Uribe cleared by Colombian court to run for re-election

Uribe cleared by Colombian court to run for re-election

AP , BOGOTA
Sunday, Nov 13, 2005,Page 7
Colombia's highest court approved an election law on Friday that clears the way for popular President Alvaro Uribe to run for a second term next year.

Polls show that Uribe, a close US ally, would sweep to victory in next May's presidential race thanks to his tough policies against leftist rebels and drug traffickers.

The Constitutional Court ruled that the Electoral Guarantees Law, which was passed by Congress last year to set out the rules for sitting presidents to compete in elections, was constitutional, court president Jose Manuel Cepeda told reporters on Friday.
(snip)

This South American country has not seen a president elected to two consecutive terms since the 1800s. Critics of the measure say re-election has a poor track record in the region, with second-term leaders often veering toward authoritarianism.
(snip/...)

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/11/13/2003279976

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

12 nov 2005 - Categoria: commenti
Human Rights
Tanks used against indigenous communities in Colombia
More than 500 Troops and Tanks attack defenseless communities in El Japio,
Cauca (Colombia).

Using the argument of not initiating talks with the indigenous communities until they have left the 15 land holdings that they have liberated in El Japio, Cauca, National Government has given the order that the communities must be forcibly cleared off the land.

The police have, since the 8 November, been firing tear gas and indiscriminately firing their guns at the indigenous people who are resisting peacefully in the midst of the state violence, and refusing to give up possession of the land holdings in El Japio. The community inform us that so far, four of their number have been wounded and many more arrested.

On the 12 October 2005, indigenous communities in Cauca began a project named “Freedom for Mother Earth” aimed at forcing the government to comply with various long standing yet so far unfulfilled commitments, especially problems of land ownership.

Those land holdings affected by the Freedom for Mother Earth project are all over 100 hectares in size. An example is El Japio, a farm of 4,000 hectares owned by an absentee landlord. The communities are shocked that the government is so keen to defend the interests of large landowners, using at least 500 troops and 10 tanks to remove the community, while at the same time national government has been completely indifferent to the forced displacement of over 3 million Colombians by the paramilitaries, who are now using this captured land for banana and African Palm plantations or handing it over for exploitation by mining and oil companies.
(snip/...)

http://www.terrelibere.it/terrediconfine/index.php?x=completa&riga=01689

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Colombian Coca-Cola Worker Tours US to Expose Coke's Labor Abuses

11/12/2005 WILLIAM MENDOZA TO SPEAK IN SAN FRANCISCO AND BERKELEY ON NOVEMBER 14TH
William Mendoza, who is a Coca-Cola worker and Vice President of SINALTRAINAL (Food and Beverage Workers' Union) in Colombia and Amit Srivastava, Coordinator of India Resource Center, will be speaking on Monday, November 14th from 12pm to 2pm at San Francisco State University, and from 7pm to 9pm at UC Berkeley. They will speak about the growing campaign against the Coca-Cola company for its violations of human rights, workers’ rights, and the environment in Colombia, India and globally.
(snip)

Organizers say that they believe that they are at a turning point in the campaign to hold Coke accountable for violence in Colombia, India, Turkey, Indonesia and Guatemala. Activists say that Coke has been trying to discredit the union SINALTRAINAL in Colombia and grassroots movements in India and elswhere, and also to deflate the global student movement. Since 1986, roughly 4,000 Colombian trade unionists have been murdered. Most of these murders have been committed by right-wing paramilitary groups, known as death squads, on an ideological mission to destroy the labor movement. These groups often work in collaboration with the U.S.- supported Colombian military, and in some instances with managers at plants producing for multinational corporations. In the case of Coca-Cola, the company and its business partners have turned a blind eye to, financially supported, and actively colluded with paramilitary groups in efforts to destroy workers' attempts to organize unions and bargain collectively.
(snip/...)

http://www.indybay.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=3755&category_id=19