| IN COLOMBIA, TOUGH TALK GETS VOTES |
| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Monday, May 13 2002 |
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| The latest rebel attack has Colombians outraged. More than 100 people died when members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) threw a pipe bomb inside a church filled with women and children seeking spiritual protection from above and seeking refuge from the crossfire between the rebels and paramilitary forces. Among the dead, more than 45 children. A former mayor of the Bojaya township lost 42 members of his family; 23 more were still missing.
It is these types of actions that compel people to rally behind Alvaro Uribe Velez, the tough-talking independent presidential candidate who is leading in the polls by a wide margin and who could very well avoid a runoff by winning the elections on May 26. Uribe owes his surge in popularity to one single factor: Colombians are fed up. They are fed up with violence, fed up with terrorism and corruption, with kidnappings and random attacks.
Uribe promises to deal with the armed insurgents with an iron fist. Unlike President Andres Pastrana, he says he would not negotiate peace with the rebels without a cease-fire. But while many Colombians think that Uribe is the God-sent salvation for their problems, others fear he could escalate the violence to an all-out civil war.
"No one is safe in Colombia," Uribe told me in an interview a few weeks ago in his campaign headquarters in Bogota. Not even presidential candidates. Candidate Ingrid Betancourt is still believed to be held by rebels (the latest on the status of her kidnapping can be found at the end of this column), and all the rest of the candidates have either been threatened or been targets of assassination attempts. Uribe himself barely escaped one such attempt in mid-April. At least 15 murder plots against Uribe -- who has 120 bodyguards -- have been reported, and he has taken his campaign indoors, communicating with voters through the mass media.
Uribe is not just a tough-talking candidate. He has had a successful political career as mayor of Medellin, governor and two-term senator for his home state of Antioquia. He has been credited with reducing poverty, building roads and curtailing the number of kidnappings. But his support of armed civil-protection groups known as the "Convivir" led to accusations that he helped create paramilitary forces. That is why his critics brand him as the candidate of the "Paramilitares." Uribe denies such allegations. "If I were a paramilitary, I would be (fighting) in the mountains," he said. "First of all, I will not accept votes influenced by violent groups, and secondly, I am not discouraged by threats made by rebels, nor am I seduced by paramilitary forces."
It is difficult to find a politician in Colombia who is not in some way linked to corruption or drug trafficking, and Uribe is not the exception. His family had ties to the notorious Ochoa family. Uribe attributes that to an old family friendship that, according to him, was cut off when three Ochoa brothers were labeled as drug lords.
The question now is, can Alvaro Uribe bring peace to his country? Can he end the violence and the bloodshed, the kidnappings and corruption? Will Colombians once again feel free to walk the streets and travel the roads? That is the challenge Uribe will face -- or anyone else who ends up leading a country in which people are simply fed up.
FOOTNOTE: In response to some readers' concerns about the status of kidnapped presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt in Colombia, I would like to provide an update. She has been in captivity since Feb. 23. Efforts to negotiate her freedom are being led by her family, who is asking the European Union to intervene on her behalf. There are reports that Ingrid is recuperating from a strong fever and that she is giving literacy classes to the rebels and their families. However, her family cannot confirm those reports, nor do they know whether she is even alive. Her name is still on the presidential ballot. For more information, logon to www.betancourt.info. |
