Uribes influence lingers in the 2014 Colombian presidential elections
Nearly four years after leaving office with an unfathomable 80 percent approval rating, former Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, still lurks behind the scenes of all…
Colombia’s Ex-President Alvaro Uribe. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Nearly four years after leaving office with an unfathomable 80 percent approval rating, former Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, still lurks behind the scenes of all major political decisions within the South American nation.
SEE ALSO: Are scandals enough to tip the balance in Colombias elections?
Uribe’s influence in the 2014 Colombian presidential elections
His presence has been made particularly evident and felt in this years presidential election as Uribe has been one of the incumbents, Juan Manuel Santos, fiercest critics while solidly supporting his major opponent of the Democratic Center party, Oscar Ivan Zuluaga.
Santos and Uribes relationship has gone from cordial to antagonistic. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
During Uribes two-term administration from 2002 through 2010, current President Santos served as defense minister and helped lead a successful and prolonged military effort against the FARC guerrilla, which helped to seriously curtail the militias authority. As defense minister, Santos was mentored by Uribe and was a strong believer in his military approach to the drug trade.
Since his election to office in 2010, however, Santos and Uribes relationship has gone from cordial to antagonistic. The basis for the tension arises from Santos new position on the FARC:
While originally a supporter of a military campaign against the guerrilla while serving as defense minster under Uribe, Santos has since become a proponent of brokering a peace deal with the FARC as a way of ending a conflict which has now extended itself for nearly fifty years.
Throughout the negotiationswhich are currently being held in Havanaformer President Uribe has transformed himself into one of Santos strongest critics. In Uribes view, the FARC remain a terrorist and military organization, which should be dealt with as such. He has been particularly critical of a particular clause of the talks, which would grant the guerrilla greater participatory rights in the countrys democratic and electoral process upon giving up their military aims.
Meanwhile, while Uribe and Santos relationship has turned sour, Uribe has found a new protégé in Oscar Ivan Zuluaga. Zuluaga also served in Uribes cabinet as finance minister, and like Uribe, has maintained that the peace talks arent the solution in dealing with the FARC. Notably, Zuluaga is running as the presidential candidate of the newly-founded Democratic Center party, whose founding was spearheaded by former President Uribe himself. In many ways, Uribes continued popularity in Colombia has been at the core of Zuluagas campaign-related success.
Ultimately, Alvaro Uribe remains firmly entrenched as a patriarch of Colombian politics with a sphere of influence that he will continue to exert not only in this years presidential election, but in many more to come.
