If you can’t beat them, despair

Alváro Uribe and Evo Morales feel the heat. But can they stay in the kitchen?

Only a year ago Mark Penn was the most influential man in Washington, according to the Washington Post. Now he’s just another lobbyist who thought he thought he could represent the cake and work for the candidate trying to eat it.


Penn resigned as Hillary Clinton’s chief campaign strategist following a conflict of interests. Besides running the Democratic candidate’s nomination, Penn was also lobbying for the Colombian government trying to get a Free Trade Agreement with the US; a deal Clinton is campaigning against.

The antics of an over zealous PR-guru may only dent Hillary’s campaign, but they mean a significant blow to an already beleaguered Alvaro Uribe. The Colombian president was forced to fire Penn’s public relations firm last week, as the news gained momentum.

The timing couldn’t be worse for Uribe’s government. First of all the crisis with neighbouring Ecuador over an incursion into its territory is far from over. Ecuador has dragged Colombia before the International Tribunal in The Hague for fumigating coca-plantations and poisoning land across the border. President Rafael Correa claims that Colombia is purposely discrediting his government by linking it to the FARC guerrilla group.

“I don’t want a fight with Bogotá,” Correa told El País in an interview, “but as long as Colombia keeps up its negative attitude, re-establishing ties will be difficult,” he added, claiming the Uribe government knew that one of the people killed during the now infamous raid on the FARC’s number two Raúl Reyes, was an Ecuadorean. According to the Colombians and the local press the victim was also a supplier to the insurgent group.

Uribe’s second headache is the deteriorating health of Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt, the most prominent of the FARC-hostages. According to her son, Mrs Betancourt is suffering from hepatitis B and leismaniasis and needs a blood transfusion urgently. The government of president Sarkozy, which has turned the plight of Betancourt into its most prominent foreign policy objective, sent a medical team to attend to her, but without an inkling of how to reach the former senator.

So desperate is France is to see Betancourt released, that they have even cooked up an elaborate guerrilla-adoption plan with Spain and Switzerland. According to the French news web site Rue 89, the plan consists of exchanging the hostages for imprisoned FARC terrorists. These would then be shipped off to France, avoiding trial, presumably to spend the rest of their days basking in the Riviera sunshine like many a deposed African dictator. France would also lobby its European neighbours to have the FARC removed from the EU’s list of terrorist organisations.

As for the guerrilla organisation itself, they seem in no hurry to get their high profile hostage back to civilisation, no matter how critical her condition. Yesterday the FARC announced it wouldn’t be freeing any hostages until Washington and Bogotá release some of the imprisoned insurgents. If the worst comes to the worst and Betancourt dies in a remote jungle hideout, it’s hard to see how Uribe won’t be allotted part of the blame.

Meanwhile, in Bolivia, the rift between La Paz and the separatist provinces to the south and east has deepened yet again. President Evo Morales was so desperate that he turned to the Church to help mediate in this conflict, as well as the OEA and a host of foreign ministers from neighbouring countries.

But even the clergy tossed the towel in the ring. Cardinal Julio Terrazas claimed it was “impossible to facilitate the dialogue,” in these circumstances. Nonetheless church officials met with prefects of the rebellious provinces yesterday in the hope of bringing about some kind of truce.

Authorities in the province of Santa Cruz at the head of the separatist movement, have sworn to go ahead with a referendum on autonomy on May 4. La Paz has forbidden the election, calling it an “act of sedition.” Government minister Alfredo Rada threatened to have the seperatist leaders tried for undermining the unity of the country.

But as the Morales government rails against the provinces for demanding a greater say in where their money goes, the real ‘enemy of the people’ is slowly creeping up on Bolivia. Inflation was up to 4,75 percent for the first three months of this year, making the governments aim of 7 percent over 2008 look a little optimistic. Protesters have taken to the streets demanding an end to price rises.

To make matters the worse, the government has taken an unsettlingly familiar approach to combating this economic ill – they’ve tampered with the way inflation is calculated. Claiming the INE – the Bolivian equivalent of the INDEC – needed to incorporate new products into its range, the system has been ‘updated.’ When they do finally appear, the end of year figures for inflation will raise serious doubt. Not only among foreign investors, but also more importantly, among everybody else. From the housewives of El Alto to the coca-farmers of Chapare, all those natural supporters of Evo Morales will kick up a fuss. If that happens, a few rebellious prefects clamouring for attention will seem like Christmas.