Colombia court reinstates ousted Bogota mayor

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia court reinstates ousted Bogota mayor
Associated Press
Posted on April 22, 2014 at 7:32 PM
Updated today at 7:36 PM

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A Colombian court has ordered the reinstatement within 48 hours of ousted Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro.

The surprise ruling by the Superior Tribunal of Cundinamarca department is the latest twist in an ongoing legal saga pitting the embattled leftist firebrand against Colombia's more conservative political establishment.

Petro was removed from office in March after President Juan Manuel Santos refused to heed the Inter-American Human Rights Commission's call for a stay on the Inspector General's ouster of the mayor months earlier for alleged administrative missteps.

The former guerrilla hailed the ruling on Twitter as a victory for the political will of Bogota's residents. Santos has yet to comment and it's unclear whether the government will enforce or appeal the ruling made in response to an injunction request.

http://www.khou.com/news/world/256269521.html

No doubt their next move will be going straight ahead to assassination. The right-wing will do anything to have its way over the will of the people.

[Judi Lynn]

1. The ‘Lawful’ Political Killing of Bogotá’s Mayor: Gustavo Petro

The ‘Lawful’ Political Killing of Bogotá’s Mayor: Gustavo Petro

by Ricardo Sanín Restrepo • 7 March 2014


Colombia must not an­ni­hilate what may be the last chance of peace. Quite simply, it must take law seriously.

One of the longest living myths in Latin America is that Colombia is one of its most stable demo­cra­cies. Of course, form­ally, the country has not suffered a mil­itary dic­tat­or­ship in the last fifty some years and all the in­ternal clock­work of a re­pub­lican system seems to work har­mo­ni­ously: a con­sti­tu­tion packed with rights and guar­an­tees; reg­ular, open elec­tions; a neat and clean di­vi­sion of powers; and the list goes on.

Yet this ap­parent in­sti­tu­tional sturdi­ness con­ceals a civil war that has been on­going for more than sixty years. This war has al­most bled rural Colombia to death and has made urban areas a bizarre col­lage of wealth and poverty. It is a tale of two coun­tries: on one side Colombia has now sur­passed Argentina as the third biggest eco­nomy in Latin America, heavy for­eign in­vest­ment is lured daily to the country, factories rise, banks flourish. On the other side, Colombia has the world’s fourth worst GINI index with only Haiti worse off in its hemi­sphere. It is a country split at its base, Arcadia and dystopia col­liding in every corner of life.

The ex­plan­a­tions for these abysmal con­tra­dic­tions vary, but it is no co­in­cid­ence that in­sti­tu­tional sta­bility is con­nected with the fact that Colombia has been a stra­tegic post for con­tinuous US in­ter­ven­tion in the re­gion. The Condor never flew so high and vo­ra­ciously, and a her­metic and re­duced elite has ruled the country mer­ci­lessly since co­lo­nial times.

It is in this com­plex frame that a peace pro­cess between the Colombian gov­ern­ment and the Farc (the longest living in­sur­gency in the world) is now taking place in Havana. A pro­cess to heal a deep wound at the heart of a com­munity in agony, to re­con­cile cen­turies of in­justice, to bring about a chance of true so­cial transformation.

More:
http://criticallegalthinking.com/2014/03/07/lawful-political-killing-bogotas-mayor/

[Judi Lynn]

2. Important information concerning Petro from the article:

~snip~
The story of Petro’s van­quishing is an in­tricate, mul­ti­fa­ceted legal pro­cess that few are able to master (as every legal pro­cess is, isn’t that pre­cisely their reason for being?). However, the bottom-​line is this: as Mayor of Bogota, he took the trash col­lec­tion and pro­cessing busi­ness, a multimillion-​dollar en­ter­prise, away from the hands of a close-​knit, private and mono­pol­izing con­glom­erate (which lined the pockets of, among others, former pres­ident Uribe’s sons) and put it in the hands of the poor, the in­formal re­cyclers, the wretched of the city. This saved roughly 100 mil­lion dol­lars a year for the city.
[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
Petro made real what was for­bidden to be­come real, justice. Among other ac­com­plish­ments, we can list the following:

◾He shifted air and water from a com­modity to a right, as simple as that. In three years, 681,801 homes were sup­plied with run­ning and clean water under his ad­min­is­tra­tion, while im­proving the quality of air in the city to levels not re­corded in this cen­tury.

◾In 2013, for the first time in re­corded his­tory no chil­dren under five died of mal­nu­tri­tion in the city. His system of school kit­chens achieved the highest stand­ards of nu­tri­tional quality in Latin America. While the in­tegral at­ten­tion to in­fants went from 59,090 in 2011 to 117,689 in 2013.

◾Through in­nov­ative so­cial pro­grams that in­clude em­power­ment of the poorest com­munities, in­equality in the dis­tri­bu­tion of wealth is now way below na­tional stand­ards, which is im­pressive if you con­sider that Bogota ac­counts for 24.8% of Colombia’s GDP.

◾The rates of hom­icides is the lowest in 30 years.

◾In edu­ca­tion his achieve­ments are co­lossal and un­pre­ced­ented. Aggressive in­vest­ment in public schools threatens even to close the gap between public and private edu­ca­tion, some­thing un­heard of in Colombia.

This, as you might ima­gine, is one of Petro’s cap­ital sins.

Revolution through law, as it should be… right? Wrong. Not for the Colombian establishment.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Ha! What great news!

Thanks so much for posting this! And for posting your supplementary information--very illuminating!

[Judi Lynn]

4. No peace for Petro; Bogota mayor still facing impeachment referendum

No peace for Petro; Bogota mayor still facing impeachment referendum
Apr 23, 2014 posted by Adriaan Alsema

Colombia’s electoral authority will resume an impeachment referendum process against the mayor of Bogota after president Juan Manuel Santos was forced by a court to reinstate Gustavo Petro, reported Caracol Radio.

The impeachment referendum was halted two weeks ago after Santos, against the orders of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, signed off on the dismissal of Petro initially ordered by the country’s inspector general in December.

~snip~

Ironically, chances for the referendum to effectively remove Petro from office have grown slim as Petro, less than a year ago one of Colombia’s most unpopular mayors, significantly gained support in the polls during the judicial debacle over his rule.

MORE: Petro’s approval shoots to highest among mayors of Colombia’s major cities

Additionally, five months of uncertainty over who governs Colombia’s capital — a city facing serious issues regarding mobility, public safety and increasing inequality — and the fact that the city had three mayors over the past four days, would add to the unlikeliness the referendum impeaches the suddenly-not-so-unpopular mayor.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/peace-petro-bogota-mayor-still-facing-impeachment-referendum/

[Judi Lynn]

5. ‘Democracy has been strengthened today:’ Leftist presidential candidate on Petro’s reinstatement

‘Democracy has been strengthened today:’ Leftist presidential candidate on Petro’s reinstatement
Apr 23, 2014 posted by Daniel E Freeman

Clara Lopez, presidential candidate for the leftist Democratic Pole (Polo Democratico – PD) party, believes that with Santos’ reinstatement of Bogota’s former mayor, Gustavo Petro, “democracy has been strengthened” in Colombia.

Late Tuesday night, Bogota’s Superior Court ordered President Juan Manuel Santos to return Petro to his role as mayor of Colombia’s capital city after a five month legal battle between the ousted politician, various courts, the inspector general, and international bodies.

~snip~
Despite viewing Petro’s legal journey as a failure in democracy, Lopez was content with Wednesday’s outcome, though warned that the story was not over.

“I feel that [with today's decision] democracy has been strengthened, but I want to say that the process has not finished. Other decisions are coming…What we have seen is an absolute judicial insecurity concerning the exercise of popularly elected positions. It worries me very much,” admitted the leftist politician.

“Yet for (this decision), I celebrate…that the Mayor’s Office of Bogota will be converted into a position (independent) of the President of the Republic,” Lopez concluded.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/democracy-strengthened-today-leftist-presidential-candidate-petros-reinstatement/

[Bacchus4.0]

6. doesn't look like they are going towards assassination does it?

well, I'll let you get back to conversing with yourself.

[Judi Lynn]

7. He who laughs last, laughs best.

Rushing in to ridicule people before appropriate time has passed, and circumstances, to prove them wrong merely makes one look incontinent.

[Bacchus4.0]

8. saying stupid things that never will transpire just makes one look like an idiot

but that never stopped a chavista.