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Colombia: Courts lift re-election restriction

ISN SECURITY WATCH (20/10/05) - The door has been opened for Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to pursue another term in office, which he said would allow him to continue his crackdown on left-wing rebels.

After a month of deliberations, Colombia's Constitutional Court delivered the verdict most expected, that they were amending the laws so any president - not just Uribe - could seek a second four-year term in office.

The court must still, however, establish election laws for a sitting president seeking a second term. A decision on that law is expected to be delivered next month.

For the past 50 years, Colombian presidents were limited to a single term, a stopgap measure to prevent power corruption in the executive branch.

But since his election in 2002, Uribe has proven himself to be wildly popular with Colombians - a recent opinion poll revealed his approval rating was nearly 80 per cent.

In South America where disenchantment with presidents is the norm and their earlier departures commonplace, the adoration for Uribe is unheard of.

The center-right leader has also become a close ally of the Bush administration in a region where discontent runs high over the White House's seeming lack of interest in Latin America.

While the rest of the region balks at Bush's policies, Uribe and the US president have discussed anti-terror policies and ways to eradicate rebel groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Colombian forces have been battling the FARC for 41 years in a civil war that claims some 3,500 lives a year.

Both the Colombian government and the US State Department consider FARC and other Colombian rebel groups terrorist organizations. Over the past five years, the US has given Colombia almost US$4 billion in aid and military training in a program dubbed "Plan Colombia".

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