President Uribe Goes to Washington

In an interview last month with BBC television, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe could not conceal his exasperation. Yet the interviewer had asked a legitimate and seemingly harmless question: "Do you want to be president four more years?"

"Next question, amigo," Uribe told the Argentine journalist conducting the interview. "Study the history of your country and leave Colombian democracy alone."

You might say Uribe's undeclared bid for a third term next year and the controversy that surrounds the necessary constitutional reform are touchy subjects. After seven years in office -- and a previous re-election that also required constitutional reform -- Uribe remains very popular and his significant successes in the areas of national security and the economy have persuaded many, including himself, that he is indispensable.

But Uribe had best keep his sensitivity and hubris in check. Though Washington's support has been key to Uribe's victories, the Obama administration is not convinced. Despite the praise heaped on Uribe in recent years, these days it is hard to find American politicians on either side of the spectrum who support a third term.

"In the eyes of many Americans, democracy is about limits on government and power," a staffer to a Senate Republican told me early this week. He added that Uribe risks being perceived -- just as the leaders of Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua are -- as someone attempting to grab power.

In an editorial last month, those sentiments were echoed in the opinion pages of The Washington Post, which frequently publishes articles passionately supportive of Uribe. The editors argued, "Uribe has demonstrated how much a capable elected president can accomplish; now he has the chance to show the importance of placing institutions and the rule of law above any one leader."

Because of such sentiments, Uribe now needs to reassure Colombians that his relations with Washington remain strong and that aid from and trade with the United States will continue to grow. He'll try to strengthen his ties to the United States when he visits Washington on June 29 to meet with President Obama.

Obama will most likely praise Uribe for his successes against guerrilla and paramilitary groups and for his tireless efforts against drug traffickers. It's less clear how much Obama will press Uribe publicly (or even privately), while avoiding the appearance of meddling in Colombia's internal affairs.

After investing more than $6 billion in Colombia over the last decade, Washington has some leverage, and human rights groups expect Obama to use it. Organizations such as the Latin American Working Group and the Center for International Policy will soon ask Obama to express concerns about worrisome human rights trends in Colombia. On the specific issue of a potential third term for Uribe, Adam Isacson, an expert on Colombia at the Center for International Policy, says the groups will argue that Obama doesn't need to discuss re-election per se. But Obama has a duty to remind Uribe of "the importance of checks and balances in a democracy," Isacson says.

That doesn't mean the groups want Obama to threaten Uribe. They just want Obama to publicly acknowledge that a third term will jeopardize Colombia's standing in Washington.

Faced with an economic recession and growing demands for U.S. assistance to fight organized crime in other parts of the hemisphere, congressional leaders are having a harder time justifying continued assistance to Colombia. A third Uribe term would make the difficult ratification of the pending bilateral free trade agreement almost impossible.

Aid and trade, however, remain essential to Colombia's future. After helping secure the country militarily, U.S. aid is now being used to secure peace. Millions of dollars are now being used to provide sustainable alternatives for coca farmers and to assist some of the 3 million people displaced internally -- the largest number in the world, as reported this week by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Also, U.S. support for judicial capacity remains crucial, especially as new allegations of violence and abuse surface. Most recently the country's judicial authorities have begun looking into cases in which the military killed civilians and others in which the government's intelligence service wiretapped Supreme Court judges, opposition leaders, activists and journalists.

Although his government has been under fire for both scandals, Uribe has not been directly implicated. Still, he often blames his enemies for fabricating the problem.

Clearly one of the drawbacks to having power for a long time is that of making enemies along the way. Another is the temptation to prioritize your own needs over your country's. And yet another, it seems, is that one forgets to respond proactively, as Uribe did so effectively in the past.