For the first time, Colombian president Alvaro Uribe publicly stated on Sunday that another government, not his, may have to handle future issues facing the country.
The admission came during a Community Council meeting in San Carlos, Antioquia, where the president was answering questions from citizens. He noted that a presentation of the 2011 budget proposal before Congress would occur “twenty days after this government ends.”
He went on to say that other items in the current budget, while being organized by his government, will also have to be implemented by the “next government.” Transport minister Andres Uriel Gallego echoed this sentiment at the meeting, referring to the next government as “whatever it may be,” with no qualifiers to hint that it might still be run by Uribe.
Uribe’s remarks come only days after he was reported to have said that the curret legal presidential limit of eight years is “little time” to solve the problems facing Colombia, stimulating speculation that he does intend to run for a third term.
Despite the fact that members of his own government have been trying to push the referendum needed for a constitutional change through Congress, Uribe himself has only hinted on a possible third run for the presidency.