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Colombians abroad help elect representative at home

Tuesday, 16 March 2010 16:26

Source: Orlando Sentinel
By Victor Manuel Ramos

Congressional race includes 2 Orlando area candidates

Fernando Toro sat with a small group of close supporters at a Colombian restaurant in east Orlando, sipping black coffee and strategizing over how to win election to Congress.

Although Toro has been an American citizen since 2005 and could contend for political office here, he is not vying for a seat in the U.S. Congress but rather in the Congreso de la República de Colombia, the legislative body of his fatherland in South America.

 

Elections are Sunday in that South American nation, and Colombians in Orlando — as well as in other U.S. cities and other parts of the world — will vote to elect a member of Congress who will represent the large community of Colombians living outside their country.

"When I am elected," Toro, 50, told his supporters, "it's not just Fernando Toro who is going to win. It's the entire Colombian community of Central Florida....We are going to make sure that our community has a voice in Congress."

Toro, an east Orlando paralegal who has the endorsement of his country's Conservative Party, is not the only Floridian in the race. Ten other candidates are registered with the General Colombian Consulate in Miami for the March 14 election — and 28 more in cities where Colombians have emigrated.

Aside from Toro, Alejandro Murcia, 44, a compliance officer from Windermere, is running with Colombia's Partido Verde, that country's equivalent of the Green Party.

East Orlando resident Luis Carlos Gaviria dropped out of the race amid disagreements with his Cambio Radical party and is endorsing Toro. Toro and Murcia have been campaigning online and attending community functions to get Colombians here interested in the election.

"The 4 million Colombians outside the country contribute $4.2 billion in yearly remittances to Colombia, and we should have someone who would look out for our interests," Murcia said. "I also believe that the government should work through its representative to improve the image of the country in the world."

Colombian immigrants remain engaged in their country's politics, thanks to constitutional reforms that granted its millions of émigrés dual citizenship. In 2001, the reforms established the Congressional seat to represent Colombians abroad — whose estimated 4 million people surpasses that of many "departments," or states, in Colombia.

More than 34,000 Colombians reside in Metro Orlando, where many have come seeking economic opportunity as well as fleeing their country's violence.

Almost 4,700 Colombians from Orlando have registered to vote, according to the General Consulate of Colombia in Miami. More than 24,000 Colombians have registered at the main site in Miami's Coral Gables, with another 31,000 voters in South Florida, Tampa, Jacksonville and Sarasota.

The seat is highly coveted because it is a fully recognized position in Congress, pays about $120,000 a year and provides a budget for a full staff in the capital, Bogotá. The incumbent, Manuel José Vives of Miami, is seeking a Senate seat in Colombia.

"This is an office whose holder has a great responsibility not only for Colombians in Florida, but also worldwide," said William Bolívar, president of the Colombian-American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida, in Winter Park. "The idea is that this person would promote bills that would respond to the needs of Colombians abroad, but unfortunately in the last two terms, it has not generated any initiatives of impact" for the community.

The two Orlando candidates say they are determined to make the seat valuable to the community.

If elected, Toro said he would push for the establishment of a Colombian consulate in Orlando. Murcia promises to use the office's influence to lobby the U.S. for "temporary protected status" for Colombians who are here illegally, similar to what was recently granted to Haitians.

Toro would like to see a government-financed health-insurance system in Colombia expanded to cover citizens abroad, so they could travel to their country for care. Murcia wants to change regulations so that Colombians in the U.S. and elsewhere could qualify for credit with banks in Colombia and could buy property there.

Luis Carlos Gaviria, the candidate who dropped out of the race, is a bit more skeptical of the international seat's influence in a Congress with 102 at-large senators and 166 representatives.

"It would be very difficult for one mere person to accomplish anything," said Gaviria, 59 and a former member of the Colombian Congress. "Those of us who have left the country need to start a political movement, with our own party, our own senate and representative seats, if we really want to have a say."

Some Colombian voters are equally doubtful, saying the seat is mostly symbolic.

"In the short term, I don't see how this representative could bring many changes," said Héctor Alarcón, a Colombian immigrant who owns Los Portales Restaurant in Casselberry. "This is more of a presence that could yield fruits in the future."