Global Voices » Julián Ortega Martínez

Panama City Mayor Resigns

Julián Ortega Martínez — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:24:18 +0000

The resignation of the Mayor of Panama's capital city, amidst still unclear circumstances, marked the start of the 2012 political intrigues. Newspaper La Prensa [es] reports on its website:

El alcalde capitalino Bosco Ricardo Vallarino presentó este jueves, 12 de enero, su renuncia a ese puesto, mediante una carta enviada a la gobernadora de la provincia de Panamá, Mayín Correa.

La información se confirmó a través de un comunicado de prensa enviado vía correo electrónico, en el que se adjuntó una copia de la carta firmada por Vallarino. Vallarino explicó que está obligado a someterse a un tratamiento radioactivo que pueda revertir dos severas afectaciones que pesan sobre su salud.

The Mayor from the capital Bosco Ricardo Vallarino presented on Thursday, January 2, his resignation to that office, through a letter sent to Mayín Correa, Governor of the province of Panama.

The information was confirmed in a press release sent via e-mail, with a copy of the letter signed by Vallarino [es] attached. Vallarino explained he must undergo radioactive treatment in order to revert two severe issues affecting his health.

The news arrives in the midst of confusion because the now former Mayor belongs to the centre-right Panameñista (Arnulfista) party, which had been allied to the ruling party (right-wing Democratic Change, or Cambio Democrático [CD] in Spanish) until last year when they broke relations. The Panama City mayorship is one of the most coveted political positions, and the office will now be occupied by Roxana Méndez, from the ruling party.

Panama City. Picture from Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons Attribution 1.0 Generic licence (CC BY 1.0)

Bosco Vallarino was severly criticized during his administration, and in several occassions was publicly warned by President Ricardo Martinelli. His resignation also occurs in the midst of a Supreme Court ruling which could revoke his citizenship, and therefore his position. Vallarino had adopted US citizenship voluntarily without being entitled to it by birth or family relationships, which, according to the Constitution, forbids him from being a Panamanian citizen. Nevertheless, this fact had been ignored during the elections, and after winning a law was passed which restored his citizenship and all his rights, including being elected Mayor.

Two years later, the law was about to be revoked; Vallarino preferred to resign before the Court's ruling and after a meeting with the president where there were allegedly conflicts and arguments. This was denied by the president, who wrote on his Twitter account (@rmartinelli [es]):

Altercados o discusiones no he tenido con nadie en el dia ayer

I didn't have any disputes nor arguments with anyone yesterday

The resignation has caused all kinds of reactions on social networks, from those who agree with Vallarino's decision, to those who see the action as an abuse of power by the president.

Lulu’s Cake (@lulu20cake [es]) thinks the resignation was a blow to democracy and wrote on her Twitter account:

No pertenezco a ningún partido político, pero todo este caso de Bosco, es un golpe muy duro para nuestra democracia. Muy injusto.

I don't belong to any political party, but this whole Bosco case is a very hard blow to our democracy. It's very unfair.

Jose Blandon (@BlandoJose [es]), deputy to the National Assembly and advisor to the now former mayor, wrote a tweet along the same lines:

Habrá quienes se vanaglorien y piensen q Bosco perdió. Perdió nuestra democracia. Pero la lucha por defenderla, debe continuar.

There will be those boasting and thinking Bosco lost. Our democracy lost. But the fight to defend it must go on.

Ubaldo Davis (@DavisZone [es]) comments that if Vallarino had nothing to fear he wouldn't have resigned, no matter how much pressure was put on him:

Dicen q la verdad Bosco renuncio por presión, el que no la debe no la teme, la plata jamás le ganara a la verdad

They say the truth is that Bosco resigned because of pressure, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear, money won't ever beat truth

There were also tweets that handled the ex-mayor's situation humorously; for example, Delmiro Quiroga (@delmiroquiroga [es]) refers to the participation of the former mayor in the Panamanian version of Bailando por un sueño (”Dancing for a dream”) and tweets:

El gobierno falló, debió haber puesto que la gente llamara a un número o mandara un chat si querían salvar a Bosco.

The government failed, it should have made people call a number or send a chat if they wanted to save Bosco.

Gina Lee (@nowginalee [es]) jokingly writes about the way Bosco Vallarino went from being a widely criticized Mayor to becoming a popular personality:

everybody loves raymond es un detalle a lado del nuevo show panameño everybody loves bosco.

Everybody loves Raymond is nothing compared to the new Panamanian show Everybody loves Bosco.

The Mayor's party, the Panameñista party, made a statement where the vice president reminded President Ricardo Martinelli that he would be judged by the Panamanian people. La Prensa reports [es]:

“El mismo pueblo que te eligió te verá juzgado y derrotado”. Este fue el mensaje que le envió esta tarde el vicepresidente de la República y presidente del Partido Panameñista, Juan Carlos Varela, al presidente de la República, Ricardo Martinelli, tras reaccionar a la renuncia de Bosco Vallarino como alcalde de Panamá luego de presiones del mandatario.

“The same people who elected you will see you judged and defeated.” This was the message sent this afternoon by the Vice President of the Republic and president of Panameñista Party, Juan Carlos Varela, to the President of the Republic, Ricardo Martinelli, after reacting to Bosco Vallarino's resignation as Mayor of Panama (City) under pressure from the president.

Finally, blogger Joao Q reflects on this resignation and writes on his blog MedioCerrado [es]:

Sí, podrá decirse que una vez más se pisotea la institucionalidad y la legalidad dentro de gobierno, pero en honor a la verdad esto era como el título de una famosa novela de García Márquez, Crónica de una Muerte Anunciada. En buena parte nosotros mismos como votantes nos buscamos eso (ustedes porque yo voté por Bernal) al votar por Bosco, por ser como dice Andrés Vega “Domplin”: un pueblo demasiado emocional, por olvidar las razones al llegar a las urnas y estampar el gancho en la casilla del que tiene más cara de bonachón, por el que más llora o más caridad hace frente a las cámaras de televisión. Esta debe ser una lección para nosotros, un castigo por ser un pueblo que gusta del dramatismo y del escándalo. Bosco es la personificación de todo eso llevado al extremo y ya fuimos testigos de su tragicomedia que en buena parte también es la nuestra.

Yes, arguably once more the institutionality and legality inside the government are trampled on, but in honour of the truth this was like the title of a famous novel by García Márquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold. To a good extent we as voters asked for this (you, because I voted for [Miguel Antonio] Bernal) by voting for Bosco, by being, as Andrés Vega “Domplin” says: too emotional, by leaving reasons behind when getting to the polls and marking the face of the one who seems most easy-going, the one who cries more, or the most generous in front of TV cameras. This should be a lesson for us, a punishment for being people who love drama and scandals. Bosco is the personification of all that taken to a extreme and we've already been witnesses of his tragicomedy, which is ours too, to a large extent.

Betsy Galbreath contributed to this translation.

Colombia: Professor's Resignation Sparks Debate on Writing

Julián Ortega Martínez — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:50:35 +0000

Last week, Camilo Jiménez [es], a journalist who has been the editor of several magazines, posted an entry [es] on his blog where he explains why he resigned from teaching a class (“Evaluation of Non-Fiction Texts” [es]) at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana's Social Communication undergraduate programme after nine years.

He claims that, despite their privileged, upper-middle class background, their educated parents and a lack of material concerns, his students weren't able to draft a summary of a paragraph of a text without making writing mistakes (3 out of 30 “were close” and another 2 “did their best”). Later he writes he might be behind the times, then describes his class, and finally admits that:

Image by Anonymous Account on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Dejo la cátedra porque no me pude comunicar con los nativos digitales. No entiendo sus nuevos intereses, no encontré la manera de mostrarles lo que considero esencial en este hermoso oficio de la edición. Quizá la lectura sea ya otra cosa con la que no me pude sintonizar. De pronto ya no se trata de comprender un texto, de dialogar con él. Quizá la lectura sea ahora salir al mar de Internet a pescar fragmentos, citas y vínculos. Y en consecuencia, la escritura esté mudando a esas frases sueltas, grises, sin vida, siempre con errores. Por eso los nuevos párrafos que se están escribiendo parecen zombies.

I leave my professorship because I wasn't able to communicate with the digital natives. I don't understand their new interests, I couldn't find the way to show them what I consider essential in this beautiful job of editing. Maybe reading is already another thing I couldn't be in tune with. Perhaps it's no longer about understanding a text, having a conversation with it. Maybe reading is now to go to the Internet sea to catch fragments, quotes, and links. And in consequence, writing is changing to those loose, grey, lifeless sentences, always with errors. That's why the new paragraphs being written look like zombies.

There were some early reactions in the post's comments section and in a post [es] by Katina, a Chilean former university professor who mostly agrees with Jiménez but, after telling her personal experience, asks him not to “completely lose [his] faith in this generation.”

But after the post was republished [es] by the newspaper El Tiempo (Jiménez had to explain [es] it was sent by the university's academic vice-president), it gained wider exposure. The reactions exploded and the debate began. “Camilo Jiménez” [es] was a trending topic on Twitter in Colombia on Friday, December 9, and he was even interviewed [es] on national radio.

Journalist Daniel Pardo has a request of Jiménez [es], which starts by claiming that he [Pardo] lives out of writing despite not knowing how to draft a summary:

[L]e quiero pedir que no se vaya. Le quiero pedir, respetado editor, que investigue sobre nuevas formas de educación vía Internet. Su blog es un comienzo. Sigamos. Yo creo que las aptitudes que tienen sus estudiantes son valiosas. Tal vez no para la literatura como usted la aprendió. Pero sí para una nueva literatura: una que, de golpe, venga con un video, con diseño; una que el lector incluso pueda modificar.

I want to ask you not to leave. I want to ask you, dear editor, to research about new education methods using the Internet. Your blog is a start. Let's go on. I think the abilities your students have are valuable. Maybe not for literature the way you learned it. But they are [valuable] for a new literature: one that, perhaps, comes with a video, with design; one that the reader could even modify.

Hyperconectado [es] also comments about Jiménez's posts and gives some ideas: he welcomes the debate, mentions Newsgames and other new ways to educate in journalism. He criticizes the “blind faith” of a Colombian State obsessed with increasing Internet access without leaving the “feudal era”, which asks students to study and analyse seemingly trivial internet phenomena, and puts into question the whole “digital natives” notion.

From Mexico, Marco Gómez quotes and comments on[es] Jiménez's letter paragraph by paragraph, and writes that although his generation (the same as Jiménez's students) has issues, “there is hope”. José Luis Peñarredonda writes [es] about how the public debate on Jiménez's post in some ways deals with the difficulties faced by professors, students, and the Colombian educational system in general.

Humberto Ballesteros, a teacher of Italian, also sympathizes with Jiménez but recognizes [es] that,

afirmar que la cultura o el conocimiento mismos están desapareciendo por esa causa no es otra cosa que fetichismo de lector.

claiming that culture or knowledge themselves are disappearing because of that cause [changes brought by the digital age, including the loss of tolerance of silence and introspection] is nothing other than the reader's fetishism.

Alfonso Cabanzo proposes [es] putting Colombia's educational system “upside down” by increasing quality in secondary education, implementing a new college admission exam that includes interviews, and assuring state-funded education so universities start worrying less about their students' money and more about teaching and researching.

At Hipermediaciones [es], Argentine researcher Carlos A. Scolari links Jiménez's pessimism and boredom (the latter shared with the students) with the ‘boreout syndrome', and asks us to forget prejudices against the changes of the digital age and instead put these changes in an ecological and evolutionary perspective.

Students also reacted: 20-year-old Victoria Tobar wrote Jiménez a letter [es], where she criticizes him but at the same time thanks him for having the “good sense” of leaving. She writes:

Si usted se queja de que ya no hay estudiantes con un espíritu curioso y crítico, yo me quejo de que no tengo profesores que siembren en mí la duda y las ganas de saber. Por que si hay algo que creo firmemente, es que las ganas de aprender por parte de un estudiante reside, en gran medida, en las ganas del profesor de que sus estudiantes aprendan.

If you complain about the lack of students with a curious, critical spirit, I complain about not having teachers sowing the seed of doubt and the desire for learning in me. Because if there's something I firmly believe, it is that students' desire to learn comes, to a large extent, from their teachers' desire for their students to learn.

Richie Tamayo, a former university professor, replied to Tobar's letter [es]. Although he praises her writing skills, he criticizes her for not knowing her university's administration, faculty selection process, and internal government system, and for questioning an educational methodology which she is not familiar with. Though he doesn't entirely agree with Jiménez's letter, he defends his decision to resign (in an earlier post [es], Tamayo writes that the university should promote a serious, informed, and participative debate on the academic quality of its Social Communication programme).

Finally, María Camila Rincón, one of Jiménez's last students, confesses feeling ashamed after reading the letter, and renews the debate it prompted (her post was originally published on Facebook [es] and later reposted by one of her classmates on her blog [es]):

Es curioso ver cómo venimos de una lucha que logró la disolución de una reforma (¡y de qué manera!) pero cuando el fenómeno es más local (no menos importante) nos quedamos sólo con el chisme de quiénes eran esos tres que se acercaron al párrafo que Jiménez con tanto ahínco nos pidió. Aquí nadie se ha preguntado qué va a pasar con esa cátedra que no sólo es obligatoria sino pertinente para el oficio del editor. Suele pensarse que como ya pasamos por ella, pues nos salvamos de un profesor menos exigente o de uno con menos experiencia. ¿Y los de atrás qué? ¿Merecen recibir una educación de menor calidad porque a nosotros no nos importó?

It's curious to see how we come from a fight which was able to dissolve a reform (and how!) but when the phenomenon is more local (not less important) we settle for gossip about those three who were close to the paragraph Jiménez eagerly asked us [to write]. No one here has wondered what's going to happen with the class which is not only compulsory but relevant for the editor's job. We often think that, since we have already taken it, we are saved from a less demanding professor or one with less experience. What about the next students? Do they deserve to get an education of less quality because we didn't care?

Colombia: Outrage at Conservative Politician over Remarks about Rape and Abortion

Julián Ortega Martínez — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:51:26 +0000

On Tuesday October 11, Conservative politician Enrique Gómez Hurtado [es] surprised a lot of Colombians when he expressed his controversial stance on abortion during an interview on La W, an influential morning radio show broadcast nationally on W Radio. Gómez, 84, is the youngest son of former President Laureano Gómez (tenure 1950-1953) and brother of long-time presidential hopeful Álvaro Gómez Hurtado (murdered in 1995).

In the half-hour radio interview [es], Gómez expressed his support for a project to pass a legislative act [es] which seeks to reform Article 11 of the 1991 Constitution, related to the right to live, in order to outlaw abortion under any circumstance. In 2006, a Constitutional Court ruling (Spanish-language version) partially decriminalized abortion in three cases: rape or incest, threat to the mother's life, and malformations in the fetus.

The outrage began when Gómez, in order to explain his position, said [es] such things as “there's no way to know if a woman was raped,” “we can't really know when a [fetal] malformation starts,” or that such malformation could be “prevented” because in many cases it is hereditary. Twitter burst with outrage.

Paula Vejarano (@Asmodeo_) from Bogotá writes:

Increible que haya gente como Enrique Gomez Hurtado que duda de la violación como delito porque eso es una irresponsabilidad de las mujeres

[It's] incredible that there are people like Enrique Gómez Hurtado, who doubt that rape is a crime because it's women's irresponsibility

Donald Trumphetero (@DonPornocracia) tweets mockingly:

Enrique Gómez Hu[]rtado: -Señora, usted debió exigir a su violador el uso de un condón. Usted porqué no tenía puesta su T de cobre?

Enrique Gómez Hu[]rtado: -Ma'am, you should have demanded your rapist he use a condom. Why weren't you wearing your copper T?

While Angie Cruz (@AngieCruzP) argues that:

#debateaborto Si los hombres pudieran embarazarse, los conservadores serían los primeros en aprobar el aborto // Enrique Gómez Hurtado

#abortiondebate If men could get pregnant, Conservatives would be the first passing abortion // Enrique Gómez Hurtado

Twitter user Lanark (@donAlvar) jokes about the politician's chances of becoming a conservative presidential candidate:

Enrique Gómez Hurtado no cree en la existencia objetiva de la violación. Lo veo presidenciable. #juventudesconservadoras

Enrique Gómez Hurtado doesn't believe in the objective existence of rape. I see him as a presidential hopeful #conservativeyouths

Orlando (@DanielitoBang) connects Gómez's statements with a claim from October 2008 by former President Uribe to refer to the victims in the “false positives” scandal:

“Cualquier persona puede decir que fue violada” suena parecido a “seguramente no estaban recogiendo café”. Sigan votando así.

“Anyone can say they were raped” sounds a lot like “they surely weren't picking coffee.” Keep voting like that.

Lucas Peña (@lucaspe) reacts to Gómez's stance on malformations, paraphrasing one of his arguments:

“Yo me siento malformado porque soy feo y no me hubiera gustado ser abortado”, ridiculiza el argumento Enrique Gómez Hurtado.

“I feel malformed because I'm ugly and I wouldn't have liked being aborted”, Enrique Gómez Hurtado mocks his argument.

Some defended Gómez, like Carlos Florez (@CarlosFlorezS):

Apoyo a Enrique Gomez Hurtado, El Derecho a la vida esta por encima de cualquier otro derecho, por vanidad de una mujer no se puede asesinar

I support Enrique Gomez Hurtado, the Right to live is above any other right; a woman's vanity is no reason to murder

On October 11, the same day that Gómez spoke about abortion on the radio, Colombia's national football team played against Bolivia for the 2014 FIFA World Cup South American qualifiers. Diana Melo Espejo (@Dianadaista) writes:

Enrique Gómez Hurtado debe estar feliz porque hoy a las 3:00 p.m., cuando juegue Colombia, a todo el mundo se le va a olvidar su babosada.

Enrique Gómez Hurtado must be happy because today at 3:00 p.m., when Colombia plays, everyone will forget his nonsense.

Finally, user @2000dePan asks:

Quien va a organizar la marcha para hacer farandula en contra de Enrique Gomez Hurtado en la plaza de bolivar a la hora del almuerzo?

Who's gonna organize the march against Enrique Gómez Hurtado to show off at Plaza de Bolívar during lunchtime?

Hours after the interview, the Senate's First Commission (Constitutional Affairs) debated [es] the project. The debate was broadcast [es] on the Congress' cable channel and the state-run Canal Institucional, and was widely followed on Twitter. We will publish a separate post on the reactions to that debate.

Colombia: #Corzotón Protest Against the President of the Congress

Julián Ortega Martínez — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 00:16:12 +0000

Using Storify, journalist Lina Ceballos looks [es] at “why Colombians got excited on Twitter about the #Corzotón“, a protest against Juan Manuel Corzo –president of the Congress whose remarks caused outrage some days ago– since the protest's ‘offline' version last September 27 was not as successful as expected. Ceballos claims that “[offline] presentiality demands much more involvement” and concludes that “if you want something to be massive it must be entertaining.”

Colombia: Outrage at President of Congress Over Oil Subsidy

Julián Ortega Martínez — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 02:47:21 +0000

Last week, Juan Manuel Corzo [es], Senator and president of the Congress of Colombia, caused outrage when, in order to justify a fuel subsidy for congresspeople [es], he told W Radio [es] that it was impossible to fill the gas tanks for his two vehicles with his COP$16 million (€6,418 or US$8,784) salary (the minimum wage is COP$535,600, €207 or US$279). Despite living in a middle-ranked oil producing country, Colombians pay, as of August 2011, COP$8,635 (€3.34 or US$4.51) average per gallon, more than Americans.

During the next few days, Twitter and Facebook users showed their contempt [es] toward Senator Corzo, a member of the Conservative Party, with hashtags like #juanmanuelcorzo, #fueracorzo (”get out Corzo [from Congress]”), or #corzoton (Corzo + Telethon); Facebook pages like “We demand Juan Manuel Corzo's resignation”; and an event scheduled for Tuesday September 27 in front of the National Capitol. Even Anonymous staged a DDos attack [es] against the Senate's website.

Senador Juan Manuel Corzo, RedPaTo2 on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

On Monday September 19, the issue became “personal” when Senator Corzo declared in a press conference that the Twitter users criticizing him were “rude,” and added that [es] “I'd rather not steal from the State and that [others] pay for my gasoline.” After that, Corzo claimed [es] he was going to an Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Azerbaijan to defend his controversial bill of parliamentary immunity, even though, as blogger Hernán Castro Rodríguez shows [es], the last IPU Assembly took place last April in Panama and the next one is scheduled for October in Switzerland.

Here is a small sample of the thousands of reactions on Twitter during the last days:

Daniel Arango (@stultaviro) puts things into context:

En un país con un salario mínimo de 300 dólares oír a un presidente del congreso llorando por sus cuitas de ricachón es un maldito insulto.

In a country with a minimum wage of 300 dollars hearing a President of the Congress crying for his troubles of well-heeled man is a damn insult.

José Carlos García (@josecarlostecno), Technology Editor for El Tiempo newspaper, writes:

Como colombiano, creo que todas la novelas de narcos juntas no me producen tanta vergüenza como este senador Corzo

As a Colombian, I think that all the narco-novelas together don't embarrass me as much as this senator Corzo

User @bobadaliteraria tweets:

Mientras tanto Corzo anda en Azerbaiyán y adivinen quiénes pagamos por su vuelo.

Meanwhile Corzo is in Azerbaijan and guess who is paying his flight.

Omar Ferrer (@OFFezt) refers to the “coalition of national unity”:

Veo uribistas y antiuribistas (Antes fachos y mamertos) unidos en un solo #Corzoton Esa es la Unidad Nacional que sirve.

I see Uribistas and Anti-Uribistas (before fascists and commies) united in one #Corzoton That's the National Unity which is useful

Naylea Barros (@NayBarros08) asks:

Quien mas grosero nosotros los twitteros o #JuanManuelCorzo que nos quiere tratar de estupidos?

Who is ruder: us Twitter users or #JuanManuelCorzo who wants to treat us like we are stupid?

Angela G (@gatinita) brings up Corzo's salary:

No joda, con 6 meses de sueldo se compra una estación de servicio, para que nunca vuelva a llorar por falta de gasolina.

Leave me f***ing alone, with 6 months of his salary he could buy a gas station, so he never cries for lack of fuel again.

With irony, Felipe Nuñez (@idreamofrobots) writes:

Yo cuando grande quiero ser como Juan Manuel Corzo y que ustedes me paguen la gasolina.

When I grow up I want be like Juan Manuel Corzo and make you to pay for my fuel

Angela Perversa (@AngelaPerversa) tweets about Corzo's statements:

“Prefiero no robar al estado” is the new “gracias al señor me estoy rehabilitando y no en la calle atracando a nadie, regálemen pa un pan”

“I'd rather not steal from the State” is the new “thanks to Lord I'm rehabilitating and not robbing anyone, gimme money to buy some bread”

Journalist and blogger Víctor Solano (@solano) refers to the same quote:

Dirán algunos: “Lo ‘bueno' de @juanmanuelcorzo es que nos da a escoger: O le damos para la gasolina o nos atraca; otros hacen las dos”

Some people will say: “The ‘good thing' about @juanmanuelcorzo is that he gives us a choice: or we give him money for his fuel or he robs us; others do both”

Catalina Palmer (@catalinapalmer) calls on Twitter users to act “in the streets”, not just online:

Lo de Corzo es más que #fueraCorzo. Hagan algo en la calle, no se queden en twitter. Construyan cultura política para que no se repita.

The Corzo issue is more than #getoutCorzo. Do something in the streets, don't stay on Twitter. Build political culture so it doesn't happen again.

Finally, Ramírez Jaramillo (@egolaxista_) says:

A menos que la Registraduría empiece a hacer valer el RT como voto, la indignación por lo de Corzo servirá para mierda y media.

Unless the National Civil Registry makes a RT worth a vote, the outrage about Corzo will be useless.

On the blogosphere, a heavily rotated post by @cynosargo titled “Colombia: who the f**k rules you?!” [es] slams the senator:

Es la primera vez que un político nos quiere robar de frente, en la cara. Literalmente, Corzo nos pidió a los contribuyentes colombianos que le pagáramos la gasolina de los carros que utiliza -carros por los cuales nosotros ya estamos pagando-, simplemente porque no le alcanza con su oneroso sueldo -el cual también pagamos nosotros-.

It is the first time that a politician wants to rob us overtly, in our faces. Literally, Corzo asked us, Colombian taxpayers, to pay for the gasoline fuelling the cars he uses —cars we are alreading paying for—, simply because his onerous salary —which we also pay— isn't enough.

The post includes a table showing that all the Presidents of Congress in the 21st century (the post is occupied by a Senator elected by fellow Senators at the beginning of the legislature, every July 20), except one, have been investigated either for corruption or for ties with armed groups, including Corzo.

Meanwhile, Ricardo Galán wonders [es] if the “I'd rather not steal from the State” remark by Corzo was a threat, blackmail, or a complaint; while Julián Rosero Navarrete, who has worked in Congress, supports [es] the general outrage but warns against discussing the issue based on erroneous information, and explains that the actual salary of a Congressman is COP$6 million (€2,321 or US$3,132), while the rest are “representation spendings,” which Corzo should be using to cover his fuel expenses.

Colombia: The Abortion Debate

Julián Ortega Martínez — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:37:59 +0000

Amidst the ongoing debate prompted by a Conservative bill aiming to outlaw abortion in all cases, Javier Moreno debunks [es] one of the arguments (a poorly referenced academic text) by columnist and former Congressman Nicolás Uribe Rueda [es] and voices his opinion about such debate. Meanwhile, Aleyda writes [es] about her own personal experience after having had an abortion.

Colombia: ‘Padding Journalism'

Julián Ortega Martínez — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:28:01 +0000

In the wake of the death of singer Joe Arroyo, Colombian news channel NTN24 featured reactions with actresses, models, and former beauty queens in English on its website. The video featuring model and presenter Carolina Cruz was heavily mocked on blogs and social media. Journalist Carolina Ruiz questions [es] the value of these interviews and the trivialization of Mr Arroyo's death, while Simón Posada “defends” [es] Ms Cruz blaming the media and the “ugly habit” Colombians have of “mocking everyone's way of speaking.”

Colombia: Challenges of the Victims’ Law

Julián Ortega Martínez — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:37:14 +0000

Paula Delgado-King writes about some of the challenges the recently approved Victims' Law faces: “the process needs to provide loans and credits, guidance for which crops and animals are most suitable where, and access to markets,” and that “the law has no accompanying truth commission to create a national conscience of what has happened.”

Colombia: On Independence Day

Julián Ortega Martínez — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:20:06 +0000

Colombia celebrates its 201st birthday on July 20. Guapacho writes about this year's Google Doodle [es]; Triana remembers [es] José María Espinosa, one of the first Colombian cartoonists; and Julián Rosero Navarrete argues [es] that the “independence” was actually a “secession war” among Spaniards from both sides of the Atlantic.

Colombia: Police Evict 5,400 Squatter Farm Workers

Julián Ortega Martínez — Mon, 09 May 2011 11:49:03 +0000

Blueandtanit writes [es] about the eviction of 5,400 homeless farm workers by anti-riot police. The farm workers had occupied farmlands and roads in Urabá (Antioquia department in north western Colombia) early last week. She is concerned about the media coverage of the issue, which treats the squatters as “alleged peasants,” and the way the government deals with this and other similar problems.

Colombia: Controversy Over Photos of Minors Published by Adult Magazine

Julián Ortega Martínez — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:45:01 +0000

Last week, the Office of the Inspector General, through Ilva Myriam Hoyos, Delegate Inspector for the Defence of the Rights of Children, Adolescents, and Family, announced [es] it had requested the Attorney General's Office and the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF, for its initials in Spanish) to open an investigation into one of the articles published in the latest edition of the adult magazine SoHo. Ms Hoyos based her request citing the Code of Childhood and Adolescence [es], and the Penal Code [es]. Both Ms Hoyos and Inspector General Alejandro Ordóñez are known for their conservative positions, and SoHo had been involved in a similar controversy in 2005.

The article, titled “Dejad que los niños vengan a mí” [es] (”Let the children come to me,” referencing Mark 10:14. WARNING: explicit images), includes photos from an exhibition [es] by photographer Mauricio Vélez (a regular contributor to the magazine), opened until mid-April at a hotel in Medellín. The controversial pictures depict staged scenes of nude underage boys (or models pretending to be minors) being watched by actors dressed as Catholic priests.

According [es] to the magazine's editor-in-chief, Daniel Samper Ospina, Vélez “clarified the minors [depicted] are 16 and 17″ and were photographed ‘with their parents' permission.” Samper told [es] Semana magazine (which owns SoHo) that “in Colombia we love to keep up appearances; therefore the State ends up persecuting the photographer who denounces pedophilia through his work, and not those who commit these abuses.”

The controversy erupted over the social networks. @cynosargo tweets:

Pfff, Daniel Samper Ospina se cree el Larry Flynt colombiano o qué? A otro perro con ése hueso.

Pfff, Daniel Samper Ospina thinks he's the Colombian Larry Flynt or what? I'm not biting on that one.

Jose L. Peñarredonda (@noalsilencio) argues that,

Lo que va a ser interesante entre la pelea entre Soho y el Procurador es que van a llevar a los tribunales el concepto de ‘arte'

The interesting thing about the fight between SoHo and the Inspector General will be the concept of ‘art' being carried to court.

Photographer Manuel Noguera Salas (@manuelnogueraS) supports the work by Vélez:

@DanielSamperO Un aplauso para Mauric[i]o Velez, La gente se escandaliza por la representación de la realidad? La verdad les duele!

@DanielSamperO Applause for Mauric[i]o Velez, do people get shocked with the representation of reality? Truth hurts!

But Lina Artunduaga (@LinaArtunduaga) disagrees:

Pues a mi las fotos de Vélez no me gustan! Son niños desnudos con un adulto y punto. Parecen más apología que denuncia…

Well, I don't like Vélez's photos! They're naked children with an adult, period. They seem more endorsement than denunciation…

With a similar point of view, María Prieto (@LaRola) tweets:

La publicación de las fotos de #soho no aportan nada al debate de la protección a los menores. Soho social e irreverente ya me sabe mierda.

The publication of the photos by #Soho makes no contribution to the debate about protecting minors. [The] social and irreverent Soho already tastes like shit to me.

Chilean cartoonist Alberto Montt (@albertomontt) tells SoHo's editor-in-chief:

Señor @DanielSamperO, si la gente reaccionase la mitad de indignada x los casos de abusos y pdflia q x las fotos, otro gallo cantaría.

Mr @DanielSamperO, if people reacted with half the outrage with cases of sexual abuse and pedophilia than they have with the photos, things would be quite different.

While Daniel Arango (@stultaviro) criticizes the magazine:

SoHo, revista erótica con prurito intelectual y aire sofisticado, que termina reducida a material masturbatorio de taller de mecánica.

SoHo, erotic magazine with intellectual obsession and sophisticated look, which ends up being reduced to masturbatory material for automobile repair shops.

Dan Gamboa Bohorquez (@larepuvlica) writes:

El contexto es tan importante como el contenido. El trabajo “Dejad que los niños vengan a mí” es muy bueno, pero SoHo no debió patrocinarlo

Context is as important as content. The work “Let the children come to me” is very good, but SoHo shouldn't have endorsed it.

Fernanda Contreras gives her opinion (@PardeGatos) in two tweets (1, 2):

Si alguien, a favor o en contra de Soho, abre diciendo 'sin moralismos', empezó mal. De eso se trata, de debatir sobre morales. En ese sentido, estar a favor de Soho no es ‘no ser moralista', sino argumentar en pro de una moral opuesta a la del Balbuceador.

If someone, for or against Soho, starts by saying ‘no intention to be a moralist', they are beginning the wrong way. That's all it is about: debating about morals. In that sense, to support or oppose Soho is not ‘being moralistic,' but arguing for a morality opposed to the Stammerer General's

Ana Maria Villamil C (@Mme_Bavarde) tells Samper:

@DanielSamperO Así es este país! Se indignan por unas fotos y por la muerte de una lechuza… pero les da igual si matan a una juez!

@DanielSamperO This is how this country is! They are outraged because of some pictures and the death of an owl… but they don't care if a judge is murdered!

Tiffany Aching (@AgnesCheshire) says that,

A los curas les queda fácil comerse niños porque la iglesia tiene muchas organizaciones y colegios. Y También trabajan con niños vulnerables

For Catholic priests, it's easy to have sex with children because the church has many organizations and schools. And they also work with vulnerable kids.

SoHo's editor-in-chief Daniel Samper Ospira (@DanielSamperO) tweeted (1, 2):

Los esfuerzos de las autoridades deberían ser contra la pedofilia, no contra el fotógrafo que la tomó como temática de trabajo y de denuncia[.] Las fotos no inducen a malos pensamientos con los niños, sino a sentir indignación ante el cura que les coquetea.

The authorities' efforts should [focus] against pedophilia, not against the photographer which used it as a subject for work and denunciation[.] The photos don't incite to [have] impure thoughts with the children, but to feeling outrage at the priest flirting with them.

On the local blogosphere, Jonathan from A la diestra [es] defends Ms Hoyos' request, while Carlos Forero harshly criticizes Samper and Vélez on Segunda Plana [es]:

Lo hecho por Vélez y Samper es asqueroso, usar a menores de edad desnudos en una exposición artística o en una revista para adultos es depravado, su supuesta iniciativa de denuncia se queda corta ante el hecho de la exhibición de los cuerpos de los niños.

What Vélez and Samper did is disgusting, using naked minors for an artistic exposition or an adult magazine is perverted, their alleged initiative of denunciation runs short before the fact of the exhibition of the children's bodies.

But David Osorio at De avanzada supports [es] Samper by republishing the controversial photos and attacking the Inspector General:

[E]n estos días el fanático, fundamentalista e intolerante Ordóñez ha vuelto a poner todas las armas que tiene a su alcance, lanza en ristre contra la revista SoHo, una vez más, por unas fotos que no son de su retorcido católico gusto y agrado.

In the last few days the fanatic, fundamentalist, and intolerant [Inspector General] Ordóñez has set up again all the weapons in his reach, attacking SoHo magazine, again, because of some photos which aren't of his twisted, catholic liking.

Colombia: Columnist Threatens to Sue Twitter User for Slander

Julián Ortega Martínez — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 21:12:08 +0000

Political website La Silla Vacía summarizes [es] the online fight between columnist Ernesto Yamhure (@eyamhure), a staunch supporter of former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, and Twitter user Nicolás González (@nicoagonzalez). González criticized Yamhure's latest op-ed [es] where he mentions a character played by late comedian Jaime Garzón, claiming [es] the columnist “must have been the happiest [man]” when Garzón was murdered in 1999. Yamhure replied by stating [es] he was going to sue González, “today,” for slander.

Latin America: On teleSUR's Coverage of Libya Uprising

Julián Ortega Martínez — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 21:12:07 +0000

Latin American news channel teleSUR, backed by the Venezuelan government and broadcasting from Caracas, managed earlier this week to send several journalists (including a special correspondent, Jordán Rodríguez) into Tripoli to cover the ongoing uprising in Libya. Nonetheless, its coverage [es], which seems quite different to the one provided by other international news media, has caught the attention of many Latin Americans.

Latin American news channel teleSUR. Image by Flickr user alejandro! (CC BY-NC 2.0).

Unlike the Egyptian protests, when teleSUR mostly relied on the coverage by Al Jazeera English (both outlets have a content deal since 2006) and which were celebrated as a “victory” by the network, teleSUR seemed to have, specially during the early days of their coverage inside Libya, a favourable bias to the country's ruler Muammar Al Gaddafi. Critics of teleSUR have claimed it is a “propaganda tool” for left-wing Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, and last week when rumours emerged about Gaddafi having fled to Venezuela, many people were reminded about the close relationship between the two leaders.

Prometeo from Poder5 [es] compares teleSUR coverage of Libya with the one by outlets such as Al Jazeera and the BBC:

La cosa es que a los medios no se les ha permitido filmar todo como quiesieran, solo la televisor del estado funciona lo que se ve por Al Jazeera y otros ha sido por periodistas valientes que se ha infiltrado y por ciudadanos libios que han tomado fotos con su celulares y cámaras para enviarlas fuera.
Curiosamente la Cadena de noticias Tele SUR ha tenido acceso al mismo lugar donde estaban las manifestaciones y reporta que todo está bien
[…]
Yo pregunto, ¿será que los de TeleSUR llegaron a otro país por equivocación? ¿Será que están manipulando la información? ¿Será que hay una agenda de parte del gobierno de Hugo Chávez, el dueño de TeleSUR, para lavarle la cara a su amigo Gaddafi?

The thing is that media have not been allowed to report everything as they wish, only the state TV works, what we can see through Al Jazeera and other [things] have been reported by courageous journalists who have infiltrated and by Libyan citizens taking pictures with their cellphones and cameras to send them abroad.
Interestingly, the teleSUR news network has had access to the same place where the demonstrations were taking place and reports that everything is okay.
[…]
I ask, the teleSUR reporters have mistakenly arrived to another country? Are they manipulating the information? Is there an agenda by president Hugo Chávez's administration, teleSUR's owner, to wash the face of his friend Gaddafi?

There was also some controversy in Argentina [es], when state news agency Télam used teleSUR's coverage to report that “Tripoli is in peace”.

Argentinian Observatorio Marxista de Medios publishes an e-mail [es] sent by a writer working for the local Trotskyist party's weekly newspaper, where he also criticizes teleSUR's coverage of Libya:

Se entiende por qué Telesur, la cadena de noticias con sede en Caracas, tomó de forma muy distinta los acontecimientos sucedidos en Egipto y los que hoy sacuden a Libia. Mientras semanas atrás retransmitía casi a tiempo completo lo que registraba Al Jazira, hablando de la “revolución social triunfante”, hoy apenas informa sobre lo que pasa en Libia, dando un trato especial al gobierno de Gadafi e incluso diciendo que “prosigue la tensión en Libia con protestas a favor y en contra del presidente”. Pero no pueden transmitir mucho, ya que cualquier información más o menos seria que tienen que dar desde allí habla de la brutal, sanguinaria y letal represión que Gadafi descarga sobre la población Libia.

We understand why Telesur, the Caracas-based news network, treated in different ways the events which occurred in Egypt and those shaking Libya today. While weeks ago it rebroadcasted almost around the clock what Al Jazeera was feeding, speaking about the “triumphant social revolution”, today it barely reports the Libyan events, giving a special treatment to Gaddafi's government and even claiming that “the tension in Libya continues with demonstrations for and against the president.” But they can't broadcast a lot, because any more or less accurate information they should report from there is about the brutal, bloody, and lethal repression Gaddafi is venting against the Libyan people.

But Ález Arango, from far-left blog Utopia la palabra, defends teleSUR [es] and criticizes Welsh philosopher (and supporter of Hugo Chávez) Alan Woods‘ stance on the Libya crisis:

Telesur cuenta con un equipo periodístico en el corazón de Trípoli. Se trata de un medio de comunicación alternativo que informa de manera objetiva acerca de los sucesos que tienen lugar en el Norte de África.
[…] Quiero manifestar que los informes del señor Alan Woods están basados exclusivamente en informaciones provenientes de los medios de prensa occidentales procapitalistas incluyendo Al Jazeera […] Hacer eco a las informaciones de las agencias de prensa occidentales y tomarlas como la verdad revelada implica la enorme probabilidad de incurrir en falsos juicios de interpretación aacerca de la realidad y hacerse parte del coro que encabeza occidente cuyo propósito es el de ocupar Libia y posicionarse en ese territorio para ganar espacio y poder confrontar desde allí el auge revolucionario de los pueblos árabes.

Telesur has a journalistic team in the heart of Tripoli. We're talking about an alternative media outlet which reports in an objective way about the events happening in North Africa.
[…]I want to state that the reports by Alan Woods are based exclusively in information from western, pro-capitalist media including Al Jazeera […] Echoing the reports by the western news agencies and taking them as revealed truth implies the huge possibility of making false interpretative opinions about reality and become part of the chorus leaded by the West, whose purpose is occupying Libya and taking positions inside that country to earn space and face from there the revolutionary boom by Arab peoples.

Anti-Chávez satire blog El chigüire bipolar mocks teleSUR [es] with a post titled: “teleSUR reports that Libya looks ‘completely normal' from Google Earth.”

Twitter has not escaped from the controversy. Alonso Moleiro (@amoleiro), a journalist in Caracas, states:

El e[]pisodio de Libia es la muerte defin[it]iva de la credibilidad de Telesur.

The Libyan episode is the definitive death for Telesur's credibility.

Santiago B. (@santib_), also from Caracas, wonders:

¿Será que Telesur no se pilló al propio embajador de Libia ante la ONU llorando por la matanza de miles de sus compatriotas?.

Didn't Telesur catch the Libyan ambassador to the UN crying because of the murder of thousands of his fellow country people?

@elojocondientes tweets from Argentina:

TeleSur está haciendo una cobertura espectacular. te recomiendo que sigas el programa Dossier de W Mrtinez. Impecable. #Libia

TeleSur is having an awesome coverage. I recommend you follow Dossier [es] with W M[a]rtinez. Flawless. #Libya

Venezuelan Twitter user Abi (@AbiG90) says:

Me gustaria saber que piensa ahora el conductor de Dossier y telesur con todas las pruebas que hay en video de lo que acontece en Libia

I'd like to know what do Dossier's presenter and Telesur think with all the evidence in video about what's going on in Libya

Carlos R. (@komunikt) writes from Caracas:

segun Telesur lo que ocurre en #libia es una riña entre vecinos que no trasciende mas alla de la callecita donde hubo los manotazos.

according to Telesur what's happening in #libya is a neighbour's fight which doesn't go beyond the little street where the slaps occurred.

@radiomachaca jokes:

Telesur Informa:Queman mansion de Gadaffi en Lybia pero trankilos esa es un vieja Tradicion Para demostrarle su amor a el Lider

Telesur reports: Gadaffi's mansion burnt down in Lybia, but it's okay, it's an old tradition to show love for their Leader

Al Giordano from NarcoNews posted a long critique of teleSUR, calling it a “flop” and claiming that the network “has treated its viewers to a total cover-up and whitewashed version of events in Libya. It has served as a clownish propaganda vehicle for the embattled Libyan dictator.” His post has received many comments, and a few days later, Giordano published a comment where he reveals that there is an ongoing controversy inside teleSUR:

It may also be of interest to our readers that the reporter, Reed Lindsay [sent by teleSUR to western Libya], is a 2003 graduate of the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism, and we have received information from other TeleSur journalists that there is a strong debate within that news organization at present over its coverage of Libya, perhaps unprecedented in the network's six years in that journalists within the channel - the workers of the station - have strongly objected to the simulation and dishonesty that plagued TeleSur's Libya coverage up until now. As with the larger Bolivarian revolution, there are many, many people of conscience who see human rights and resistance as higher priorities than geopolitical alliances, so things have taken an interesting turn, to say the least. Let's hope to see more of it.

On Friday it was reported that a teleSUR crew was arrested [es], despite being inside a diplomatic Venezuelan vehicle; Mr Rodríguez's cellphone was seized (where he had recorded some footage in Tripoli), and he and his cameraman Jesús Romero were beaten by a group of policemen. On Saturday, Rodríguez tweeted [es] that foreign news media reporters will stay at Tripoli's Hotel Roxes.

Colombia: Outrage after failed FARC hostage release

Julián Ortega Martínez — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:50:11 +0000

On December 8, 2010, in an open letter to former senator Piedad Córdoba, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced they would release five hostages: local politicians Marcos Baquero and Armando Acuña, from San José del Guaviare and Garzón, respectively; marine infant Henry López; national police official Guillermo Javier Solórzano; and army corporal Salín Sanmiguel.

After obtaining permission from the national government, and the participation of Brazil as mediator and logistics provider, the hostage releases, assisted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), were taking place without any difficulty: on Wednesday February 9, Baquero was released (even bringing a cat [es] from the jungle, who was his only companion [es] during his captivity); and on Friday, February 11, councillor Acuña and infant López met again with their families. On Saturday it was announced that another hostage would be released on Sunday, police officer Carlos Ocampo, kidnapped late December 2010 in San Antonio, Tolima.

However, things did not go as planned on Sunday. Initially, bad weather was blamed as the cause for the delay of the operation. Ocampo was freed after being picked up from an unknown location and taken to the Ibagué airport (central-western Colombia), and later to Bogotá where he was reunited with his relatives. But Solórzano and Sanmiguel were not present at the coordinates provided by FARC to former senator Córdoba. Eduardo Pizarro Leongómez, who was appointed by the Santos administration as delegate for the releases, told the media that the FARC had given the wrong coordinates and that the kidnapped were not in Tolima but in Cauca (southwestern Colombia).

Many Colombian Twitter users expressed their outrage:

María Isabel Ángel (@MaisAngel) (1, 2):

Con el envío de falsas coordenadas, las FARC demuestran que no había ningún acto humanitario en entrega de secuestrados. Quién sabe que hay detrás de eso, la interrupción de operativos militares para liberaciones les conviene de algún modo.

By providing false coordinates, FARC shows there was no humanitarian act in the release of the kidnapped. Who knows what's behind that, the suspension of military operations for the releases is convenient [for them] in some way.

José L. Peñarredonda (@noalsilencio) (1, 2, 3, 4):

La pregunta complicada que hay que responder es si @Piedadcordoba actuó o no de mala fe. A la larga, a @PiedadCordoba le convenía más que todo saliera bien. ¿Pero si los uribestias tienen razón después de todo? Si las Farc usaron a @PiedadCordoba para ganar ventaja estratégica, eso cambia muchas cosas[, p]ero si @PiedadCordoba usó al Gobierno para darle ventaja estratégica a las Farc, pues lastimosamente los uribestias tenían razón

The hard question which should be answered is if @Piedadcordoba acted with bad faith or not. Ultimately, it was better for @PiedadCordoba if everything turned out okay. But what if ‘Uribeasts' [a derogatory term to refer to supporters of former president Álvaro Uribe] are right after all? If FARC used @PiedadCordoba to gain a strategical advantage, that changes many things, but if @PiedadCordoba used the Government to provide FARC a strategical advantage, then unfortunately the ‘Uribeasts' were right

Camilo Andés (@n0ta_mental):

y para mi que @piedadcordoba y su grupito armado Farc, están transportando droga del Tolima al Valle usando las liberaciones como excusa!!

I'm sure @piedadcordoba and her little FARC armed group are moving drugs from Tolima to Valle [del Cauca] using the releases as an excuse!!

@Vulturno:

estos hijueputas de las FARC se parecen cada vez más a esos generales que sacan el resultado a punta de caguémosla y despues nos disculpamos

these FARC motherf***ers increasingly seem like those army generals who achieve results by screwing it up first and apologizing later

@ensergio:

Las Farc son unos desgraciados y buscan show. Pero si mañana se puede de nuevo coger el helicóptero pa liberar a la gente, ¿no vale la pena?

FARC are bastards and seek to make a show. But if tomorrow the helicopter can be used again to free people, isn't it worthy?

Victor Solano (@solano):

Lo de hoy con las falsas coordenadas recuerdan otros episodios de mentiras enormes de las farc como el caso de Emmanuel, hijo de Clara

Today's news with the false coordinates remind us of other episodes of huge lies by FARC as the case of Emmanuel, [politician] Clara [Rojas's son]

Since FARC top leader Guillermo Sáenz, aka Alfonso Cano, is long believed to be hiding at Las Hermosas National Park [es] (which is close to the area where the hostage release operation took place), with the Colombian Army actively pursuing him, some Twitter users claim the false coordinates were a strategy:

Diana (@DianaPala):

Los defensores d Colombianos x las Farc serán tan ignorantes q se tragan cuento d “error” en las coordenadas? Las dieron falsas! Entiendan!

Those defending Colombians for FARC [derogatory term to refer to ‘Colombianos por la paz,' [es] (Colombian's for peace)] are so ignorant that they buy the “mistaken” coordinates story? They were false! Get it!

Juan Gutiérrez (@JuPaGuCa):

Sabe usted cuando vamos a saber de Alfonso Cano. Cuando alguno se lo encuentre en Isla Margarita. Y sin duda ya va a mitad de camino.

Do you know when are we going to know about ‘Alfonso Cano'? When someone stumbles upon him in Margarita Island. There's no doubt he's already halfway.

Daniel Arango (@stultaviro), with irony, writes:

Felicitaciones a @PiedadCordoba. El operativo de liberación del comandante Alfonso Cano fue todo un éxito.

Congratulations to @PiedadCordoba. The release operation for commander Alfonso Cano was a complete success.

Still, some questioned the government's version, like Laura Gil (@lauraggils) (1, 2):

No entiendo cómo se pasa juicio a favor FARC o Gob ref: liberaciones. Nadie sabe exactamente qué pasó. ¿No deberíamos tener cosas + claras? / Pregunta para los q tienen todo claro sobre incidente liberaciones: como sabe el Gob q los dos secuestrados estan en Cauca?

I don't get how one exactly favours FARC or the Gov't re: releases. No one exactly knows what happened. Shouldn't we have things clearer? / Question for those who have full clarity about the release incident: how does the gov't know the two kidnapped are in Cauca?

On Sunday night, Pizarro announced [es] that early on Monday February 14, the ICRC would propose an area in Cauca for the hostage releases to be finally completed, but that military operations will resume in Tolima at 06:00 (11:00 UTC) on Monday, as previously agreed.

Thumbnail image by Flickr user Agencia Prensa Rural, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.

Colombia: If Mubarak were Colombian

Julián Ortega Martínez — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 18:59:19 +0000

Around the time Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was scheduled to deliver his disappointing speech on February 10, 2011, the hashtag #siMubarakfueracolombiano (”If Mubarak were Colombian”) started trending on the local twittersphere.

Some users couldn't help comparing him to, for example, former Colombian presidents:

@afmoralest

#SiMubarakFueraColombiano le tendria miedo a @Alvarouribevel

#ifmubarakwerecolombian he'd be afraid of @Alvarouribevel [former president Álvaro Uribe]

@YudeNaguib

#simubarakfueracolombiano Seria el mejor amigo de Chavez y @AlvaroUribeVel

#ifmubarakwerecolombian he'd be [Venezuelan president Hugo] Chávez's and [former Colombian president] @AlvaroUribeVel's best friend

@JuanPabloVegaB

#siMubarakFueracolombiano “Aquí estoy y aquí me quedo”

#ifmubarakwerecolombian “I'm here and I'm here to stay” [as said by former Colombian president Ernesto Samper]

Others related him to episodes in local politics:

@vopa1

#siMubarakfueracolombiano ya habria derrotado la revolucion con una tutela

#ifmubarakwerecolombian he'd already defeated the revolution in court with an amparo

@donAlvar

#SiMubarakFueraColombiano los Nule ya tendrían el contrato para hacer un parqueadero en la plaza Tahrir

#ifmubarakwerecolombian the Nule group would already have a contract to build a parking lot at Tahrir Square

@olgacostany

#SiMubarakFueraColombiano tendria hipopotamos en su casa.

#ifmubarakwerecolombian he'd have hippos in his house.

@santana_mao

#SiMubarakFueraColombiano El asesor de imagen seria PIEDAD CORDOBA.

#ifmubarakwerecolombian [former senator] Piedad Córdoba would be his image consultant.

@FaridZardibia

#simubarakfueracolombiano José Obdulio andaria de turbante y con el Corán bajo el brazo. No tendría pincher si no Camellito Arias.

#ifmubarakwerecolombian [former presidential adviser] José Obdulio [Gaviria] would be wearing a turban and carrying a Qu'ran under his arm. He wouldn't have a pincher but a ‘camel' [former Agriculture minister Andres Felipe] Árias.

@FernandoCanoC

#simubarakfueracolombiano Ingrid ya lo hubiera demandado y le tendria q hipotecar las piramides

#ifmubarakwerecolombian Íngrid [Betancourt] would have already sued him and he'd have to mortgage the pyramids.

Some users even asked:

@Juanesg

#simubarakfueracolombiano , esperen estamos en un 100% seguros de que no es Colombiano??? …

#ifmubarakwerecolombian, wait, are we 100% sure he's not Colombian??? …

@AndresCrispin found at least one similarity:

#SiMubarakFueraColombiano perseguirían a los periodistas… MOMENTO, eso igual pasa acá o_o

#ifmubarakwerecolombian journalists would be persecuted… WAIT, that also happens here o_o

Finally, other users believe that a revolution like the one taking place in Egypt would be unlikely in Colombia:

@MyloSR

#simubarakfueracolombiano todavía estaría en el poder porque somos demasiado flojos para protestar

#ifmubarakwerecolombian he'd be still in power because we're too lazy to protest

@GermanCeron

#SiMubarakFueraColombiano estaría muy tranquilo, porque en Colombia nadie protesta y a los jóvenes no les importa su futuro

#ifmubarakwerecolombian he would be quite relaxed, because in Colombia no one protests and young people don't care about their future

@Jacr3D

#simubarakfueracolombiano en este momento estaríamos sin twitter y no existirían HT tan maricas como este :D

#ifmubarakwerecolombian right now we wouldn't have Twitter access and a stupid HT like this one wouldn't exist :D