Colombian President Alvaro Uribe should not seek a third term in 2010, said
Friday the Washington Post, of U.S. newspapers traditionally the least
critical of Uribe.
Praising Colombia’s President for his achievements over the past seven years, the paper opines that the Uribe administration “has been weakened by scandals in the past few years, some of them serious,” naming the scandal involving the illegal wiretapping of governments opponents by the secret service, the killing of civilians by members of the army and the alleged enrichment of Uribe’s sons through insider trading.
The paper prefers Uribe to leave the inheritance of his ‘Democratic Security’ policy to former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos who resigned recently and is willing to run for President in 2010 to “show the importance of placing institutions and the rule of law above any one leader.”
“If he remains in office, Mr. Uribe would run the risk of undermining
his own successes; some of his strongest supporters could turn against
him, and the good relations he has enjoyed with the United States could
come under strain. Better that the president choose to step down and
give his country a last great gift, by strengthening the political
system he has fought so hard to save,” the newspaper ends its editorial.
Earlier, U.S. newspapers like the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Miami Herald turned against Uribe’s possible second re-election.
