Report: No re-election for Uribe in Colombia

[Bacchus39]

Source: AP

Report: No re-election for Uribe in Colombia

Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 4 mins agoBOGOTA, Colombia – President Alvaro Uribe's hometown newspaper reported Thursday that Colombia's immensely popular leader will not seek a third consecutive term in 2010 elections.

"President Uribe is not running for a second re-election. El Colombiano is in a position to affirm that the president has already decided to step aside so new leaders can assume power," the Medellin newspaper reported. El Colombiano did not reveal its sources.

Uribe, first elected in 2002, was in Switzerland on Thursday at the World Economic Forum and could not immediately be reached for comment. He has been cagey on whether he would seek another four years.

One of his closest advisers, Jose Obdulio Gaviria, would neither confirm nor deny the report when reached by The Associated Press. However, he said he believes Uribe should run.




Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090129/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/l... ;_ylt=Aqx2XoJz7XPCN.TzOjZCwB63IxIF

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also in Colombian paper (Spanish):

http://www.elcolombiano.com/BancoConocimiento/U/uribe_n...

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

1. Aw, are you sad?

[Bacchus39]

2. nope, not at all Dirtbag. why would I want Colombia to be ruled like Cuba or Ven??

you can check the latin american archives where I have stated my position on Uribe's re-re-election. leadership "change" is a good thing. don't you agree?

[Judi Lynn]

3. Right-wing parasites are probably in mourning there. They would run him again if they could.

From the same article:

The 56-year-old Uribe is widely credited with significantly lowering kidnap and murder rates with a U.S.-aided military buildup that has badly crippled the Western Hemisphere's last remaining leftist rebel army.

But human rights groups say he did it while largely turning a blind eye to alliances between Colombia's military and right-wing death squads.

The idea of amending the constitution for a second time to enable Uribe's re-election has also been frowned upon in Washington.

Analysts say U.S. officials would find it difficult to support a third term for Uribe when they have so vigorously objected to attempts by leftist presidents in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia to similarly extend their rule.

There is also the question of the legitimacy of Uribe's 2006 re-election.

Members of Uribe's inner circle are currently under investigation for allegedly offering political favors in exchange for a favorable committee vote that enabled it.

He's only going to draw MORE attention to himself as time goes by, if he stays. No doubt the right-wing, in all its heavy handed greed realizes they've pushed their thuggery to the limits, and a change, even if only brief, or even if done by putting in a puppet for a term instead of a full-throttle, self-initiating fascist, is the best way to preserve their future, and their choke-hold on the government, and the obscene load of US taxpayers' hard-earned dollars being dumped into their government annually in the 3rd largest foreign aid assistance package in the world.