Columns & Blogs

The global community of human rights advocates and scholars rightly criticizes the spread of gated communities worldwide, patrolled by private security and in which the elite find protection.

We have all lived and suffered through the disproportionate focus on the topic of peace in the debates as the only and most important difference between the candidates. Little has been said about other substantive topics, like health care, education or the environment that are as vital as peace and in the end help realize it.

Tomorrow June 5th is the anniversary of the Edward Snowden revelations about Obama's surveillance program. All the while, in our country we have had so much illegal wiretapping going on we could win an award. All the wiretapping makes some people blush. But why is there so much scandal surrounding some young techies who allied with political leaders want to create a society where there is nothing to hide?

The presidential elections will be decided by undecided voters: the abstainers who doubt whether or not to leave their homes on June 15th, those who voted blank in the first round, the independents who voted for Peñalosa, the people on the Left who were left without a candidate and the conservatives respectful of the law who, with good reason, hesitate in following Marta Lucia jump toward Uribism.

The ambiguities and contradictions of Uribism on peace. It is both paradoxical can tragic: the most popular and politicized topic in this election, peace, is at the same time the one that is less discussed.

There are elections that are somewhat routine; they don't entail major changes. But there are other that are decisive because they effect the destiny of a society for decades.

In an interview published in this newspaper, Senator Jorge Robledo reiterated his idea that Santos, Zuluaga and Uribe are the same thing, and insinuated that to maintain ideological coherence and defend his principles, he will not vote for any of them.

The third agreement is of great importance for the country and for the construction of peace, because it substantially advances certain aspects that are key for Colombia.

While in Colombia we remain immersed in the debate about the presidential elections and the second round, the agreement that they reached in Havana in the third point of the peace negotiations have passed unnoted.

Regardless of what we do not know about State drone surveillance activities, recent events in various States make it clear that regulation is needed.

These presidential elections went from being boring to being decisive. The peace process is one of its most crucial and divisive topics, not just because its outcome will profoundly effect our future as a nation, but because the candidates have opposing views about it.

Some good new from the first round of the presidential election is the notable votes for the democratic Left thanks to the distinguished campaign of Clara Lopez.