Colombia's Uribe Seen as Solidifying Power

[maddezmom]

By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, November 17, 2007; Page A13

BOGOTA, Colombia -- President ¿lvaro Uribe has overwhelming influence in many of this country's institutions and enjoys the support of 70 percent of his countrymen.

But lately, opposition leaders contend, the president has been showing little tolerance for critics at a time when his allies have accumulated broad power. Such concerns have grown as Uribe considers a constitutional change that would allow him to run for a third four-year term.

Last month, Uribe disparaged the Supreme Court just days after it launched an investigation of the president's cousin, former senator Mario Uribe, for alleged ties to paramilitary groups. Then, Uribe warned Bogota voters not to cast ballots for "mayors supported by the guerrillas," a reference to the leftist Democratic Pole party's candidate, Samuel Moreno.

Uribe has also accused Jos¿ Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director of Human Rights Watch, of collaborating with rebels and has publicly derided two prominent journalists, causing one to go into exile after he received death threats.

In a sign of U.S. wariness over Uribe's sharp tongue, 11 Democratic senators, including Barack Obama (Ill.), Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) and Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), sent the president an unusually blunt letter this month saying they were concerned that his comments could put others in danger. Death squads and drug-trafficking groups have frequently killed rights workers, union activists and journalists, often after accusing them of belonging to the rebel groups at war with the state.

more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/16/AR2007111602056.html

[yellowcanine]

1. "Uribe Seen as Solidifying Power". But when Chavez does it it is somehow seen as more sinsister.

Why is that?