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Colombia's Uribe marks historic re-election at mass in Medellin
By Patrick Moser
AFP
BOGOTA
Petroleumworld.com 05 30 06Colombia's conservative President Alvaro Uribe, 53, on Monday celebrated his historic re-election at a Medellin church, by the tomb of his father killed by the leftist insurgents he has pledged to defeat.
Uribe won re-election in a landslide Sunday, becoming the first incumbent in a century to win a second term and garnering a record seven million votes.
The elections were the most peaceful in two decades.
The US- and British-educated lawyer garnered 62 percent of the vote and a 40-point lead over his closest rival, leftist senator Carlos Gaviria.
Uribe is the closest ally of US President George W. Bush in Latin America.
In a telephone call on Monday, Bush spoke with Uribe of their "strong friendship" and the close ties between the two countries, said White House spokeswoman Eryn Witcher.
"The president affirmed his strong support for Colombia in its continued battle against narco-terrorism, in moving forward on our free-trade agreement and in helping our democratic friends in the region," Witcher said.
The re-election of the law-and-order conservative bucks the political trend in a region dominated by leftist leaders whose relationship with Washington is often lukewarm.
In a move loaded with symbolism, Uribe on Monday attended mass at the Medellin church where his father is buried.
He prayed by the grave of his father, who was assassinated in 1983 by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC,) Colombia's main leftist insurgency, which now has 17,000 armed guerrillas.
Since he came to office in 2002, Uribe has increased the size of the armed forces and stepped up the offensive on the armed insurgents.
Thousands of supporters cheered Uribe outside the church in the northwestern city that was once a stronghold Colombia's powerful cocaine cartels.
In a victory speech late Sunday, Uribe pledged to pursue his tough security policies that earned him more popularity than any other Colombian president before him.
Uribe has insisted he is willing to talk peace with the FARC if the guerrillas halt their attacks, but also pledged to defeat them if they refuse to negotiate.
But the FARC rejects any dialogue with Uribe, claiming he is a warmonger.
For the first time since 1998, the FARC had not called for a boycott of the elections, and urged voters to defeat Uribe. In contrast with past elections where the guerrillas conducted deadly attacks, only a few isolated incidents were blamed on the FARC over the weekend.
A crucial question for Uribe's government is whether he will be able to start a peace process with the insurgents. Many analysts say his only other option is to try to defeat them militarily.
The French government Monday urged Uribe to "favor national dialogue" and to seek a humanitarian accord for the release of hostages held by insurgents. An estimated 5,300 people have been kidnapped over the past 10 years, 1,140 of them by the FARC, according to a Colombian human rights group, which says the fate of many of the hostages is unknown.
A foreign ministry spokesman in Paris reiterated France's offer to help Colombia organize negotiations with the FARC.
Uribe's government has already launched peace talks with the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) and has reached a controversial agreement with right-wing armed groups that led to the demobilization of 30,000 paramilitary fighters.
Uribe also faces a formidable challenge in his war on the illegal drug trade, which fuels the violence that has killed an estimated 200,000 Colombians over the past 40 years.
Despite a massive, US-funded eradication effort, Colombia remains the world's largest producer and exporter of cocaine. Much of the 750 million dollars in US aid to Colombia last year went to the war on drugs.
AFP 29 2130 GMT 05 06
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