What's Going On With ISAGEN?

Protesters against ISAGEN's sale in front of the Supreme Court today.

'Energy sovereignety.'
'ISAGEN is not for sale.'

You've probably seen posters and protesters about ISAGEN, which is Colombia's 3rd-largest electricity generator, providing 16% of the country's energy. ISAGEN is a multi-billion-dollar company headquartered in Medellin and owner of 5 hydroelectric generating plants and 1 thermal one.

But if ISAGEN is a keystone to Colombia's economy and infrastructure, it's also a valuable company, 57% owned by the government. And the president sees it as the golden egg whose sale can finance construction of Colombian infrastructure, particularly highways.

But is it a good idea for Colombia to let such a critical piece of its economy pass into the control of foreigners? So far, French, Canadian and Chilean companies have expressed the most interest. Will they find it in their interest to manage the company well, to invest in it? What if the buyer goes bankrupt one day?

ISAGEN's Sogamoso hydroelectric dam. (Photo from ISAGEN's website.)

But ISAGEN workers unions are protesting the sale, fearful that privatization will bring layoffs and other cutbacks, as usually happens. And, as always happens when a big public company is to be privatized, opponents call it a threat to national sovereignety - which it very well may be.

The other day, in response to lawsuits, a judge temporarily suspended the sale, sending ISAGEN's shares tumbling and even causing the peso's value to dip.

Men walk past posters on Carrera 7 protesting the proposed ISAGEN sale.

A protester's sign says: 'ISAGEN is for everyone!'

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Changes and Challenges for the Public Universities

A casket in the National University's student-named
'Lenin Plaza,' warning about the U's supposed fate.

The Colombian government has proposed fundamental reforms for the country's public universities. Government officials say it's crucial to bring more financing and expand access to the universities, but some students and officials fear that the changes will lead to privatization of the public university system. 

The proposed reforms include quality control systems, cuts in drop-out rates, the acceptance of private financing and the creation of for-profit public schools.

All of that sounds great. But in Colombia the public universities have a special status as bastions of leftist politics and protests again the establishment, ranging from university reforms like these to the existence of capitalism and the state itself. (Take a look at the graffiti on the National University campus in Bogotá, and you'll see for yourself.) Still, the public universities provide good educations.

A new Ché Guevara mural in La Nacho. 

More concretely, the public universities are heavily subsidized for low-income students, providing many Colombians of modest means with their only opportunity for higher education. For students from the poorest families, a university education can cost as little as $50 or $100 per semester, compared to the several thousand dollars which a private education at a high-status private university can cost. However, there aren't enough places for the all of those who want to study. And university officials complain that they've expanded enrollment and services greatly over the last decade, but haven't received budget increases to match.

Government officials also believe that universities play an important role in occupying young people who might otherwise join one of the illegal guerrilla or paramilitary organizations. (Of course, a look at the pro-guerrilla graffiti in the National University in Bogotá suggests that higher education can convert some students into guerrillas.)

In the United States, where many public universities accept money for research projects, sports financing and other purposes, the policy has been controversial. Private universities can influence the type of research that is done, and whether or not the results are published.

Privatize this! A communal meal being prepared in La Nacho's Ché Plaza. 

See also: Students march against Ley 30.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours