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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Colombia's Uribe now closer to a third term |
| 2009-05-21 |
| BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - Colombia's conservative President Alvaro Uribe never had much in common with leftist President Hugo Chavez of neighboring Venezuela ... until now. Late Tuesday, Mr. Uribe came one step closer to staying in power for another four years after lawmakers passed a measure calling for a referendum on whether to allow him to run for a third term. Uribe still hasn't said publicly whether he will run if given the chance, but to Michael Shifter, an analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, "It's clear he's made up his mind," since he has done nothing to stop the referendum campaign that would let him run again in 2010. If Uribe -- a staunch United States ally -- does seek a third term, he will be taking a page out of the book of Mr. Chavez, and a slew other of Latin American leftist leaders, whose moves in recent years to extend their hold on power have raised concerns about eroding democratic institutions. For the past decade, leaders across the continent have reversed strict constitutional limits that allowed presidents to sit for only one term. Those restrictions were put in place to prevent leaders from holding on to power for too long. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #3 He did better than his predecessors. He ended the drug whoo ha ha |
| Posted by: newc 2009-05-21 10:56 |
| #2 The trouble is that longer terms usually mean one of two things. The first is the obvious, that "El Supremo" has decided to become dictator for life. The second is far less obvious. It is when a good leader thinks himself irreplaceable, or is so in love with his good ideas that he cannot bear to see them unfinished. But this overlaps with a leader who is good at everything but naming a good replacement. In either case, either the fruit remains on the tree too long and is spoiled, or it is attacked from within by worms. The best of leaders is the lucky one, who leaves at their peak, leaving both their supporters and opponents promising to do exactly what they did, but just a little differently. An example of this was the first female president of Ireland, who became president right before the worst non-political problem in the country, the Catholic church, had a major scandal, so lost most of its political clout; and an economic boom, on which she got to ride on the crest of the wave. She left office after her one term with a 94% popularity rating, and neither major political party even tried to put up a male candidate, and both female candidates promised to do everything she was doing, but more of it, and faster. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-05-21 10:55 |
| #1 Well, FDR had FOUR terms. And before you say 'see, that proves extra terms are bad', do note that he did a better job (from my perspective) in the later years than the earlier ones. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-05-21 08:26 |