{"id":417956,"date":"2010-03-11T18:13:24","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T23:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f95\/colombia-democratic-system-worked-40723\/"},"modified":"2010-03-11T18:13:24","modified_gmt":"2010-03-11T23:13:24","slug":"colombia-the-democratic-system-worked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/417956","title":{"rendered":"Colombia: The Democratic System Worked"},"content":{"rendered":"
On 03.11.10 11:55 AM posted by Ray Walser<\/p>\n

\n<imgsrc="http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/uribe_081021.jpg" alt="Colombia\u0092s President Alvaro Uribe at the White House, Sept. 20, 2008" \/><\/p>No greater dilemma faced the Colombian political system in recent months than the issue of presidential re-election.* Should a constitutional referendum be held to allow a popular, extremely effective leader to run, and likely win, a third term as president? For many Colombians, President Alvaro Uribe had become the indispensable leader.<\/p>\n

Yet, across the political spectrum, many friends of Colombia worried about the impact of such <ahref="http:\/\/www.foreignpolicy.com\/articles\/2010\/03\/04\/uribe_checks_out">concentrated power on the congress and judiciary.* A third term for Uribe would damage <ahref="http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2010\/03\/08\/AR2010030803294.html?hpid=opinionsbox1">democratic belief in the alterability of executive power and resemble what* authoritarian populist Hugo Chavez is doing to destroy democracy in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

On February 27, the <ahref="http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/02\/27\/world\/americas\/27colombia.html">Colombian Supreme Court rejected the holding of a referendum.<spanid="more-28624"><\/span><\/p>\n

History will record that President Uribe [2002-2010] was a transformative president and a strategic visionary who save his nation from collapse, restored national confidence and pride, and blazed a path linking security with democracy.* In the fight against drugs and terrorism, the U.S. found in Uribe a responsible and effective partner.<\/p>\n

While the Bush Administration recognized <ahref="http:\/\/georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov\/news\/releases\/2009\/01\/20090113-7.html">Uribe\u0092s achievements, the Obama Administration and Congress have maintained a distant posture. While advancing security cooperation with Colombia, the Democrats have failed to deliver on the <ahref="http:\/\/www.ustr.gov\/trade-agreements\/free-trade-agreements\/colombia-fta">Free Trade Agreement signed in 2006.* More than three years of inaction has cost the U.S. jobs and market share.<\/p>\n

The Obama Administration warmly applauded Uribe in a <ahref="http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2010\/03\/08\/AR2010030803294.html?hpid=opinionsbox1">recent letter .* It can take the next step by recognizing the maturity of Colombia\u0092s democracy and pushing for congressional passage of the trade agreement. *This action would be a fitting tribute to Colombia\u0092s democratic progress, foremost, and a final, well-earned tribute to President Uribe.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/03\/11\/…system-worked\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 03.11.10 11:55 AM posted by Ray Walser <imgsrc="http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/uribe_081021.jpg" alt="Colombia\u0092s President Alvaro Uribe at the White House, Sept. 20, 2008" \/><\/p>No greater dilemma faced the Colombian political system in recent months than the issue of presidential re-election.* Should a constitutional referendum be held to allow a popular, extremely effective leader to run, and likely win, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-417956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}