Colombian Leader, Seeking Re-election, Warns of Catastrophe
BOGOTç, Colombia, May 27 Ñ His handlers portray President çlvaro Uribe as a wonkish technocrat too busy solving Colombia’s problems to become mired in its tumultuous politics. But as he finished campaigning for re-election ahead of Sunday’s voting, Mr. Uribe transformed himself into a master salesman whose message was simple and effective: it’s me or catastrophe.
On a recent night, his staccato voice filling the Plaza de Bol’var here, Mr. Uribe rattled off his accomplishments Ñ military victories against Marxist guerrillas, expanded nutritional programs for the elderly, a free-trade pact with Washington.
“All of it appears like a lot, but it is not very much in the face of what the Colombian people need,” Mr. Uribe said in a long speech, emphasizing that more work needed to be done and that he was the man to do it. “The victory will be the Colombian people’s, the victory will be yours.”
Mr. Uribe’s projection as a determined and steady caretaker of a troubled country, coupled with his talents for imagery and populism, have made him the man to beat, and perhaps one of the most popular presidents in Colombia’s history.
Polls show Mr. Uribe, a 53-year-old lawyer, at least 30 points ahead of his nearest rival Ñ Carlos Gaviria, a former Constitutional Court justice Ñ and well on his way to capturing the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff.
The Bush White House, which has given Colombia more than $3 billion in the Uribe years, mostly as military and antidrug aid, has a lot riding on the election as well, in a region filled with political tumult and rising leftist populism. President Bush himself has not held back on heaping praise, calling Mr. Uribe “a strong and principled leader.”
But as Mr. Uribe prepares for what will most likely be another four-year term, political analysts, opposition politicians and human rights groups have raised concern about the concentrated power he will amass and his often heavy-handed style of governing.
nytimes.com
‘Heavy handed?’ ‘Strong and principled’? Funny with the rhetorical firestorm re: ‘spreading democracy’ and such, how the most natural allies for the United States (and the whorish New York Times) are the vicious dictatorships in Colombia, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.