President Santos to win 2014 election
President Santos to win 2014 election
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will be re-elected in 2014 according to nationwide poll released tomorrow.
Despite an approval rate as low as 29 per cent, Santos` candidature appears unstoppable as Colombians show even less faith in his likely opponents, right-winger Oscar Ivan Zuluaga and leftie Clara Lopez.
The poll commissioned by Colombia`s top media outlets, Caracol, RCN, and others, reveals less than a third will vote for Santos in the first round. Santos will therefore have to go to a head to head run-off with the second placed politician (candidates must secure over 50% to win in the first round). But this will be enough to see off Zuluaga who languishes on 14%, while support for Lopez struggles to break double figures.
In the absence of a serious alternative, Santos` eventual triumph seems inevitable.
Champaign corks are not yet popping the Casa de Nariño, but the poll comes just two weeks before Santos must announce whether he will put his name forward as a candidate next May. And with last week`s positive news from Havana, where the government is negotiating with the FARC guerrillas to end 50 years of conflict, the road to victory is becoming clearer.
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http://www.colombia-politics.com/santos-elections-2014/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=santos-elections-2014
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Antanas Mockus: Colombians fear ridicule more than being fined
Former Bogota mayor, who cut homicide rates by 70%, says people thought he was joking when he suggested raising taxes
Sarah Marsh
Guardian Professional, Monday 28 October 2013 04.00 EDT
One of the most intense moments in the life of Antanas Mockus was when he came face to face with an aggressive-looking man who grabbed him and with emotion said: "You can make the good side stronger in me and get a good man out of me."
That desire of his fellow Colombians to improve has been at the heart of the career of this professor-turned-politician, known during his two terms as mayor of Bogota for his surprising and often humorous initiatives. Mockus said that while Colombians tend to think negatively about their neighbours, they usually discover that people have the capacity to be better than they think.
Mockus, who presided over Bogota first in the 1990s and again from 2001, has focused on human behaviour throughout his political career, conducting a series of social experiments to improve the city's services. He once hired 420 mime artists to make fun of traffic violators because he believes Colombians fear ridicule more than being fined.
This philosophical approach to leadership helped Mockus transform the city in his first term, cutting the homicide rate by an impressive 70% and traffic fatalities by more than 50%.
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http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2013/oct/28/antanas-mockus-bogota-mayor