At 2nd Inauguration, Colombia’s Uribe Vows to Pursue Peace

Alvaro Uribe took the oath Monday as the first reelected president in Colombian history, vowing to maintain a firm hand with leftist guerrillas but to aggressively pursue what his citizens want above all: an end to four decades of armed conflict.

In a speech to Congress, Uribe reviewed what he called his first term’s progress in reestablishing security in much of the nation. That in turn has helped democracy rebound and the economy stage a comeback after a decade of near-chaos, he said.

But he acknowledged that there was “a long way to go and difficulties persist,” and he promised to pursue peace with armed rebels despite the failure of such gestures in the past.

“We are not afraid to negotiate peace. I confess that I worry about something different, the risk of not achieving peace and reverting to insecurity,” Uribe said.

Sections of Bogota, the capital, resembled armed camps Monday as Colombians tensely awaited the swearing-in. During Uribe’s first inauguration, in 2002, guerrillas launched several mortar shells near the presidential palace, killing 21 civilians, one of the low points of Colombia’s long civil war. But Monday passed without major incidents.

Voters reelected Uribe in May by a large margin, rewarding him for having brought the country a long way since those humiliating attacks during his first inauguration. With billions of dollars in U.S. aid to help pay for 120,000 additional soldiers and police in recent years, he has improved security in urban areas and along the highways and provided protection to local officials.

But the inauguration caps a week in which fighters thought to be leftist guerrillas sought to remind Uribe and Colombia that, though weakened, they still are a force to be reckoned with.

In the days leading up to the swearing-in, several bomb attacks killed 22 soldiers and six police officers across the country. On Wednesday, authorities broke up a guerrilla ring and seized 250 pounds of high explosives in a working-class neighborhood in southern Bogota. Had the explosives detonated, a whole city block might have been leveled.

A day earlier, six civilians working in a program to eradicate coca leaves used in the production of cocaine were killed when guerrillas exploded a bomb in the Macarena National Park, site of large-scale illicit coca plantations. The attack was seen as a warning that working for the government was risky business.

Over the last several days, hundreds of troops and armored vehicles patrolled Bogota’s streets, conducting searches of vehicles at intersections and on thoroughfares. Office buildings and parking lots close to the presidential palace were off-limits.

But although the country is still at war, there is a widespread belief that things have improved significantly since Uribe took office.

The economy has strengthened, and inflation and unemployment are down.

Much of the growth, however, had little to do with Uribe’s policies: The economy has been propelled by the increase in prices of Colombian commodities such as coal, oil, coffee and bananas. But Wall Street has praised Uribe’s fiscal management as well as his plan to impose a wealth tax similar to one in 2002 that he levied to finance the war against both left- and right-wing militants.

Bogota and other cities are in the midst of a construction boom, and foreign investment is pouring into the country.

Whereas much of Latin America has taken a leftward turn politically, Uribe remains a steadfast friend of the Bush administration. But in a nod to prevailing political winds, he acknowledged in his inauguration speech that free-market policies of recent years had proved insufficient to alleviate the country’s grinding poverty and financial inequality.

“We don’t share the idea of promoting growth and abandoning the war on poverty to the fate of the free market. We reject the notion of the equitable distribution of poverty. We believe in the growth of social justice,” he said.