Green candidate Antanas Mockus has shot to the top of the polls in Colombia in the last month. Daniel Kogoy reports on this contender to be the world’s first Green head of state.
In 2001 former Colombian Green leader, Ingrid Betancourt gave a rousing speech at the Global Greens Conference in Canberra. She declared then “the future is Green, and will be”.
This year, the Colombian Green Party may deliver on Betancourt’s vision with its candidate, Dr Antanas Mockus, in with a real chance of becoming the world’s first Green head of state in Colombia’s 30 May presidential elections. Poll results released on Monday show Mockus as the favoured candidate.
In late February 2010, outgoing President Alvaro Uribe’s attempt to alter the constitution once again in order to run for president a third time was rejected by the constitutional court. The almost certain prospect of another Uribe victory gave way to a more wide open race. Uribe’s party, the party of the “U”, preselected former defence minister, Juan Manuel Santos, to run for president.
Initially, Santos was tipped to win the election on the back of Uribe’s high popularity but his hold on the polls has since weakened. Uribe’s government made many Colombians feel more secure — but in the process, he trampled all over the constitution and spied on judges, rival politicians and journalists. Relations with neighbouring Venezuela and Ecuador have deteriorated as a result of actions such as the bombing of Ecuador’s sovereign territory. The incumbent government has maintained strong links to murderous paramilitary groups and has reportedly bought votes.
Uribe has also been held responsible for the “false positives” disgrace. Uribe introduced a rewards policy whereby military personnel were rewarded with cash, extra leave, and overseas holidays for the number of “guerilla” kills they achieved. More than 2000 young civilians were murdered and presented as battlefield casualties, under the watch of the then defence minister Santos.
It was in this toxic political environment that the Colombian Green Party came into being. Mockus’s meteoric rise in the polls is all the more noteworthy given that the party was officially formed only in October 2009 when three popular former political rivals and mayors of Bogota — Antanas Mockus, Enrique Penalosa and Lucho Garzon — joined forces with the original Green Party of Colombia.
Just a month ago Mockus was polling at 8 per cent as preferred presidential candidate. His support had grown to 22 per cent by 8 April. On 14 April 29 per cent of voters surveyed said they would vote for Mockus in the presidential elections to Santos’s 36 per cent.
Monday’s poll (Spanish) had him as the preferred candidate for President with 38 per cent of the vote to Santos’s 29 per cent. In a second round runoff between the two leading candidates Mockus polled 50 per cent to Santos’s 37 per cent, with the remainder undecided or informal.
So who is Antanas Mockus?
