Colombia's foreign minister resigns (Guy who escaped FARC 6 weeks ago named her replacement)

The Benton Crier ^ | 19 Feb 2007 | Staff and agencies

[Kitten Festival]

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia‘s president quickly named a new foreign minister Monday, hours after Maria Consuelo Araujo resigned amid a growing scandal linking the political establishment and far-right paramilitaries.

"The president of the republic informs his compatriots that he has designated as foreign minister Fernando Araujo Perdomo, a reflective citizen, who has suffered in this national tragedy, and in whose overcoming of which we are involved," said a statement by the presidency.

[Kitten Festival]

The guy who's replacing her, up until six weeks ago, had been a hostage to FARC Marxist Narcoterrorists for the past six years. Surely they would want to see if the guy was all right after a deal like that. But due to the pressure of Democrats, they just throw him into this big new job. Cripes.

Araujo was in the news six weeks ago, here's where he was at the time - here and here.

[NonValueAdded]

the red queen ... the red queen ... diamonds ... diamonds

[El Conservador]

The girl couldn't take it...

[StJacques]

I read something about this issue this morning. It is more the case that some of her closest associates are involved than it is something which affects her directly. I don't think it's going to be a very big deal in Colombia.

[El Conservador]

some of her closest associates are involved

One is a very, very close "associate": Her brother, Senator Alvaro Araujo.

[StJacques]

El Conservador, the issue has resulted in a call for a dissolution of the Colombian Congress and the scheduling of new elections by certain Colombian legislators. These include the opposition Alternative Democratic Pole Party (PDA), who are left-leaning and contain former members of the M-19, and the Social National Unity Party, which is composed primarily of usual Uribe supporters. These two parties are both smaller than the Liberal and Conservative parties, and both have secured gains in the last round of congressional elections, so I'm guessing they feel they have nothing to lose. No word yet from the two major political parties, but the government has responeded in the negative.

I'm going to post a full translation of a short news brief from the Bogota newspaper El Espectador's web site, so you may want to ping the list, as this will bring everyone up to date with the statement of the government that they oppose dissolving Congress and holding new elections.

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Government says no to the revoking [of the mandate] of the Congress

The Minister of the Interior, Carlos Holguin, said that the Government is not a supporter of revoking the legislature and posed controlling alternatives for the political parties.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Monday, 19 February 2007

"In the middle of a crisis like that which we are living, the best thing is that the institutions [of government] function, the Congress must demonstrate that it can move forward, in spite of the difficulties," [Holguin] said in an interview on Caracol Radio.

He indicated that one must search for an agreement with the parties and political movements, to define norms and procedures which permit avoiding the infiltration of persons who may have a relationship with illegal armed groups, or with criminal activities.

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I expect this to carry on for a few more days and then gradually die down, or at least in so far as it involves revoking the Congressional mandate. But the trials and public investigations which will follow could do some damage to Uribe, who has become very popular with the Colombian people for the progress he has made in fighting the FARC, ELN, and also the paramilitaries; an effort this issue undermines.

I may ping you back here if anything of note develops El Conservador.

[Kitten Festival]

Thanks for your trouble, StJacques! It's interesting stuff!

[StJacques]

I was just re-reading my post from last night and I see that I omitted the link for the little news brief I translated:

http://www.elespectador.com/elespectador/Secciones/Detalles.aspx?idNoticia=5999&idSeccion=21

Sorry about that, a little sloppy of me.

[El Conservador]

I know all of that...

President Uribe has tried to keep away from the scandal, but it seems to follow him everywhere he turns to. The fact that most of the implicated are supporters of his makes things even iffier.

Senator Gustavo Petro, from the Polo's radical wing (basically the non-armed wing of Colombia's Marxists) wants to prove that even though Uribe did not himself associate with the paramilitaries, he covered up the links between those and many of his comrades and supporters, especially Santiago Uribe, the President's brother.

I don't think this is going to end up in either Uribe's resignation or the Colombian Congress' dissolution, but the Colombian government will be in a quagmire for a while, maybe as long as this takes to sort out.

I'd like to go there next January, and I hope this crap is over by that time, although I doubt it.

[California Patriot]

We need a picture of Ms. Araujo. She is one fine-looking lady.

[StJacques]

"We need a picture of Ms. Araujo. She is one fine-looking lady."

Babe in the Ministry ...

     

I note with amusement at the El Espectador article on her resignation, that the first guy commenting criticizes her but the second one comes back to tell the first guy that "this woman has more balls than you" which I think speaks to her reputation as being tough.

[California Patriot]

Thanks. This is breathtaking, especially the pic on the right. Probably one reason the bad guys took her out (so to speak) is that they don't want a hot, right-wing babe running for president at some point.