The Uribe government is not publicly releasing statistics that may damage the re-election campaign. Therefore, the resignation of Caballero must be interpreted as a step toward the total manipulation of information in a country going bad... despite what the statistics say
JAIRO BAUTISTA
Congressional Assessor of the Republic
Two recent events brought the National Department of Statistics (DANE – the government institution that produces most of the economic and social information in the nation) to the attention of the country. First, the exit today of ex-director César Caballero, following pressure by the government regarding a survey of citizen perceptions of security in the four major cities of the country. The success of 'negotiating' the results of this survey with the president led to Caballero offering his resignation, an event which reveals what months ago was just a generalized suspicion: the government pressured DANE to manipulate the survey results.
Continue reading "True Lies?" »
Uribe, obstinate in his intention, plans to revive the eighth point of the referendum: Law 860 of 2003, which would eliminate special regimes and not recognize international treaties such as 102 with the International Labor Organization, ending the transition phase and expectations for pensions
FENELL BURITICÁ PERALTA
Sintraseguridadsocial
Journalist
Ten years have passed since the Honorable Congress of the Republic, under the presidency of César Gaviria Trujillo, reformed the General System of Social Security and, hence, the pension system; and from that time the transformations have been great, through decreed regulations.
The sea of legal norms regulates Law 100 of 1993, which the country, especially the people who first saw it as an illusion and now as a meager economic reality, now deems as legally uncertain and insecure. Whenever it is time to fulfill the next requirement, the current administration takes its realization further out of reach.
Continue reading "More About Pensions" »
The general or systematic attack against the civil population, which includes serious violations on the larger scale of the laws and customs of war, crimes attributed not only to members of the illegal armed groups, but also to state public servants, could be subject to judgment by the ICC
DIANA TERESA SIERRA GÓMEZ
Lawyer, Collective Corporations of Lawyers “José Alvear Restrepo”
On September 27, the magazine Semana revealed a recording in which the High Commissioner of Peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo, said to the spokesmen of the United Self-Defenses of Colombia (AUC) in Mesa de Negociación de Santa Fe de Ralito that "... the International Criminal Court is no problem....the danger of the court is not imminent." This demonstrated the way in which the dialogues were developing. Therefore, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), with its three Colombian affiliations (the Collective Corporation of Lawyers "Jose Alvear Restrepo", the Latin American Institute of Alternative Legal Services (ILSA) and the Permanent Committee for the Defense of the Human Rights and Judicial 'Asonal'), created the Seminar of Andean Countries International Criminal Court (ICC): "a new instrument in the fight against impunity" in the rooms of the Luis Ángel Arango Library of Bogotá, with the purpose of sensitizing public opinion on the importance of the court and of familiarizing the defenders of human rights with the substantive and procedural questions of this court.
Continue reading "Seminar of Andean Countries International Criminal Court: "A New Instrument in the Struggle Against Impunity"" »
Uribe expresses his bid for re-election with a clarity that is intimately related to the war and formal policy in Colombia. The consensus on the re-election is sustained by the plan for defeating the guerrillas
TEOFILO VÁSQUEZ
Cinep Researcher
This article takes a structural look at the causes of the conflict and the critical events for peace and war in Colombia. It is of vital importance to consider the structural complexity and consequences of the generalized crisis in our country, which must not be forgotten in the pursuit of daily events.
The medium-term factors that will be treated here are: the dilemma of peace and development; the characterization of the war in Colombia and its practical consequences; the internationalization of the conflict and the character of the international community; and the counter-reform political agenda brought about by the paramilitary phenomenon.
Continue reading "Armed Conflict: A Look at the Medium Term" »
