E/CN.4/1997/71/Add.1 page 13 domestic servants; there is not a single Afro-Colombian journalist, except for one sports reporter, and women are used in advertisements for detergents. Recently, however, an advertisement appeared showing a white child and a black child side by side. 44. The people with whom the Special Rapporteur spoke were critical of the city of Cartagena, 40 to 60 per cent of whose inhabitants are black, for never having elected a “Miss Black Cartagena”, since the female archetype is the “white woman”. He was told that the economic interests which organized the “Miss Cartagena” election want to make a commercial and financial investment; the big companies work for the entire country and for interests abroad, and the country's image must be white. 45. In the city of Buenaventura, where most of the population is black, the Special Rapporteur was told that black people, especially women, are not able to find office jobs because companies require them to meet white standards of beauty, and notably to have smooth hair. 46. The full weight of the past can still be felt within the Colombian armed forces, where access to senior posts is blocked for Afro-Colombians and Amerindians. The widespread racism in the army culminated on 14 October 1995 with the tragic case of cadet Sosir Palomique Torres of the General Santander military academy in Bogotá. This 21-year-old man was subjected to racist harassment and driven to set fire to his hierarchical superior, causing his death. 14 The people with whom the Special Rapporteur spoke consider racial discrimination to be responsible for the absence of blacks in the navy and the diplomatic corps (only one Afro-Colombian, a former Miss Colombia, was reportedly posted to a European embassy as a cultural chargé d'affaires), and the absence of indigenous or Afro-Colombian bishops in the Catholic hierarchy, in a country where the Catholic Church is deeply-rooted and active in the social sphere. 47. The weight of the past can also be seen in the disparity of economic and social statistics relating to the black and indigenous communities, on the one hand, and the rest of the Colombian population, on the other. Centuries of racial discrimination have led to marginalization, and large-scale action will be needed to wrest these communities from it. 48. The image of Amerindians in Colombian society still remains that of the “savage”, as indicated by Act No. 89 of 25 November 1890, entitled “ [Ley] por la cual se determina la manera como deben ser gobernados los salvajes que vayan reduciéndose a la vida civilizada ” (Act determining the way in which the 15 savages who are being won over to civilization should be governed). 49. Socio-economic indicators for the indigenous populations show that 45 per cent cannot read, whereas the national average is estimated at 11 per cent. 16 The percentage of indigenous children enrolled in primary school is 11.3, while the national enrolment rate is 85 per cent. Only 1.25 per cent of indigenous pupils reach secondary level (50 per cent nationwide). 17