COLOMBIA: PRESIDENT ALVARO URIBE IN OFFICE LESS THAN A WEEK DECLARES 90-DAY DECREE OF EMERGENCY MEASURES TO CRACK DOWN ON VIOLENCE AND A NEW ASSETS TAX
Record ID:
230505
COLOMBIA: PRESIDENT ALVARO URIBE IN OFFICE LESS THAN A WEEK DECLARES 90-DAY DECREE OF EMERGENCY MEASURES TO CRACK DOWN ON VIOLENCE AND A NEW ASSETS TAX
- Title: COLOMBIA: PRESIDENT ALVARO URIBE IN OFFICE LESS THAN A WEEK DECLARES 90-DAY DECREE OF EMERGENCY MEASURES TO CRACK DOWN ON VIOLENCE AND A NEW ASSETS TAX
- Date: 14th August 2002
- Summary: (U7) BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (AUGUST 12, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV INTERIOR MINISTER FERNANDO LONDOÑO AT PRESS CONFERENCE 0.03 2. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MINISTRO LONDOÑO, SAYING "The government has made tonight the decision to declare the state of domestic commotion." 0.09 3. SLV CARS AND BUSES IN THE STREETS OF BOGOTA; SLV PEOPLE WALKING DOWN BOGOTA STREET (2 SHOTS) 0.21 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) UNIDENTIFIED LOCAL RESIDENT, SAYING "All the measures that the government takes and that are necessary and that help, well they should in some way generate the tools to solve the problems that we have right now in the country. They're called for and I support them." 0.34 5. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) UNIDENTIFIED LOCAL RESIDENT, SAYING: "I think it's too dangerous. If four years ago, the country was preparing for peace, today, after four years, we're preparing for war." 0.45 6. MV/SCU MAN READING NEWSPAPER; SCU NEWSPAPER "EL TIEMPO" (5 SHOTS) 1.06 7. SLV POLITICAL ANALYST FERNANDO CEPEDA WALKING 1.10 8. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) POLITICAL ANALYST FERNANDO CEPEDA SAYING "The measures that the council of ministers took last night and the ones it can take during the six months indicate that they have given the president great power. For example, this tax he introduced yesterday, that is not any power; that would take a president months (to pass) in Congress. It's the same with the reassignment of certain budgetary items and calling up the (military) reserves, etc. In such a way that, well, we finally have a government that understands that there are constitutional tools to confront the crisis that the Colombian people have been living." 1.52 9. SLV STREET SCENES WITH PEOPLE AND SOLDIERS WALKING (3 SHOTS) 2.07 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 29th August 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
- Country: Colombia
- Reuters ID: LVAM4URQ6JMWAAV2LB4BA48ULUD
- Story Text: Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, in office less than
a week, has declared a 90-day decree starting on Monday that
initiates a number of measures to crackdown on violence and a
new assets tax to fight the leftist rebels and far-right
militias who control much of the country.
Keeping his election pledge to beef up Colombia's war
effort, President Alvaro Uribe declared a 90-day state of
domestic commotion on Monday (August 12, 2002) and said
he will make the wealthy pay an assets tax to fight the leftist
rebels and far-right militias who control much of the country.
The crackdown, which comes less than a week after
suspected FARC guerrillas tried to shell Uribe's presidential
inauguration and killed 20 people, will also allow the
right-winger to pass laws by decree and restrict civil rights,
although the government said it will not do this for now.
The powers are valid for 90 days but can be extended to 210
days.
The decree was read by Interior Minister Fernando Londono
at a midnight news conference after a day-long Sunday (Aug 11)
cabinet meeting. The state of domestic commotion, a measure
short of a state of emergency, is a response to the FARC's
death-threat campaign against the country's mayors and local
officials, Londono said.
The government has said would not use emergency powers to
restrict civil rights. If it so chose, the government could
limit personal movement, impose restrictions on the media,
search homes without a warrant and arrest people on suspicion
without proof that they have committed a crime.
Using its constitutional powers, the government intends
to raise $780 million by creating a 1.2 percent asset tax to
fund additional troops, police officers, civilian "police
auxiliaries," special prosecutors, judges and human rights
officials.
Despite massive military aid from the United States, Washington
has donated $1.5 billion in aid to Bogota for the
war on drugs, Colombia's state security forces are
ill-prepared to contain the powerful outlaw groups.
Uribe currently enjoys a 77-percent popularity rating.
He was elected on a wave of popular rejection of former
President Andres Pastrana's attempts to negotiate peace with
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a 17,000-strong
Marxist guerrilla group known as "FARC." The talks collapsed
in February, after three years.
Uribe was elected by a landslide in May after pledging to
get tough with the leftist rebels and far-right paramilitary
outlaws fighting a 38-year-old war which claims thousands of
lives a year and has turned huge stretches of Colombia into
lawless fiefdoms disputed by rival warlords.
Armed troops are already a common sight on Colombian
streets, but many people still feel helpless when confronted
by attacks such as last Wednesday's mortar bombardment, which
was apparently aimed at Uribe's swearing-in ceremony but
instead killed homeless drug addicts in a poor Bogota
neighbourhood.
Former presidents Cesar Gaviria and Ernesto Samper
decreed states of emergency in the 1990s. The constitutional
court twice overturned the measure, but the government says
that it has no legal grounds for doing so this time.
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