Talking About Colombia

With a lead of 3.57 percent over President Juan Manuel Santos, Oscar Ivan Zuluaga won the first round of voting in Colombia’s presidential election last Saturday.

Zuluaga’s victory is evidence that few Colombians believe in Santos’s proposed peace plan. You could say the results of the election gauged the temperature for any future referendum with the FARC.

The people of Colombia have spoken: no peace negotiations with the FARC under the current conditions in which the FARC continue to recruit children, bomb state infrastructure, kidnap, extortion, and traffic drugs.

Zuluaga received an overwhelming majority of votes in areas which have historically been FARC-controlled.

In Casanare, of 121,301 votes, 57.72 percent were for Zuluaga and 8.94 percent for Santos. (10.24 percent for Ramirez, 10.15 percent for Lopez, 8.31 percent for Peñaloza, and 4.62 percent blank vote)

In Caqueta, of 90,664 votes, 51.65 percent were for Zuluaga and 16.71 percent for Santos. (11.90 percent for Lopez, 8.96 percent for Ramirez, 5.61 percent for Peñaloza, and 5.13 percent blank vote.)

Zuluaga already announced he will cut off all negotiations with the FARC the day after he is president. Negotiations will only continue if the FARC cease all terrorism against the Colombian people.

The video below shows why Santos lost the first round of elections:

A reporter from Spain asked FARC negotiators in Havana if they would say sorry to their victims. The response was laughter, and a song: “Maybe, maybe, maybe.”

Related:

Shocking to hear FARC and President Santos speak of ICC in same vein.

International law trumps transitional laws.

Schools as war zones.