Colombia wants re-election Uribe, says Santos

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia wants re-election Uribe, says Santos
June 15th, 2008 ·

Colombia’s Vice-President, Francisco Santos defended the re-election of his boss, President Álvaro Uribe in an interview with Colombian newspaper El País.

“What I hear throughout the country is that Uribe is re-elected,” Santos said in the interview. According to the vice-President Uribe should be re-elected if the majority of Colombians asks for it.

Santos also believes there are other people, explicitally mentioning former president César Gaviria, who could continue the Democratic Secutity police of the current administration.

http://colombiareports.com/2008/06/15/colombia-wants-re-election-uribe-says-vice-president/

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Earlier article:

Colombia's Uribe refuses to rule out third term
Wed Jun 4, 2008 5:41pm EDT

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, June 4 (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whose "Democratic Security" policies have put leftist rebels on the defensive and sparked economic growth, refused on Wednesday to rule out a third run for office.

Uribe, elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006 after Congress passed a constitutional amendment allowing a second term, is flirting with running again in 2010. This would require another change in law.

"We seek to assure the re-election of Democratic Security and investor confidence," Uribe told local radio when asked if he would like to run again, declining to endorse allies such as Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos who are possible candidates.

Colombia, in the grips of a four-decade-old guerrilla insurgency funded by the cocaine trade, is home to regular political violence against trade unionists and others suspected of pro-rebel sympathies.

Uribe characterized left-leaning opposition politicians such as former presidential candidate Carlos Gaviria as having affinities with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which is also notorious for killing civilians.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN04307701

[Judi Lynn]

1. I have an Álvaro Uribe illustration I had wanted to place in the above post,

but something came up while I was writing, and I had to leave in a hurry, didn't get to finish it.

Proud to add this Uribe image:
http://www.conbolivar.org.nyud.net:8090/antigua/nuevo/imagenes/renucie-uribe.jpg

[Bacchus39]

2. he will be re-elected n/t

n/t

[Judi Lynn]

3. Colombian judges say paramilitary fighters forced vote fraud

Colombian judges say paramilitary fighters forced vote fraud
Justicia | 19.05.06

www.centredaily.com

BY GERARDO REYES AND STEVEN DUDLEY
Knight Ridder Newspapers

EL DIFICIL, Colombia – Amid the biggest Colombian scandal since drug traffickers helped finance a presidential election, electoral judges and voters in this remote town are backing allegations of vote fraud in 2002 that favored President Alvaro Uribe.

Right-wing paramilitary fighters forced election judges to fill in uncast votes for the conservative Uribe and discard votes for his rival, Liberal Party candidate Horacio Serpa, three of the judges here told The Miami Herald.

The judges’ comments support recent accusations by Rafael Garcia, a former official at the security agency known as DAS, similar to the FBI. Colombia’s media and several non-government organizations have regularly made parallel allegations in recent weeks, and the Attorney General’s office opened an investigation into the fraud charges last week.

Coming ahead of balloting May 28 in which Uribe is expected to win a second term, the allegations have unleashed the country’s biggest scandal since the 1994 presidential race, when drug lords contributed $6 million to former President Ernesto Samper’s campaign.

More:
http://www.peaceobservatory.org/en/429/colombian-judges-say-paramilitary-fighters-forced-vote-fraud