La Política Colombiana

Via CNN: Loss of Andes glaciers threatens water supply.

And if Bogota has water problems, it also has electricity problems. And having been in Bogota during drought-driven apagones in 1992, I can attest to the fact that such problems are no fun.

Via Good Times in Medellin, Colombia: Iron Maiden to rock Colombia.

Via the BBC: Left win Bogota as Colombia votes

A leftist rival of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has been elected mayor of Bogota, regarded as the country’s second most powerful elected post.

Samuel Moreno of the Democratic Pole party won despite apparent campaigning by Mr Uribe against him.

That was as expected, yet is still significant:

Mr Moreno’s victory is the second successive win for the Democratic Pole and could boost the party’s standing ahead of the next presidential election in 2024, correspondents say.

I actually once interviewed Moreno when he was a Senator for ANAPO back in 94/95.

Election day itself was basically peaceful, however:

At least 21 candidates died during the run-up to Sunday’s local and regional polls, with the government blaming the violence on left-wing guerrillas.

Via theHerald News Daily:

Looking to get more time off? Move to Colombia. Renowned for its high murder rate, this Andean nation also leads the world in public holidays with 18 each year. Second-place Slovenia has 16, while Slovakia, Cyprus and Chile have 15 each, according to a new study by Mercer Human Resource Consulting

Colombian’s (and certainly Bogotanos) love their three-day weekends (called puentes in the local idiom). They were great if one could get out of town (as many Bogotanos of means do every puente) or if you were stuck in town, as traffic and crowds were greatly diminished due to all the vacationers. But man, traffic back into Bogota on Monday afternoon was horrendous.

For another (and quite different from that given by the Mancuso piece) glimpse into Colombian strife, read the following obituary (via the NYT: Alberto Villamizar, 62, Foe of Colombian Drug Cartel, Dies.

Via Pensa Latina: Ecuador, Colombia Discuss Border:

Among issues are fumigations with glyphosate, Ecuadorian bodies found in common graves of the neighboring country and compensations, among others.

Quito hopes with this meeting to reactivate the Neighborhood Commission for the Development of the Bordering Integration Zone to boost bi-national deals.

Issues of violence, narcotic and anti-narcotics have been an ongoing issue between these two states for some time now.

Here is a transcript of an interview that Deputy SecState JOhn Negorponte gave to Colombia’s RCN TV this morning: Scoop: Negroponte IV With Adriana Vargas of RCN TV Bogotá.

Via the BBC: Colombia hunts underwear robbers

Police in Colombia are searching for members of a gang who target women and steal their underwear in public.

A succession of women, mainly young women and students, have been attacked in the western city of Pereira, often at bus stops early in the morning.

The gang has become known across the city as the “knicker robbers”. They do not usually hurt their victims, instead demanding only underwear and valuables.

Police in Pereira have described the gang as “sexual maniacs”.

Gee, ya think?

Via the BBC: Nationwide blackout hits Colombia

Colombia has been hit by a nationwide power cut, hitting commercial centres and causing chaos on the roads.

Ten people were trapped in lifts and the stock exchange was forced to suspend trading, officials said.

They said the blackout, at about 1015 local time (1515 GMT), was caused by an undetermined technical failure at a substation in the capital, Bogota.

More than 80% of Colombia was affected. Power returned to most parts of the country after several hours.

Only some rural regions were still being affected by the blackout, officials said.

[…]

Luis Alarcon, manager of state-controlled electricity company ISA, said the power outage began at Bogota’s substation and quickly spread over the country.

Mr Alarcon said the incident was not caused by a left-wing rebel attack.

It was my personal experience that Colombian utilities were not known for their redundancy, such as the long weekend when they had to do maintenance on the main aqueduct going into Bogota and so then we had no water in the most of the city for two-plus days. (Although since then I think an additional aqueduct has been built).

And there were the rolling blackouts in Bogota during the early 1990s when drought conditions hampered the hydroelectric power plants.

Recovering Castro outpaces Garcia Marquez: El Pais

Convalescing Cuban leader
Fidel Castro is his old talkative self and was fit enough to take a long walk with his writer friend Gabriel Garcia Marquez this week, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Thursday.

“I tell you, it seemed like kilometres,” the Nobel Prize winning Colombian writer said, describing a stroll the two went for on Monday.

“Fidel is a force of nature,” said Garcia Marquez, adding that he found Castro in good humor and interested in talking about global warming and Latin American politics.

“It’s the same old Fidel,” Garcia Marquez said.

[…]

The novelist has remained loyal to his old friend Castro, unlike many other Latin American intellectuals who have condemned him for human rights abuses in Cuba.

Which, I have to say, isn’t to Garcia Marquez’s credit. Castro deserves the criticism.