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OE Watch Commentary: The first accompanying references, from leading Paris-based Colombia political analyst and FARC historian Eduardo Mackenzie, addresses what many Colombians (judging from re-publications of the essay, at least) apparently see as an ominous event. This Easter Week, according to Mr. Mackenzie, the senior Roman Catholic prelate in Colombia, 75 year old Cardinal and Archbishop of Bogotá Rubén Salazar Gómez, sermonized in an emotionally charged and unusually direct, partisan manner. He apparently advised his flock to “respect” the Colombian peace agreement with the FARC. Mackenzie suggests that the prelate may be reacting to what seems to have been a broad turn of opinion against the left, a turn that will be tested in the coming presidential elections.
The second accompanying reference is a long essay from last September, also by Mackenzie. In it, he recounts the difficult, often violent history of the institutional church and the Bolivarian left, and exposes key personalities within the radicalized portion of the church. Mackenzie is a professed anti-communist who takes a dim view of what has happened to senior church leadership in this regard. His reporting, however, is especially significant in that institutional loyalties in the region, and in particular the moral authority and political influence of the Vatican seems to have arrived at a major crossroad in a country which for centuries identified as decidedly Roman Catholic. End OE Watch Commentary (Demarest)