'Santa Claus' Surprises Colombia
In Colombia, they call him Papá Noel or Santaclós, because of his bushy white beard, generosity and friendly style. His real name is Carlos Gaviria, and if he were to bear gifts, his biggest might be lending some intrigue to Colombia's otherwise undramatic presidential election.
The former judge turned senator has surprised many by vaulting from 2 percent to 23 percent support in public opinion polls in just two months.
With the campaign in its final days, Gaviria still lags far behind the popular incumbent Alvaro Uribe going into Sunday's vote. But polls suggest his new leftist party, the Democratic Alternative Pole, has gained traction among voters and is now running even or ahead of the Liberal Party, one of Colombia's oldest political parties.
Gaviria is not exactly a political unknown. He served as the magistrate of the country's Constitutional Court in the 1990s and was elected to the Senate in 2002. But his political positions are novel for Colombia.
In one of the world's most violent countries, he is "enamored with jurisprudence" and takes positions that are "solidly argued," says Mexico's El Universal (in Spanish). He describes the leftist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as "insurgents" with legitimate grievances but also as "terrorists," saying that for him, "the terms are not mutually exclusive."
Carlos Gaviria, the surprise of the Colombian presidential election, to be held on Sunday, May 28, is known as "Santa Claus."(Luis Benavides/AP)
He has united a non-traditional left, says La Cronica de Hoy of Mexico (in Spanish). More of a social democrat than a radical, he favors the decriminalization of drugs, gay rights and euthanasia. He is, in the words of La Cronica, "a free thinker and anti-prohibitionist in a traditional Catholic society who, with his 69 years of age and often-photographed kindly face, has brought together the left and other sectors " opposed to the reelection of the conservative Uribe."
Nonetheless, it has been a "campaign without debate," according to Terra.com (in Spanish), a news site.
Uribe, far ahead in the polls, has declined to debate or even publicly acknowledge Gaviria or Liberal Party candidate Horacio Serpa. Uribe remains popular for drastically reducing kidnappings and homicides and making it safe for middle class Colombians to travel on the country's highways.
"We will never forget that four years ago he inherited a country covered with blood, impoverished, and dishonored before the world," said columnist Fernando Londoño Hoyo in El Tiempo yesterday (in Spanish).
"Now we have a fatherland that that belongs to us. Peace bloomed in the countryside and the tranquillity on the roads. The towns did not turn into fields of violence, nor did we see the journeys of flight and abandonment. We have earned the admiration of the world because we defeated terror without yielding to the temptation of violence," he wrote on the Bogota news site.
"The campaign has been converted into an examination of the last four years," writes Claudia Blum in El Pais (in Spanish). "And approval is solid."
Gaviria's positions, she wrote in the Cali daily, are "abstract, rhetorical or incomprehensible." His speeches are "saturated with populist messages to please the public but which are impossible to imply. Fortunately, the voters, connoisseurs of the frustration created by similar proposals of the past, and of the realities of neighboring countries, we know they are impractical for us."
Blum's unmistakable reference to neighboring Venezuela underscores how Colombia is the exception to the recent leftward trend of Latin American politics led by Venezuela's populist president Hugo Chavez.
The right-wing Uribe and the left-wing Chavez are the ideological poles of Latin American politics. There is room for those like Gaviria who tread a middle line. But not much.
(For Spanish readers, El Tiempo of Bogota has comprehensive summaries of the platforms of Uribe, Gaviria and Serpa.)
By Jefferson Morley |
May 26, 2006; 10:38 AM ET
| Category:
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Posted by: Reynolds | May 26, 2006 02:37 PM
He is a hard core leftest! And like most hard core leftest he probably has no room in is world view for a Jewish state.
Posted by: TJC | May 26, 2006 03:03 PM
I just hope Morley is going to cover the USMC massacre of women and children at Haditha.
I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to register my disgust at the murders, and the cover-up, that took place there. Not to mention the equally egregious massacre, still to be dealt with, that took place at Ishaqi.
I gather the Marine commandant, Gen Mike Hagee, is now off on an international tour to deliver speeches on "the American way of war".
Hagee will "focus on the value and meaning of honor, courage, and commitment and how these core values are epitomized by most Marines in their day-to-day actions - both in and out of combat."
There is something quintessially Pentagon in his reaction, that when his organisation is found to have massacred women and children and then lied about it, he seizes the opportunity to sanctimoniously lecture us all on how morally superior US marines are to the rest of us.
Quintessentially Pentagon? Dare I say it, quintessentially American.
Does the simple word "sorry" actually exist in the American English lexicon?
Posted by: OD | May 27, 2006 09:07 AM
Carlos Gaviria and Horacio Serpa are two democratics men. Uribe is`nt.
Posted by: Rodrigo Jaramillo V | May 28, 2006 03:37 AM
Uribe represents for colombians the rational alternative to caos, violence, killings, kidnapings and other atrocities caused by the absence of legal authority in most of the country prior to Uribe. Carlos Gaviria is a wealthy politician and intellectual from the left who thinks he can negotiate with the devil (FARC) and bring peace to Colombia but in fact, he may actually strengthen the FARC and possibly bring the country to civil war and even dissolution as a nation. Colombians wisely re-elected Uribe.
Posted by: Libano Guerrero | May 30, 2006 10:59 AM
He is dead, but U.S. still has a long way to go in Iraq.
Posted by: Fanncy | June 9, 2006 09:16 AM
What was the name of the woman and child that
were reportedly killed in out bombing attack
ti get Abu Musab al-Zarqawi? Does anyone care? Does it matter that we killed civilians in the attack? There has been zero press attention to this in our glee at having "got him." I guess they were expendable. Didn't matter. They were just a couple of people without names. What do we care?
Posted by: Frank Heflin | June 9, 2006 01:53 PM
This is great. He's totally pro-democracy, promotes ALL religions, has positive 'tenure' in public service and, evidently, this scares 'the lobby' to death! Quick, call Anne Coulter! Call in the border-guard! :)
It's not just "a piece of paper," -"free-trade" is history, baby, hand me the mic:
"Bush is done, finally we won!"
Posted by: Tom Gordon | June 10, 2006 05:59 AM
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Yes, that's all well and good. But where does Santa Claus stand on Israel?