LatinNews Daily Report - 17 June 2013

POLITICS| New Casanare governor. On 16 June Marco Tulio Ruiz was elected the new governor of Colombia’s eastern Casanare department. Ruiz, a former mayor of the departmental capital Yopal, ran for a local political movement and was declared the winner with 41% of the vote, in an election marked by a low turnout (there was a 50% abstention rate).  Ruiz defeated rivals from the main national parties - the ruling Partido de la U, the Partido Verde and the leftist Polo Democrático Alternativo (PDA) -  to become Casanare’s tenth governor in a decade. Casanare, Colombia’s second most important oil producing department, has been severely affected by official corruption as well as violence in recent years, with the removal and/or imprisonment of six of the last seven governors. The rapid development of the oil industry in the impoverished department has resulted in large oil royalties, leading to official corruption. In 2012, oil royalties' revenues amounted to Col$371bn (US$197m) and are projected to rise to Col$600bn (US$318m) in the next two years. Ruiz’s election may do little to assuage the concerns about official corruption, given that he was backed by his immediate predecessor, Nelson Ricardo Mariño (2012-2013), who was removed from office and barred from public office for 14 years after being found guilty of malfeasance in office.

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