Reply #94: Some of us find the selectivity of the outrage curious. Uribe's 2005 changes to Colombia's

[struggle4progress]

constitution, allowing him to seek re-election, produced no great wave of outrage here in the states. And earlier this year -- when Colombia's Supreme Court ruled that the validity of Uribe's 2006 re-election required re-examination, because the 2005 constitutional referendum (authorizing it) had been marred by criminal acts -- the same folk, who make so much noise about Chavez's effort to amend Venezuela's constitution, remained silent and uninterested. And, in recent months, as Uribe tried (and failed) to amend Colombia's constitution again, to allow himself a third term in office, the same folk (who are so outraged by Chavez's constitutional initiatives) did not consider the matter worthy of any notice


COLOMBIA: Uribe's 2006 Reelection "Flawed" - Supreme Court
By Constanza Vieira
BOGOTA, Jul 5 (IPS) - At the same time that Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was welcoming U.S. Republican presidential hopeful John McCain in the north of the country, the Supreme Court issued a communiqué calling on the government to "respect and obey the decisions" of the courts. It was the Supreme Court's response to Uribe's frontal attack on Jun. 26, when he announced a referendum to settle the Court's legal challenge to the constitutional reform that allowed Uribe to be reelected to a second consecutive term in 2006 ... http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43081

Colombia's Uribe hits snag in re-election effort
Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:37am EDT
By Hugh Bronstein
BOGOTA (Reuters) - The surprise failure this week of a bill in Colombia's Congress aimed at allowing President Alvaro Uribe a third term revealed fractures in his coalition that could doom his chances of being re-elected. The measure, voted down on Wednesday, would have allowed the popular Uribe to run for office again in 2014, after sitting out four years from 2010 when his current term ends ... http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE49U4R220081031?sp=true