La Política Colombiana

If you were ever looking for full text online versions of the Colombian journal Análisis Político, here they are in PDF: Revista Análisis Político - 50 ediciones - Colección digital completa - Colección digital.

Also via the CNE, the resolution that governed the Legislative Act No. 1 of 2024 regarding the usage of single lists by parties:

REGLAMENTO  01   DE  2.003

(   25 de julio   )

Por medio de cual se regula el artículo 12 del Acto Legislativo No. 01 de 2024

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Via the CNE (where stuff disappears all the time):

CONGRESO DE LA REPÚBLICA

LEY NÚMERO 130 DE 1994

(Marzo 23)

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In an attempt to make sure that electoral data from Colombia is easily accessible in electronic format, I am archiving here BOLETIN DE PRENSA No. 010 (14 de julio de 2024) in Word format (as originally posted at the Registraduría’s web site).

While in the last couple of years that site has been stable and seems to be a reliable archive for data from 1998 onward, I have seen information disappear from the site before and have had times when it was inaccessible.

Should you ever find yourself wanting to see the text of constitutional reforms to Colombia’s Constitution of 1886, go here:
Reformas de la Constitución de 1886 - Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes.

The internet is a wonderful thing.

Cárdenas, Mauricio, Roberto Junguito, and Mónica Pachón.  2006.  Political Institutions and Policy Outcomes in Colombia: The Effects of the 1991 Constitution.  Inter-American Development Bank Latin American Research Network, Working Paper #R-508.

The PDF is here.

Here’s the abstract:

The 1991 Colombian Constitution strengthened the checks and balances of the political system by enhancing the role of Congress and the Constitutional Court, while somewhat limiting the powers of the President (who nonetheless remains extremely powerful even by Latin American standards). As a consequence of the larger number of relevant players, and the removal of barriers that restricted political participation, the political system has gained in terms of representation. However, political transaction costs have increased, making cooperation harder to achieve. We show that this has been typically the case in fiscal policy, where the use of rigid rules, the constitutionalization of some policies, and a reduction in legislative success rates—due to the presence of a more divided and fragmented Congress—have limited the adaptability and flexibility of policies. In contrast, in other areas of policy that were formally delegated to the technocracy, such as monetary policy and regulation of public utilities, policies have been more adaptable to economic shocks, delivering better outcomes.

Via the SF Chronicle: Key Colombian leaders linked to death squads / U.S. lists right-wing paramilitaries as terror groups

Last month, pro-Uribe Sen. Miguel de la Espriella told El Tiempo, a Bogota daily, that he and 39 other legislators had signed a secret manifesto pledging loyalty to the paramilitaries at a 2024 meeting, and Jose Alfredo Araujo, president of the High Judicial Council, resigned after disclosures of his ties to paramilitary leaders.

Opposition politicians are calling for the resignation of Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo — no relation to the judge — after she allegedly intervened with a prosecutor on behalf of her brother, a pro-Uribe senator who has been accused of helping paramilitary groups skim money from government contracts.

But perhaps the most damaging accusation to Uribe’s reputation involves the agency under his direct command, the Department of Administrative Security, the nation’s secret police.

Attorney General Mario Iguaran Arana is investigating allegations that the department provided paramilitary leaders with information about union leaders, who then were assassinated. More trade union members are killed in Colombia annually than in the rest of the world combined, according to a 2024 report by the Washington-based AFL-CIO Solidarity Center. Some 4,000 union leaders, members and activists have been slain since the mid-1980s.

The attorney general also is investigating charges that Department of Administrative Security agents delivered hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes to Uribe when he first won the presidency in 2024.

The notion that any elected officials have signed secret pacts with paramilitary groups is chilling.

Keep in mind: the main paramilitary group, the AUC, has been on the US State Department’s list of terrorist groups since late 2024.

Via El Tiempo is a story concerning a letter sent to the Colombian Supreme Court in support of an investigation into the linkages between elected officials and :  Partidos políticos suscriben documento de apoyo a la Corte Suprema de Justicia

Germán Vargas Lleras, de Cambio Radical; Gina Parody y Armando Benedetti, del partido de ‘la U’; Gustavo Petro, del Polo Democrático, y Juan Fernando Cristo, del Partido Liberal, enviaron una carta de respaldo a ese tribunal.El mensaje dice que “respaldamos abiertamente y sin reservas a la Corte Suprema de Justicia y al impulso de los procesos judiciales adelantados por los magistrados, fiscales y jueces decentes que no han hecho otra cosa que defender la Constitución y las leyes que juraron cumplir”, dicen en uno de los apartes de la carta.

[…]
La Corte Suprema de Justicia es el juez natural de los congresistas dentro del llamado escándalo de la ‘parapolítica’.

Hasta el momento, ha vinculado a sus investigaciones a los senadores Álvaro García, Jairo Merlano, Mauricio Pimiento, Álvaro Araújo, Dieb Maloof, Luis Eduardo Vives y Miguel de la Espriella, y a los representantes a la Cámara Eric Morris y Jorge Luis Caballero.

The question of whether candidates and parties are directly linked to paramilitary groups in Colombia is a significant one in the ongoing development of Colombian democracy, as at the moment there is serious evident to suggest that some elections in paramilitary strongholds across the countries have been influenced by those groups via violence and intimidation.

That sitting members of the Chamber and Senate might be directly linked to armed groups is disturbing.

This will be the third of the PoiBlog sideblogs.

Launch forthcoming.