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.
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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.
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.