Bogotá’s progressive mayor fights arbitrary removal from office

BOGOTÁ -- The elected mayor of this Colombian capital, Gustavo Petro, is fighting his destitution by state officials on trumped-up charges of poor administration and “interference with the free market” in the allocation of city government contracts.

The charges specifically target Petro’s decision more than a year ago to move garbage collection from a cabal of private companies to a public firm. An unelected official termed the Procurador ruled in December that Petro should be removed from office and excluded from politics for 15 years – the kind of sentence that had previously been meted out to other elected officials on such grounds as favouring negotiations with the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) or the National Liberation Army (ELN).

Petro is a former guerrilla of the urban leftist M-19 movement, which dissolved in 1990 and participated in drafting the 1991 Constitution of Colombia. He was a prominent senator for many years, a leading opponent of the far-right Uribe government, and in 2010 presidential candidate of the centre-left Polo Democrático Alternativo, a coalition that includes the non-FARC Communists, trade unionists and social democrats. Subsequently elected mayor of Bogotá, he sponsored a number of progressive measures, such as expanding healthcare benefits and defending LGBT rights.

The destitution order in December and since then has prompted many mass rallies in Bogotá’s central square, the Plaza de Bolívar, some of them attracting delegations of peasants, trade unionists and indigenous peoples from throughout Colombia. Petro has become a symbol of resistance to the national government of Juan Manuel Santos, a former Defense Minister under Uribe. His destitution is widely viewed as an attempt by the Uribistas to sabotage the current peace talks in Havana with the FARC, in which a major issue is whether former guerrillas will be allowed to participate in electoral politics in the future.

Petro’s attempts to fight his destitution in the courts have been unsuccessful. He now relies on hopes for victory in a recall referendum initiated some months ago by right-wing opponents, which he had previously opposed. The rightists have managed to postpone the referendum from March 2 to April 6 to enable them to mobilize their opposition to Petro.

The following is a video of Petro’s defiant speech at last night’s mass rally here. He announced that further mobilizations will be held in the lead-up to the April 6 referendum on his destitution, refuting claims in the media (which is almost universally anti-Petro) that he would resign his office in the coming week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owut_f2Dcls

For those who can’t follow the speech in Spanish, here are some photos from the rally: http://canalcapital.gov.co/todos-los-programas/145-informativa/noticias-destacados/14192-imagenes-de-la-movilizacion-por-la-paz-y-la-democracia

For a good background article on current developments in Colombia, see “Colombia, a Society Tired of War,” by Raúl Zibechi: http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/11278# (Spanish text at http://www.cipamericas.org/es/archives/11237). The English text of Zibechi’s article has a few typos (“federal direct investment” should be of course “foreign direct investment”) but is quite readable nevertheless.

Richard

Bogotá’s progressive mayor fights arbitrary removal from office

BOGOTÁ -- The elected mayor of this Colombian capital, Gustavo Petro, is fighting his destitution by state officials on trumped-up charges of poor administration and “interference with the free market” in the allocation of city government contracts.

The charges specifically target Petro’s decision more than a year ago to move garbage collection from a cabal of private companies to a public firm. An unelected official termed the Procurador ruled in December that Petro should be removed from office and excluded from politics for 15 years – the kind of sentence that had previously been meted out to other elected officials on such grounds as favouring negotiations with the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) or the National Liberation Army (ELN).

Petro is a former guerrilla of the urban leftist M-19 movement, which dissolved in 1990 and participated in drafting the 1991 Constitution of Colombia. He was a prominent senator for many years, a leading opponent of the far-right Uribe government, and in 2010 presidential candidate of the centre-left Polo Democrático Alternativo, a coalition that includes the non-FARC Communists, trade unionists and social democrats. Subsequently elected mayor of Bogotá, he sponsored a number of progressive measures, such as expanding healthcare benefits and defending LGBT rights.

The destitution order in December and since then has prompted many mass rallies in Bogotá’s central square, the Plaza de Bolívar, some of them attracting delegations of peasants, trade unionists and indigenous peoples from throughout Colombia. Petro has become a symbol of resistance to the national government of Juan Manuel Santos, a former Defense Minister under Uribe. His destitution is widely viewed as an attempt by the Uribistas to sabotage the current peace talks in Havana with the FARC, in which a major issue is whether former guerrillas will be allowed to participate in electoral politics in the future.

Petro’s attempts to fight his destitution in the courts have been unsuccessful. He now relies on hopes for victory in a recall referendum initiated some months ago by right-wing opponents, which he had previously opposed. The rightists have managed to postpone the referendum from March 2 to April 6 to enable them to mobilize their opposition to Petro.

The following is a video of Petro’s defiant speech at last night’s mass rally here. He announced that further mobilizations will be held in the lead-up to the April 6 referendum on his destitution, refuting claims in the media (which is almost universally anti-Petro) that he would resign his office in the coming week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owut_f2Dcls

For those who can’t follow the speech in Spanish, here are some photos from the rally: http://canalcapital.gov.co/todos-los-programas/145-informativa/noticias-destacados/14192-imagenes-de-la-movilizacion-por-la-paz-y-la-democracia

For a good background article on current developments in Colombia, see “Colombia, a Society Tired of War,” by Raúl Zibechi: http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/11278# (Spanish text at http://www.cipamericas.org/es/archives/11237). The English text of Zibechi’s article has a few typos (“federal direct investment” should be of course “foreign direct investment”) but is quite readable nevertheless.

Richard

General strike shuts down Cusco

CUSCO, Peru – This city of 400,000 was totally paralyzed today on the first day of a 48-hour general strike initiated by trade unions and other civic organizations. The strike action was supported by bus, taxi and truck drivers (“transportistas”), as well as peasant and indigenous organizations in provinces throughout the Cusco region. All vehicular traffic ceased in the downtown area and citizens walked freely through the streets – an unusual sight, to say the least, in a South American city.

The strike “for regional dignity” was to protest the failure of the national government headed by President Ollanta Humala to build promised megaprojects including a gas pipeline in southern Peru and an international airport in nearby Chinchero, and repeated national government cutbacks in regional funding that have paralyzed existing development projects throughout the region. According to official statistics, some 27% of Peru’s population have incomes below the poverty line, and in Cusco tourism is the major source of income for many, including the huge “informal” economy of poor and unorganized workers. (A major attraction, of course, is nearby Machu Picchu, the historic Inca city and one of the seven wonders of the world.)

This protest is particularly significant as Cusco voted 70% for Humala almost three years ago in a close election in which his main opponent was the daughter of former neoliberal President Alberto Fujimori, now jailed for his massive corruption.

Although the strike organizers had planned only to picket government buildings today, with a major mass mobilization planned for tomorrow, a street demonstration began in mid-morning along the Avenida del Sol, a major artery. Apparently initiated by a few unions, it was quickly joined by a broad range of organizations, swelling to tens of thousands as they filed through city streets and into the Plaza de Armas, the central square.

In addition to the colourful banners of the various participating organizations, the Peruvian flag was prominently displayed along with the rainbow-coloured wiphala, the flag of the Andean indigenous peoples. (Cusco, the historic center of the Inca empire, has a very large Quechua population.) There were also a few Che Guevara banners, and a group of indigenous women carried a large banner portraying the Peruvian Marxist leader of the 1920s, José Carlos Mariátegui, among others.

Most chants of the boisterous demonstrators were directed against Humala – for example, “Atrás, atrás, atrás, Humala incapaz” (Backwards, backwards, backwards, Humala is incompetent) and “Abajo el recorte presupuestario” (Down with the budget cuts), but a popular one repeated by many bystanders was “Un pueblo unido no sera jamás vencido” (A united people will never be defeated), made famous in Allende’s Chile.

Even now, as I write, I can hear the roar of demonstrators roaming spontaneously through the city streets outside my hotel.

I have posted here some photos I took of the demonstration; captions below some of them translate slogans and provide further information.

-- Richard