. The Unified Command Post of the Mayor announced that the march took place without mishap. However, others such as the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners, an NGO based in Bogotá, have claimed that there were arbitrary arrests and harassment of peaceful protesters and journalists covering the event. The Ministry of Health has announced that 12 people, three of them policemen, were admitted with minor injuries.

As is usual on International Labor Day, there was a strong turnout from organized labor groups. Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), Colombia’s largest labor federation, was present in significant numbers as were unions including Unión Sindical Obrera, which represents mine workers, SINTHOL, which represents hotel and tourism workers, and SINDICUNICOL, which represents university employees.

CUT has claimed that roughly a hundred thousand people turned out to march in Bogotá and around one million people nation-wide.

marchesThere was also a contingent from workers at the General Motors plant located in the outskirts of Bogota. The plant has been the target of labor campaigns over the past few years from international advocacy organizations such as Witness for Peace. In May 2011, 68 current and former employees formed ASOTRECOL (the Association of Current and Former Injured Employees of GM Colmotores) in response to labor abuses firings for work related injuries which has been involved in controversial campaigns involving hunger strikes.

petro marchOther groups present included those representing students, victims of human rights violations and campaigners against racial prejudice. There were also representatives from the political parties Polo Democrátic Alternativo (PDA), a left-wing electoral alliance and the only large party with representation to oppose the Santos administration, the Movimiento Progresistas, led by mayor of Bogotá Gustavo Petro and other dissenters as a break-away from the PDA, and the Colombian Communist Party which was recently expelled from the PDA coalition. The obvious tensions between them was visible as they marched and congregated separately. Movimiento Progresistas held posters with the name of its high-profile leader, Mayor Petro, the second most important politician in Colombia after the president.

Former Senator Piedad Cordoba made an appearance and spoke with media and well-wishers. She said, “people are rising up in face of the pressure from the neo-colonialist, imperialist, savage capitalism which is expressed by the neoliberal model.” She compared the political activism taking place in Colombia at the moment to the Occupy movement in the United States, and the Indignants movements in Spain and Greece.

cordobaDespite slightly improved safety for trade unions in recent years, Colombia is still the world’s most dangerous country to be a union activist. Around 2,000 unionists have been killed since 1991, many of them committed by paramilitaries such as the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia. Unionists face other problems such as death threats, arrests, dismissals for organizing and more subtle attacks such as contract labor schemes where they are denied labor rights such as collective bargaining.

Peter Bolton is a freelance journalist based in Bogotá.

Category: Bogotá, News Review
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A better, more modern Bogota

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If Bogota is to improve and grow we citizens need more power to get involved and shape our city. I wanted to tell the story of my local community to show how, if we remain disenfranchised, Bogota will not develop in a way that benefits us all. They say all politics is local, but in Bogota we have very little voice.

The block where I live used to be part of a very nice residential neighborhood, very calm and quiet. But with time, the neighborhood has changed, many families have left, many people have died and many houses were sold or rented up for commercial use.

All of a sudden, someone decided to build a chicken restaurant, like those so popular around the city right there at the end of the block, attracting more traffic than the streets were built for. The neighbors didn’t like it, especially because the building permit said the place would be a kindergarten. Maybe during the construction the owners changed their mind and decided to put up a chicken restaurant and then the authorities didn’t check or didn’t care. Maybe the fact that the restaurant built a playground for children, led the city curator to believe it would be all right to approve the construction. Who knows.

So, anyway, we didn’t like it, but there wasn’t much we could do about it.

There used to be only one church, Catholic, right in front of a very nice park and all the parishioners used to go in those days when Colombia was overwhelmingly Catholic and so was the city.

Now, as diverse as the use of the land has become, there are a diversity of churches, how wonderful. The problem came with one of those churches which attract hoards of people who simply come and park their cars in our blocks, making it literally impossible to come in or out of our houses. The same eager pilgrims have contributed generously to the up keeping and proliferation of their faith in such a way that they’ve been able to buy entire houses, demolished them and built ample temples, but not contemplating parking. The curator doesn’t care, I guess he doesn’t live around here and it is not his job to consider the traffic issues such constructions would generate.

So, back with the parking issue; we began getting angry, calling the authorities who hardly ever came. Then, we sent letters to other authorities in hopes they would answer our claims;  we also became angry and hostile to the crowds because we felt invaded, abused and we simply lost our peace of mind, so I must admit we were not nice. I remember counting 16 minutes to reach my house just from the corner of the block after a hard day of work.

One fine day, some No-Parking signs were posted, and we were pleased because people stopped parking for a while. The men, who used to be our guards for a monthly fee, became the guards of the pilgrims and started to turn into our enemies because we affected the income they derived from the tips of the tens and tens of cars that would make of our streets their parking lots.

But, because the police never came to insure the signs were obeyed, the signs simply turned into jokes: we, the residents, didn’t have the right to park in front of our own homes, abiding the law and afraid of being fined, but the pilgrims slowly decided to come back encouraged by the guards.

Today, as I left the house to go to mass, I saw with disdain, hopelessness and anger, how my house entrance was being blocked again. I went to church, ask God to forgive me for having had ugly thoughts about the owners of those cars and asked the Holy Spirit to enlighten our path to an institutional solution, a civilized way of resolving the issue.

A bit later, as I was finishing breakfast, a tow truck came and towed away the two cars in front of the house. In awe, we came out and clapped, and were relieved to see that the owners of the rest of the cars had come quickly to avoid being towed.

For a moment then, we felt that we lived in a city where the citizens are heard, where the authorities cared. But it was just for a moment because after a few hours, the streets were cramped again.

It’s just sad that we are not organized like other countries where you get privileges for being a resident. When you get your license plate, you pay a relatively insignificant fee that gives you access to a sticker that says you have the priority for parking there, in front of your house.

It’s sad to see that there are bays all along Carrera 15th, but they are only for the handicapped. How the police know that a person is or not handicapped, beats me because street vendors sell handicapped signs in any corner, without any restriction. So, how many people who are handicapped use those bays, no one can tell. But if you go to the bank to get money, or happen to run an errand, you can’t park there. I miss the signs in cities abroad, where they regulate the hours of parking, or where there are meters that allow street parking for a relatively low fee.

No, in Bogota you have to pay expensive parking, you have to pay “valorización” taxes, but you do not have any privileges for your contributions, you do not get to enjoy any of the supposed benefits that the supposed public works will supposedly bring you. No, they go to benefit corrupt politicians and contractors who are now in jail, but have not been asked to return a single penny of what they stole from the citizens who pay taxes in good faith.

It’s a shame, really, because there was a time when Bogota was the best kept secret, we had excellent restaurants at reasonable prices, we had nice houses to go to at the end of the day and we had mayors that cared about educating us to be better citizens.

Those days are gone. Undeniably, the city is more diverse now, there are many cultural events, people are more open, less uptight, and it is due to the influence from abroad. But those foreigners with their yuans, dollars and euros, have also paved the road to abusive prices in restaurants and real estate, and no one seems to say anything, to do anything about it. We, passive citizens of Bogota simply go it along, losing quality of life, paying a very high price for the modernization, for the change of the city, its supposed growth to become a cosmopolitan metropolis.

Wouldn’t it be nice to welcome all, to open up even more, but with a clear vision of what we want to be as a city, as the capital district of Colombia. I hope in the next elections of city authorities, we the citizens, think twice before we decide not to vote, I hope we, the citizens, think clearly on who we decide to vote for and they, the politicians, decide to leave aside selfish pretensions and come up with candidates that are up for the challenge of running a city that has proven it can be a wonderful place to live because it once was, if only for a short while, and just a bit too long ago.

Category: Bogotá, Comment
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FARC “planned to kill Uribe”

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Colombia´s largest guerrilla group, the FARC, planned to kill President Alvaro Uribe,  “regardless of the number of (innocents) killed”, it was revealed today.

Argentine media outlet Análisis 24 claims to have had sight of the Mono Jojoy (FARC military chief killed by the Colombian army in 2010) computer files which reveal the rebels had Uribe, and his family, in their sights.

Análisis 24 revealed that the FARC intended to “dar de baja”, or murder, Uribe through a car bomb in the streets of the capital, Bogotá. The FARC claim to have been helped by information provided by the “Bolivarian armies”, and that an attack was being orchestrated to take out the president, whatever the civilian losses.

The files also revealed how the FARC carried out abortions on female guerrillas in their ranks, and how Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega was congratulated for his “valiant” support.

Jojoy, cold-bloodedly listed the following  as key targets for assesination:

Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Francisco, Enrique, Rafael Santos, Plinio Apuleyo, Valencia Tovar, Harold Bedoya. Mauricio Vargas, Ricardo Santa María, Rafael Pardo, Rodrigo Pardo. Tarbay Ayala, López Michelcen , Tapias, Hernández López y Jorge Enrique Mora Rangel. Iván Ramírez. Janine Días. Valdivieso. Pablo Victoria. Eduardo Pizarro. Navarro.

Colombia Politics does not feel the need to add a comment to this story, except to say that we hope it gets picked up by the international media.

Category: News Review
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Petro the “Hugo Chávez” of Colombia

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Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro´s disastrous move to nationalize the city´s garbage collection last month is to be examined by the highest courts in the land.

The nation´s second most powerful politician is set to face possible sanction for the move which left Colombia´s capital swimming in uncollected rubbish over the Christmas holiday period.

Petro reacted with fury this morning, labelling the attorney´s announcement an attempted coup d´état, and even a threat to the peace process with the FARC.

Petro, in a series of tweets, called on the “people” to “take to the streets” in a “mass mobilization” to defend his government against the “political interests” of those attempting to “sabotage the peace process” and cause an “institutional coup”.

For Petro the legal investigation into his woeful handling of the new waste collection service is not a simple move to challenge his lack of administrative skills, but instead an outright threat to Bogotá from the “mafia”.

Has Petro lost the plot?

Frankly, the former M-19 guerrilla´s behaviour appears increasingly erratic as he struggles to govern Colombia´s capital city a year into his mandate.

The Economist magazine has labelled Petro “arrogant” while others suggest he is paranoid and hopelessly unprepared for high office. Nestor Morales, of the influential BluRadio, this morning drew the similarity between Petro´s populism and Venezuela President Hugo Chávez´s style of government.

Morales appeared exasperated at the latest twist in what has been an unhappy 12 months in the life of Bogotá´s politics, reacting with indignation at the mayor´s attempt to cast those who criticize him as mafiosos, and opponents of the peace process.

Since coming to power in January 2012, Petro has polarized the city, seeming to seek to pitch rich against poor, private industry against the public, in a series of aggressive policy decisions that borrow from the Bolivarian rhetoric of the Venezuelan leader.

Moves are underway to collect the necessary signatures to remove Petro from office. And although this initiative is not supported by the political class, and (as we stand) has little chance of success, there is a very real prospect that the multiple legal challenges to his authority (currently underway or soon to begin) will land Petro in sufficient hot water to leave him incapacitated, unable to govern.

One thing is clear – whether Petro stays or goes – Bogotá will not survive three more years of this zero-sum battle between the mayor, the city, and the political class.

Few doubt that there are those out to get Petro. But frankly the city is more important than one man. Petro must get on with the job or he must hand over the reigns of power.

Category: Bogotá, Comment
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2013, a different Colombia? The state we’re in.

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There’s a reason Bogotá is called a city that belongs to no-one. The urban center attracts immigrants from across the country, those in search of work, those displaced, those in search of a better life. A capital city like many and no other.

A drawback of this lack of ownership is that it often provides a ready excuse to show disregard for a too frequently defaced and vandalized public property. Petty crime and violent acts are also “justified”  by this lack of belonging.

An incident this Christmas reveals how this disconnect feeds into a general sense of separation from the state, and the weakness at the heart of efforts to improve security in Bogotá, and throughout the country.

Christmas morning, residents of one of the city’s neighborhoods awoke to the sound of a young man in anguish – he was being beaten by his friends who also wielded machetes and knives as they sauntered off down the street. A call to 123 (the equivalent of 911 in the US) made no difference since the call woke up a sleeping operator who nonchalantly asked the location three times – still no one came to the scene. Later it was learned the fight broke out between friends over a drink and an allegedly stolen CD.

The lack of response from the emergency services exacerbates the helplessness felt by residents in the face of crime, the sensed distance from the state and the government. Most residents were too afraid even to step out into the street to help the young man. Who would protect them? Where would the state have been to defend them? Each time a call for help through the 123 system or any other government-run agency goes unanswered our faith diminishes.

One answer is private security, but this is out of reach for most citizens, the reserve of top public officials and the rich.

The other side of the coin is a Colombia in economic and tourist boom. Since 2002 tourism has risen over 300%, and the economy has doubled. Alongside this new Free Trade Agreements have been signed with the US and the EU, and other agreements are being sought with other markets. New opportunities are opening all the time, and Colombia is on the crest of a wave. A hefty $150 million WTO loan was also secured – a reflection of the government’s sound fiscal management – to assist urban development. The year closes too with peace talks ongoing with the FARC – the first since 2002, and a real measure of the nation’s leaders’ commitment to shepherding the country into new era.

So will 2013 bring the stable and durable peace that the Santos regime and the Colombian people yearn for? Will it begin to bridge the disparities in rural and urban areas?

Having the opportunity to live elsewhere, this author chose Colombia for its intoxicating atmosphere; one that envelopes visitors with warmth from people who are full of charm and hope, with music that penetrates one’s bones and leaves little option but to dance, and cities brimming with stories and adventures.

Perhaps Alex Sierra conveys the hope for the future best when he says:

“Colombian society holds the key to peace. It must look for ways to overcome the country’s deep-routed historical conflicts that only recognize antagonistic relations and the government to negotiate the deep social divide that, ultimately, is a breeding ground for violence.”

Category: Comment
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Petro government blame officials for Bogota trash shambles

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Is Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro’s administration shifting blame for the fiasco of the city’s new garbage collection service onto the officials charged with its operation?

It certainly seemed so when Petro’s Health Secretary Guillermo Jaramillo was dispatched to the airwaves yesterday to call for Aguas Bogotá chief Diego Bravo to resign.

Bravo is a former hand-in-glove collaborator of the mayor but for Jaramillo the chaos of the first days of the city’s new waste disposal system is his fault, and perhaps his fault alone

… et tu, Petro?

On 18 December Petro kicked out the private operators who had collected the over 7,000 daily tonnes of rubbish, “nationalizing” the service and placing it in the hands of those he is now forcing out of office.

Petro’s ability to govern Bogotá has been called into question following a catastrophic start to this new system. The mayor has failed to ensure Aguas Bogota have at their disposal the most basic of infrastructure – the dust cars themselves.

Improvisation, poor planning and a total absence of administrative control have been blamed for the depressing scenes of Colombia’s capital awash with the uncollected detritus of household, hospital and industrial waste.

For many Bogotanos Petro’s flagship policy is not only unnecessary – why fix what aint broke? – it is also imprudent and inexplicably poorly executed.

For the mayor’s detractors then, it will seem more than a little rich that Petro appears to be hiding behind his officials.

Health Sec Jaramillo will face accusations of shameless scape goating by calling on Diego Bravo to go. Jaramillo claimed Bravo “fooled” Petro, providing “less than truthful information” about Aguas Bogotá’s plan. So according to Jaramillo, Petro is guilt free, a man let down by those around him rather than a source of blame himself?

Meanwhile Petro, on holiday until after the New Year festivities are out-of-the-way, continues to defend his plan despite the farce of the last ten days.

News emerged today that the dilapidated vehicles Petro has been forced to loan from New York could be prevented from arriving in Bogotá because of their poor state of repair. Pictures of the ancient and rusting trucks have dismayed the 8 million residents who anxiously await their deployment.

The city is traditionally quiet over Christmas and New Year as many desert the streets for the beaches. The fear is that once work resumes and Bogotá springs back into life the government will have failed to resolve a problem of its own making.

That Bravo’s head should roll is perhaps cause of little controversy, but Bogotanos will not be hoodwinked into thinking he is the real culprit.

Category: Bogotá, Comment
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“Discipline Petro”, Ombudsman

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Colombia’s Ombudsman has today filed a request with the nation’s inspector general to begin disciplinary hearings against Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro.

Jorge Armando Otálora, the “Defensor del Pueblo” confirmed in the early hours of the morning he had moved to bring Petro’s actions, which he considers to be a threat to the health of Bogotanos, to the attention of the recently re-elected top prosecutor Alejandro Ordonez.

Otalora has labelled Petro’s “improvisation” amid the troubled start of the new garbage collection model which yesterday plunged Bogota into chaos “gravely” unacceptable.

The Ombudsman accuses Petro of failing in his duty to protect “the fundamental rights” of Bogota’s eight million souls and has asked the authorities to step in to protect the city.

The mayor’s new plan to place refuse collection in the hands of the public sector has been roundly criticized for its lack of operational robustness, its lack of planning and its woeful execution on day one.

Bizarrely the mayor has failed to ensure Aguas Bogota, the subsidiary of the city’s state-run aqueduct in charge of the new operation, the delivery of the dust carts necessary to patrol the city’s streets.

Aguas Bogota must wait months until new carts are delivered and in the meantime has sent for reinforcements from New York.

In a further twist, these borrowed trucks will not arrive until the end of the year leaving Aguas Bogota yesterday to adopt drastic measures, rolling out a makeshift and apparently illegal float of vehicles in its first day of operations.

The Ombudsman has indicated it will take action against the mayor for the use of these vehicles which he argued placed the lives of workers at risk.

Meanwhile President Santos has indicated that if the plan continues to flounder he will, within days, step in.

The Ombudsman when asked whether he should wait before lodging the official complaint argued that the legal statutes state that a governor is responsible for his actions as soon as he begins to execute them. It is a legal decision, he argues, based on a dereliction of duty and a lack of planning that threatens the livelihood, security and health of the capital’s population.

Petro also looks set to lose today his right hand man, Guillermo Asprilla who appears to have been kicked out by Inspector General Alejandro Ordonez and preventing from occupying public office for up to 12 years.

Less than a year into his government Petro is hanging on for dear life. Bogotanos are today asking when he will start to govern.

Category: Bogotá, News Review
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Why I’m not supporting the campaign to kick Petro out of office

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I am a fierce critic of Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro. I think his government has failed. I think his government has divided the capital when we looked for unity and harmony after the disastrous Samuel Moreno regime.

As Petro stood proud on the day of his inauguration he promised us a “politics of love” but he now stands accused of pitching poor against rich, private industry against public and state owned institutions, of even picking fights with his closest aides who have left his government in droves over this long 11 months since he walked through the door to the Leivano Palace. In short, Petro has shown us a politics whose qualities are closer to hatred than to love.

Petro has spent a life time as an opposition politician, and he seems unwilling to let go of this attack dog mentality. Sadly, our mayor seems incapable of administrating with maturity or competence.

I was not one of the mere 30% who voted for him last year, but I was willing to give him a chance.

But Petro has gone out of way to alienate rather than to win over his critics. There is very little sense that the mayor governs for the whole of Bogota; those who voted against him have been shunned, and ignored.

So it is little surprise that there are those who feel Petro is unfit to run Bogota. Congressman Miguel Gomez of the President’s U Party even believes the mayor should be forced from office. This month Gomez officially launched the campaign to dispose the mayor via an article in the 1991 constitution which permits the revocation of a mandate through popular support.

In January, Gomez will start the process of collecting the 280,000 signatures necesary to take the campaign forward. If he clears this hurdle the movement must encourage 55% of the number of those who voted in the last mayoral election (approx. 1,234,000) to mark yes in a ballot on the revocation. So, around 617,000 “si” votes are needed.

With Petro’s unpopularity higher than 60% it does not sound that too far fetched. However, no mayor has been deposed via this article since it was first introduced in 1994.

What appears certain is that Bogota must endure a long, arduous and bitter campaign.

Although Petro has been – until now – a calamitous mayor, I will not join the campaign to oust him from office and here’s five reasons why:

Like him or loath him, Petro was democratically elected. And elected to serve a full four year term.

With peace talks ongoing in which we are promising the FARC an opportunity to demobilize and enter politics it is less than helpful for them to see a former guerrilla, Petro, forcibly removed from office.

The first year of any mayor is difficult. Until September, Petro’s administration was effectively delivering what Samuel Moreno had planned. The outgoing mayor’s plan – whereever you are in Colombia – runs for around 9 months after the boss has left office. Petro has only had a question of months implementing his vision for the city.

Why should Bogota lose another year of government while the mayor defends himself against these attacks? The district authority has been paralized for too long, and has delivered too little over far too many years. How would Bogota benefit from a further period of schlerotic non-management? Bogota does not want a mayor who spends his time fighting opponents while the transport network grinds to a hault and the rubbish piles up on the streets and in the parks.

The revocation helps no one but the extremists. A fight of this kind helps Petro. We know that the mayor wants to run again for president of the republic. A campaign by the right will do him good, will allow him to position himself as the voice of the poor and the destitute, the white knight pitched against the overbearing power of the mafioso right. We must not let Petro present himself as a savior, as Bogota’s Evita – for he is not!

Yes, Bogota deserves and demands better than the mayor we have. But Bogota also deserves a politics based in serious administration of the very real problems that face our city. We do not want a polemicized “them versus us” debate, we do not want to give the mayor the opportunity to fight against the “paramilitary mafia” as he labels it.

We want Petro to get on with the very difficult job he has. We want Petro to stop fighting and to start governing. We want a Bogota based on progression not on regression and class warfare.

I do not support Petro’s government, but no I don’t support moves to remove him just a year after he was elected.

This article was written for Colombia Reports.

Category: Bogotá, Comment