Colombia’s popular movement to reform the nation’s constitution by including explicit protection for the human right to water took a giant leap forward this week. The proposed reform suffered a near-setback when members of Congress, at the behest of Chief Executive Álvaro Uribe, proposed sweeping changes to the text of the reform. But on May 26, after intervention by a representative of the popular movement, the Congress voted 66 to 26 to sustain the original text of the reform, allowing it to move forward through the congressional process.

At the Second International Forum for Water and the Environment in Bogota last week, hundreds of representatives of the country’s diverse movements for the right to water gathered to criticize the government’s attempt to block constitutional reform and to strategize the way forward for the country’s growing democracy movement. Following the Forum, Rafael Colmenares, Director of Ecofondo, an umbrella organization made up of 125 NGOs and social movement groups, delivered a letter to the congress expressing concern over its recent move to derail the popular effort toward constitutional reform.

The House of Representatives’ acceptance of this intervention was received with surprise and jubilation. A news release from EcoFondo called the news "unexpected and hopeful," and continued, "The act constitutes an unusual manifestation of autonomy and independence by the congress, which is refreshing for democracy in Colombia,"

Jeff Conant, 01 June 2009
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1885/1/