Allies of Colombian President Gustavo Petro lost by wide margins in Sunday’s municipal and provincial elections, in what analysts called a sign of growing discontent with the nation’s first left-wing government.
Candidates for the president’s Historical Pact party failed to win mayorships in any of the nation’s main cities and won governorships in only two small provinces along Colombia’s southern border, results released on Sunday night by election officials showed.
Races for governorships were won mostly by candidates from traditional parties on the center and the right, which were beaten by Petro in last year’s presidential election and lost to independent candidates in the last regional elections four years ago.
Photo: Reuters
Some analysts said the outcome threatens Petro’s efforts to get congress to make significant changes to the nation’s health system and its labor laws.
“This sends a message to some lawmakers who were perhaps on the fence about returning to the government, that it’s not going to be in their electoral interests” to support Petro’s proposals, said Will Freeman a fellow for Latin American Studies at the US Council on Foreign Relations. “The winds are changing in Colombia.”
However, others say the president has leverage to get his social and economic changes through congress.
Petro could withhold funds earmarked for cash-strapped municipal and provincial governments to pressure governors into guaranteeing their parties’ congressional members vote for his proposals, said Pedro Medellin, a political analyst in Bogota.
“Colombia is a very centralized nation, where the president has monumental powers,” he said.
Petro won the presidential election after campaigning to make far-reaching economic and social changes that would give the government a greater role in the provision of services like healthcare, education and public transport.
Once in office, he pushed through measures to raise income taxes and cut tax breaks for businesses, and has arranged ceasefires with rebel groups that did not join a 2016 peace deal between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels.
However, his economic overhaul has mostly stalled in the congress, where Petro’s coalition fell apart earlier this year amid differences over what changes are needed.
Meanwhile, a lack of security continues to afflict rural parts of Colombia. Kidnappings for ransom and extortion of local businesses have increased, despite efforts by the government to reach ceasefires with groups like the National Liberation Army.
“Despite wins at the [negotiation] table, the actual day-to-day lives of people in these areas has not improved,” said Elizabeth Dickinson, a Colombia expert at the International Crisis Group. “The perception is that security has gotten worse.”
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
RSS