A BRIEF HISTORY OF COLOMBIA
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be threatened and killed by paras —many fault Uribe's government for inaction,
or even cooperation, in these murders.
Ratcheting up the war with the FARC brought tensions between Uribe and Hugo
Chávez, the left-wing president of Venezuela, who was elected in 1999. Chávez
has rechanneled much of Venezuela's vast profits from its petroleum industry
into social programs modeled on those of the Cuban revolution, and has also
financially and diplomatically supported the Castro regime and leftist
governments in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Argentina. The Venezuelan
president also voiced support for the FARC as a legitimate representative of the
desires of the Colombian people — Uribe countered with claims that the
Venezuelan military was allowing the guerrillas a safe haven in the neighboring
country. Saber rattling by the two presidents was frequent, but usually ended in
an embrace at some international meeting — after all, the two countries are
major trading partners.
Scandals marked Uribe's second administration — members of the government
illegally wiretapped opposition politicians and journalists, and political
corruption increased on lower levels (while the president seemed to stay above
the fray). Even worse, army officers were responsible for kidnapping young men
from Bogotá's poorest neighborhoods, taking them out to rural areas, forcing
them to put on military uniforms, and shooting them — all in order to take
advantage of government-awarded bonuses for killing guerrillas. Still, Uribe's
popularity remained high going into the 2010 presidential election — Colombia,
like much of Latin America, has survived the current financial crisis better than
many developed countries. However, when the Colombian supreme court
determined that a third term would be unconstitutional, the president
honorably accepted the decision, unlike other leaders in similar situations
throughout Latin America and the world.
Uribe never organized his own political movement and relied on a coalition of
parties to pass his program, so he had no obvious successor. The first round of