Aida Quilcue registers her candidacy for Senate elections

On 2nd February, Colombian indigenous leader Aida Quilcue registered her name for March’s Senate elections after collecting more than 65,000 signatures in support of her candidacy in just 2 weeks. Aida, who was in Britain at the end of September at the invitation of Unison Northern and Northern TUC and in conjunction with the Colombia Solidarity Campaign, is aiming to be elected to one of two Senate seats which are reserved for indigenous senators.
Aida split from the Alianza Social Indigena (Social Indigenous Alliance) party in late January over political differences, leaving her with very little time to collect the 50,000 signatures needed to run for election as an independent candidate. She has been critical of the national Alianza Social Indigena’s national policies, including its support for presidential candidate Sergio Fajardo, who has proposed the continuity of President Alvaro Uribe’s security policies which have led to systematic human rights violations and (the prosecution service is investigating the murder of up to 2000 citizens by the Colombian army over the past 5 years).
Aida said, “I’d like to thank everybody who has supported my candidacy. My standing for election is the result of decisions by indigenous communities, and not imposed by political parties as is usually the case”. The Senate and Congressional elections will be held on 14th March.