Colombia’s President Answers to the People

Complaining of paramilitary extortion, tardy pension payments and the price of corn, Colombians took to the phones Saturday to relate their fears and needs to President Alvaro Uribe during a marathon, interactive Cabinet meeting.

Broadcast live on television for 10 hours, the program featured rumpled ministers with unbuttoned collars, reports stacked in front of them, giving a rendering of accounts from Uribe’s first year in office. For most, the balance was positive.

“Mr. President of Hope,” rejoiced one caller, before launching into a lament over the grinding pace of Colombian justice.

When another caller told the president that he had come up with a novel job-creation program, Uribe promptly slotted him in the appointment calendar of the social protection minister who was sitting by his side -- Wednesday morning, 7:30 sharp -- adding that he was open to new ideas but couldn’t make any promises.

“Mr. President, this is what we need,” the caller responded, “political willingness!”

Twelve months after winning a landslide victory on a law-and-order platform, Colombia’s plain-spoken president is still enjoying his political honeymoon.

A recent poll of 1,000 Colombians living in urban centers put Uribe’s approval rating at 64%. For most of his presidency, Uribe’s ratings have been even higher, hovering around 70%.

Analysts attribute much of his popularity to perceived advances on the battlefield: Colombia’s Marxist rebels are lying low, their ultra-right paramilitary foes have entered peace talks, and the police force is well on its way to establishing an outpost in every Colombian hamlet.

According to Defense Ministry figures released during the broadcast, kidnappings have declined 34% since Uribe took office Aug. 7, while hundreds of combatants have deserted from rebel and paramilitary ranks.

Supporters see the data as a sign that Uribe’s tough policies are paying off. The president has added thousands of soldiers to army ranks and has enlisted broader U.S. training to prepare special counterinsurgency units.

“The results of a year of [Uribe’s] hard work are breathtaking and impressive,” said U.S. anti-drug czar John P. Walters during a recent visit to Colombia. “He’s batting a thousand.”

Under Uribe, he noted, aerial spraying of drug crops has increased steeply, fueling a 15% drop in cultivation. Walters said Colombia’s warring factions, which rely on drug profits to buy bombs and bullets, are already hurting.

Political analyst Fernando Cepeda accounted for Uribe’s lofty approval ratings by contrasting his class-nerd persona and his sharp discipline with the whisky-swigging jocularity of Colombia’s elite. In a political realm plagued by corruption and laced with empty rhetoric, Uribe’s results-oriented style is winning him points.

“People are happy to see the government work a little, get up early, write a report,” Cepeda said.

Rising before dawn, Uribe usually starts his day with a one-hour jog and then works late into the night. Aides say part of Uribe’s resilience comes from sipping a floral extract, an herbal remedy.

On Friday evenings, he has been known to spend hours making surprise calls to military commanders in remote corners of the countryside. “That’s happy hour,” one aide said.

As evidence of Uribe’s endearing manner, his wife, Lina, relates that he once offered milk and cookies to ranchers visiting their country home.

Human rights monitors, meanwhile, give Uribe mixed reviews. Robin Kirk of the New York-based Human Rights Watch praised Uribe for strongly condemning the slaying of a union leader last week. But she said the Colombian military had yet to sever ties with paramilitary death squads, and she criticized Uribe’s support of legislation that would allow paramilitary leaders to avoid prison as part of an eventual peace deal.

“Impunity in the past has only led to more violence. It’s proven,” Kirk said.

Others say the heavy lifting of Uribe’s presidency lies ahead. While violent deaths appear to be diminishing in Colombia, “political deaths” at the hands of illegal armed groups remain steady, at about 4,000 a year.

And military analysts say the nation’s largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, could strike back at any time.

“It’s true the armed forces have hit the guerrillas and the paramilitaries, but these groups remain intact, and at any moment there could be another surge in the violence,” analyst Alfredo Rangel warned. “This is not a stable situation, nor is it irreversible.”

Of the current lag in rebel attacks, he added, “I think they’re waiting for Uribe to wear himself out. This is a game where the idea is to see who gets tired first.”

Sitting though his ninth hour of nonstop calls Saturday, Uribe seemed tireless as he threw himself into tourism initiatives along Colombia’s rugged Pacific coast -- a region off limits to most vacationers because of its high kidnapping rates.

“I don’t want to paint a picture where we’re walking through a rose garden,” Uribe told viewers. “We still have a lot of work to do.”