The Colombian province of Valle del Cauca, where Cali is located, elected an openly gay governor Oct. 26, reports Colombian correspondent David Olson.

Coalition candidate Gustavo Alvarez Gardeazabal, a well-known author who served previously as mayor of the small city of Tulua, defeated Conservative Carlos Holguin by a margin of approximately two-to-one, according to preliminary results.

"He was a student at the Universidad del Valle when I was teaching there in 1968," Olson said. "Today he is well-known for several novels [and] some of his works have been dramatized on Colombian television.

"He defines himself as a liberal with renovated ideas," Olson said. "His administrative plan is centered around the economic reactivation of the region taking as a starting point the agricultural sector, to administer with honesty and to create community ombudsmen, especially in public works, and to consolidate leadership in the province."

As mayor of Tulua, Alvarez Gardeazabal was known as an incorruptible administrator, Olson said.

Two of Colombia's rebel armies launched relatively minor attacks during voting in 13 of the nation's 32 provinces. The guerrillas had ordered voters to stay home and declared election officials to be "military targets." The intimidation failed in the cities but voter turnout was very low in some rural areas.

In the run-up to the election, the rebels forced almost 2,000 candidates to quit in more than 250 of the 1,072 municipalities. They kidnapped some 200 candidates and murdered at least 40.

The Swedish national gay group's nightclub in the city of Linkoeping was attacked by 10 Nazis October 18.

They made Hitler salutes, shouted "faggots," took pictures, and hit one person with a baseball bat.

Police failed to respond to a call for protection.

"Enough is enough," said RFSL Chair Haakan Andersson. "The police and parliament have to take violence against homosexuals seriously. We demand improved police protection and a ban on incitement to hatred against homosexuals."

RFSL stands for Riksforbundet for Sexuellt Likaberattigande, or National Federation for Sexual Equality.

Canada's largest union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, argued for the right to grant same-sex domestic-partner benefits before the Ontario Court of Appeal Oct. 20.

"It's about dignity and self-worth," said CUPE attorney Peter Engelmann. "It's about having same-sex relationships recognized on the same level as those of heterosexual colleagues, not being treated as second-class citizens."

The union is prevented from extending its pension plan to gay couples by Revenue Canada's refusal to redefine 'spouse' in the Income Tax Act.

"The government has no business discriminating in either the bedrooms of the nation or the private pension plans of the nation," said CUPE spokesperson Geraldine McGuire.

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Rex Wockner's Weekly International News dating back to mid-1994 is fully searchable at http://www.wockner.com

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