Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 26 July 2018

Powerful ex-Colombia president vows to resign from Senate

By MANUEL RUEDA would use his position in the
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Senate and close relation-
Influential former President ship with Duque to sway
Alvaro Uribe said he would the new president on deci-
resign from his Senate seat sive matters, such as mak-
Tuesday after Colombia's ing changes to the govern-
Supreme Court ordered ment's peace accord with
him to testify on allegations the Revolutionary Armed
of witness tampering. Forces of Colombia.
Uribe tweeted that he felt On Tuesday evening,
"morally impeded" from Duque said Uribe has the
continuing in his role as a right of due process and
senator while also mount- presumption of innocence.
ing a defense against ac- "We express our solidarity to
cusations that he has he ex-President Uribe and his
refuted. family in these moments,"
"I've proceeded according he said. "And we are con-
to the law and my rights," fident that his honor and in-
he wrote on Twitter, while nocence will prevail."
decrying the Supreme Uribe has been dogged
Court's press release as a by allegations of links to
"pre-judgment." drug cartels and paramili-
For several years the pow- Former President and re-elected Senator Alvaro Uribe talks to congressmen during the inauguration taries since the start of his
erful ex-chief of state has of the newly-elected legislature in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, July 20, 2018. political career in the early
been involved in a pro- Associated Press 1980s, when the civil avia-
tracted legal dispute relat- tion agency he led was ac-
ed to long-simmering and there were grounds to in- varo Hernan Prada, would The case comes just two cused of giving air licenses
vehemently denied claims vestigate him for manipu- be asked to respond to ac- weeks before President- to drug traffickers. U.S.
of ties to right-wing para- lating witnesses instead. cusations of "bribery and elect Ivan Duque will be State Department cables
military groups. In a statement, the court procedural fraud." sworn into office, having declassified in May showed
The conservative Uribe ac- provided few details about Cepeda told The Associ- handily won a runoff elec- U.S. officials were told more
cused Ivan Cepeda, a sen- the allegations but said that ated Press that Uribe's asso- tion against ex-guerrilla than two decades ago
ator at the opposite end of after Uribe's case against ciates had offered one wit- Gustavo Petro thanks in that Uribe had ties to drug
the political spectrum, of Cepeda was blocked from ness a bribe in exchange large part to Uribe's sup- cartels.
pressuring prison inmates going forward in February, for retracting accusations port. Though Uribe left the His brother, Santiago Uribe,
to falsely state that he was "People close to ex-Presi- against the former presi- presidency in 2010, he still is awaiting trial on charges
linked to one such group. dent Uribe began new acts dent. has legions of supporters in that he was a leader of a
The Supreme Court found of manipulating witnesses." "Colombia is showing to- Colombia. death squad called the
no evidence to support The court said both Uribe day that no one is above Many Colombians had "Twelve Apostles" that was
Uribe's claim but decided and another lawmaker, Al- the law," Cepeda said. speculated whether Uribe run from his cattle ranch.q

Peru's shoestring circuses struggle to survive

By FRANKLIN BRICENO of 10 million inhabitants His family's circus today still
LIMA, Peru (AP) — Inside a has made it tough to find maintains much of the old-
yellow and blue tent over- enough space to set up a time traditions of the past:
looking the desert hills of tent in a centrally located Clowns use makeup to in-
Peru's capital city, the Tony neighborhood. Gangs of flate the appearance of
Perejil circus comes to life. delinquents charge up to their lips, make jokes and
A set of brown goats hob- $10 a day for circuses to set don goofy, oversized over-
ble up a narrow plank. A up shop in depressed bar- alls. A woman in a pink
woman balances a news- rios. And a 2011 law pro- leotard sways from a cord
paper rolled into an in- hibits them from using wild dangling from the ceiling
verted cone on her nose. animals in their shows. as children watch, mouths
Another performer does "Any available space is agape. The tent has a tra-
acrobatics on horseback sold to malls," lamented ditional cone-shaped roof
before half-empty rows of Alvarez, who also performs and a simple dirt stage.
spectators. as a clown. "No one thinks Even the profession of
The mom-and-pop style In this July 8, 2018 photo, homes in the Puente Piedra shantytown about the circus." clowning has hit hard
spectacle is one of about light up the landscape around the Tony Perejil circus set up on Alvarez remembers happi- times, Alvarez said, adding
a hundred remaining cir- the outskirts of Lima, Peru. er times in the 1980s, when that while some 500 clowns
cuses in Peru that manage Associated Press his father filled their cir- across the country have
to eke out a living despite cus tent with people even their own labor association,
waning public enthusiasm his father and sighed when with Ecuador in search of a though Peru was in the they have been unable to
for clown and animal acts he realized they'd earned brighter future. midst of an economic crisis improve meager wages
in an age of viral internet less than $40. These days, Lima's circus and a war raged between and living conditions.
videos and cellphones. "Lima is lousy," the 52-year- acts find themselves in- the state and Sendero Lu- "The word 'clown' is used
On a recent night, Jose Al- old businessman said, add- creasingly pinched for minoso guerrillas. incorrectly in Peru," he
varez tallied the ticket sales ing he'd move his circus space and money. "The circuses were never said. "It's understood as a
for the circus named after north toward Peru's border Urban expansion in the city affected," he said. pejorative."q