Greens close in on Colombia election win

[IndianaGreen]

Greens close in on Colombia election win

Wednesday 21 April 2010
by Paul Haste

Colombia's Green Party have continued to sensationally shake up Colombia's presidential elections after a new poll revealed that its candidate Antanas Mockus was closing the gap on far-right President Alvaro Uribe's favoured successor.

The president's former hardline defence minister Manuel Santos, who has been described by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez as "a threat to Latin America," looks set to be forced into a second round as a result of Mr Mockus's spectacular rise in support.

To be elected president, a clear 50 per cent plus one vote majority is necessary, but the latest poll for the 30 May election gives the Green Party 24 per cent to Mr Santos's 29 per cent, meaning that a second round on June 20 is likely.

Colombia's traditional Conservative and Liberal parties have been eclipsed by the rise of Mr Mockus, who has twice served as an independent mayor of the country's capital Bogota and who is backed by two other popular former mayors of the city, Enrique Penalosa and Luis Eduardo Garzon.

The leftist Polo Democratico, which is supported by Colombia's union confederation, has also suggested that the party would support the Greens in the second round.

Related thread by rabs:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x33804

Meanwhile back in the USA, both the Republicans and Democrats have supported former death squad leader Alvaro Uribe, and have kept open the torture and assassination school the US runs at Fort Benning for friendly Latin American military.

[subsuelo]

1. Is this a real possibility?

Could it actually happen... ?