Vargas Lleras is a hot-tempered man prone to fits of anger, often reprimanding subordinates or lowly politicians for unsatisfactory work or performance. In public, he is usually able to keep up appearances. However, in December 2016, Vargas Lleras, while visiting a village, hit one of his bodyguards on the head (apparently over how the bodyguard was managing a local crowd). The incident went viral and is known as the coscorrón.
Germán Vargas Lleras has typically ranked as one of the most popular politicians in the country, with a teflon-like popularity. While Santos has become extremely unpopular, with a 24% approval in the latest Gallup poll, Vargas Lleras remained quite popular, with favourable ratings in the 50-60% range – because of his identification with the government’s popular policy areas and his detachment from the more controversial areas (peace process, the economy). However, auguring poorly for his nascent presidential campaign, the last Gallup poll in February 2017 showed a major collapse in his popularity: for the first time, he has a net unfavourable rating — 44% to 40%, a 20 point swing since December. He had been hobbled by the the coscorrón, general distaste of establishment politicians like him, unfavourable media coverage and by CR’s La Guajira nightmares; even a xenophobic anti-Venezuelan schoolyard brawl with Diosdado Cabello hasn’t saved him (at an event, he said that the free houses weren’t for venecos, a pejorative term for Venezuelans in certain regions of Colombia, and Diosdado Cabello retorted by calling Vargas hijo del gran puto, or ‘son of a bitch’).
I think the
coscorrón ("smack on the head"?) incident and the dialectical exchange with Diosdado Cabello speak eloquently about the personality and statesmanship of Vargas Lleras. With all his countless flaws, Mr Santos is more classy than his former running mate. As for the drop of Vargas Lleras' popularity and the mood against establishment politicians, I guess it's too soon to say if that trend will continue. I'd rather like to see a decent candidate with chances against Vargas Lleras and the Uribe's clique. There's much time left until the elections, so I won't lose hope by now.
The main news in Colombia is the horrendous tragedy in Mocoa (Putumayo), where torrential rainfall on Friday night led to rivers overflowing and massive mudslides. So far, 210 people have been confirmed dead in this tragedy - and the death toll is rising. Thousands more are affected, losing their homes. A good part of the city has been completely wiped out. It will remain without electricity, drinking water and minimal food for a good while longer. Some of the testimonies relayed the media give you a tiny idea of how absolutely horrible it must have been. Mocoa and Putumayo didn't need this - it's already a relatively poor department which has suffered so much from the armed conflict.
Santos has declared a state of emergency and has been in Mocoa both yesterday and today coordinating rescue and aid efforts.
In contrast to this actual tragedy, yesterday's uribista et al. "march against corruption" seems flippant. The march was a relative success - the numbers game in these is always endless, but they're talking of 130,000 in Medellín, the uribista capital, 15,000 in Bogotá, 10,000 in Cali, 5,000 in Bucaramanga and a few thousands in all of the other major cities in Colombia. There were also marches in 6-7 cities in the US including NYC and Miami. These numbers are larger than past uribista marches, like the one last April, although it mostly confirms Uribe's continued drawing power and the real strength of the Colombian far-right and their societal allies.
Naturally, brazen shamelessness and hypocrisy were the highlights of the march -- the general 'anti-corruption' discourses, the posters decrying the 'political persecution' of poor, tortured souls like convicted criminals Andrés Felipe Arias or Fernando Londoño or the presence of convicted mass murderer Jhon Jairo Velásquez 'Popeye' of Pablo Escobar's Medellín Cartel in the march in Medellín. Disjointed lunatic Pacho Santos (kidnapped and held hostage by the Medellín Cartel in 1990) had a shameful excuse for Popeye's participation - "he's paid his time" - when Popeye has shown no real signs of repentance and plays on the morbid fascination for Escobar/cartels. Uribista justice (mano firme, corazón grande) once again -- the paramilitaries and drug cartels can change and become upstanding moral paragons 
but the FARC will always be terrorists and we must never sympathize with that scum. Mocoa and the Putumayo region are among the hardest hit by poverty, violence and unemployment in Colombia. Avalanches seem to be the combined effect of deforestation and the heavy rainfall associated with
La Niña. The inadequate use of soil, deforested for livestock farming and road construction, aggravated erosion processes in a tropical region of high mountains and rushing rivers...
As for the
uribista crowd, it's fun to see they are still attached to their obsessions. I don't know wether to laugh or cry at Pacho Santos. In any case, this people will always amaze me.
(On a side note, I wonder if that famous TV series on Pablo Escobar has been succesful in Colombia)
