Anti-Rebel Candidate Leads in Polls in Colombia

With two polls published Sunday confirming Alvaro Uribe Velez’s huge lead ahead of next week’s presidential election, the anti-guerrilla candidate canceled one of his last campaign appearances for security reasons and bombs trashed one of his offices.

Uribe, who has promised to take a tough hand against Colombia’s leftist rebels and to battle corruption, was within a hair of the majority he would need to win Sunday’s vote and avoid a runoff, according to the polls.

At a news conference in Bogota, the capital, Uribe said he had called off a planned teleconference with people in more than a third of Colombia’s towns for security reasons. Sunday was the final day for candidates to campaign.

Uribe did not elaborate on the threat, but he confirmed police reports that two small bombs had ripped through his campaign office in the northern city of Valledupar the night before. The blasts only damaged property.

Uribe survived an assassination attempt last month when a bomb blamed on leftist rebels rocked his motorcade, killing four bystanders.

He cut back public appearances and has been using TV spots and teleconferencing to get his message across.

“I’m certain that Colombia will not miss this chance to elect a government that is strong against corruption, politics-as-usual and violence,” he said Sunday.

Uribe, the former governor of Antioquia state, skyrocketed into the lead this year on the strength of his anti-guerrilla rhetoric. The tough talk touched a chord with voters frustrated by the lack of results in three years of peace talks between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and President Andres Pastrana.

Pastrana, whose four-year term ends in August, is constitutionally barred from reelection.