A safer and richer country, but one that needs more jobs and better socioeconomic policies—as well as constant vigilance

This is by far the most accurate article of the Economist with regard to Colombia. It reflects a great deal of what I have said about the situation in the past: the social policies of Mr Uribe's government are anemic and look like a cheap knock-off of Mr Lula's. The country needs to create employment and improve education. The payroll taxes are high, but the anwswer is not to eliminate them alltogether, many people with formal employment, like their "transporation subsidiy" and full benefits, the answer lies in making these benefits tax-deductible for the companies, specially the small ones. Wether or not people will be able to return to their former farmsteads are too be seen. But since the FARC is still engaging in control of the more remote and thus also the poorest parts of the country, the government needs to do more butter and perhaps more guns too

This article openly admits that despite the heavy military expenditures and unprecedented US support the FARC are far from being defeated. If one is to believe The Economist’s article about coca leave production in Colombia actually growing (June 19, 2008), the only conclusion to be drawn is that Plan Colombia has been nothing but an abject failure.

If the price paid by Colombians for the abuses that the State committed (e.g. false positives) while chasing the FARC weren’t enough, the admission that the trickling down economic myth does not work either only adds insult to injury.

The real problem for most Colombians is the belief of the elites that Colombia has never been better and that Uribe is the messiah. Nothing is further from the truth. Colombia is regionally isolated and more dependent than ever on the US; the strength of democratic institutions has been compromised by the Colombian constitution being adulterated through reforms tainted by bribes and intimidation; constitutional checks and balances are virtually non-existent thanks to a morally dubious rubber-stamp congress and the constant undermining of judicial independence by the executive. The Uribe administration has got Scot free in a number of scandals that would not be tolerated anywhere else. Yet, the elite-controlled media continues portraying Uribe as the epitome of success in a mediatic farce that would make IngSoc blush.

ocastillo,

Let's not be emotional please.

While it cannot be denied that many things have improved in Colombia, as a non-Colombian that has nothing to gain or loose by saying so I refuse to idealize Uribe. Unfortunately, the unprecedented work ethic and success of Uribe have been grossly magnified by the ideologically friendly media and wishful thinking. The profound desire for things to improve has blinded many Colombians (particularly the ones that speak English and read The Economist)and has resulted in a Teflon president that can do no wrong. However, the emotionally detached observer knows that Uribe is no angel and that his few successes have come at a cost. He is far from being the moral compass that Colombia needs now.

Mr Morart, Colmbia's government is hardly totalitarian, if it was so there would not be the countless class-action lawsuits that are filed and processed each year by the judicial branch, ranging from challenges to the new DWI law, to challenges to the relection referendum. The country's system does definitely need some changes, and the infraestructure investment that Arcadiabogota mentioned has been very slow to come, partially due to lack of priorization and partially due to corruption. However things have improved in many places in the country, yet the Uribe government has only managed to get poverty back to levels similart to those that existed at the time of the Apertura (1991ish), There are certainly things that have improved a great deal, although not by direct influence of the govt: Internet access close to 42% of households, television ownership 80% of households, ect, mostly increases in consumption by the majority of households, yet the UN figures still show 6% of children in Colombia with cronic malnourishment, and the world bank shows 17% of the population living on less than 2 dollars per day. The national poverty line in Colombia is defined as living on less than 6 dollars per day, thus giving 46% of the population under the poverty line

Its a terrible shame that Obama has sided with President for Life Hugo Chavez and the Union special interests in the U.S., and bottled up the free trade agreement with Columbia. The Columbian people have made tremendous progress, have a vibrant democracy, and deserve far better from the United States.

It is true that the overall security has improved in the last years, however in the big cities is decreasing due to emerging criminal organizations, some of the coming from former paramilitary groups. It is also important to underline that the modernization of the Army began with the Pastrana´s administration and the “Plan Colombia”, without that would be not possible to achieve the improvement we have now.
On the other hand the economic growth in the last year is not precisely correlated to the better situation of security, depends more in the growth of the big emerging economies (China, India and Brasil) that pressed high commodities prices, seeing carefully almost all the region had and important economic growth in the last years before recession. The economic policies during the second administration of president Uribe has been week, only favouring big capitals, but they lack of big investments in infrastructure and the country lost the opportunity to access to credit before the recession. A third term would be bad for the country, both for the institutionally and for the economy as Luis Carlos Villegas the president of ANDI because would introduce more instability that is not desirable for investment.

Where were all the moaners above ten or twenty years ago when Colombia was really a shambles? They are probably the same ones that support chavismo intervention everywhere.

No government is perfect, and Mr Uribe's is very far from being perfect indeed. However, denying the evident progress made by Colombia as a country and Mr Uribe's efforts to contain Mr Chávez totalitarian ambitions in the region is plainly myopic and ludicrous.

It's worthy remembering that many high-rank oficials in the Uribe government are under investigation for involvement with drug traffickers and paramilitaries. Apart from that, more than half the 166 members of Colombiam Congress are under investigation by the country's Supreme Court for involvement in a governmental buying-votes scheme. And some of them are now being accused of selling votes in favor of Uribe's second re-election. The opposition suspects that about 200 million USD were spent by the government in exchange for political support. Furthermore, it was revealed a scheme of eavesdropping by the Colombiam agency of intelligence (DAS), whose goal was to monitor the vote of lawmakers and judges. Uribe is poisoning the Colombiam political and judicial system and the result of that is a more corrupt country. Poor Colombian!

Uribe is tired, he's allowed himself in the name of "the happy few in Colobia" to invite US military to set up house in Colombia, vile carnage is to be expected.

President Obama should intervene to find alternate humanatarian solutions, if the US has the bad habit tendency of butting in on foreign affairs.

The Economis should consider digging deeper for the truth as to who are the lethal characters managing the dumping of pathetic US Army camps around the world.

President Obama's Council must innovate pleaSe! aid & social services is what is urgently needed: the US should consider sending teachers, nurses, home builders, Is there anyone there to get the message? No more troops!

If not this move, A REPEATED PATTERN of action will entice the caotic bullyish locals to want to buy more arms, and may I wonder from who? some are keen to revamp a flourishing arms industry in the region, but that is NOT the point.

This is very sad, Uribe has not been up to the demands of his fellow countrymen and the people, the ones that are below the poverty line, that 46% mentioned.

CIVILIAN EDUCATION PLEASE

One of the readers´comments is as follows: "The Economist presents Colombia as a healthy democracy. In fact, I believe Colombia is dangerously close to becoming one of the worst Latin American dictatorships of this century". I couldn´t agree more.
The Economist insist on showing Mr Alvaro Uribe´s government as if it had made Colombia a better and safer place. On the contary, our Democracy (seen as participative democracy) is too fragile and mr. Uribe is tearing it apart.

I hate to break it to you Morart and Mulatta, but by almost all international and national measures poverty in Colombia affets somewhere between 20 to 46% of the population. The democratic system in Colombia is far from perfect but really totalitarian? I would see authoritarian. Mr Morart what do you mean by Asian-type totalitarian government , do you mean like the PRC or like Singapore or maybe like South Korea?

Colombia and its goverment policies seem as a good case of the effects of clasic economic globalization in a third world country. Paving the way for the world-wide business elite at the cost of the general population tnat in the Colombian case seems to be supportive of a long-term totalitarian democracy.

As in many other countries today, it seems Colombian socieconomic policies have taken a back seat to global oriented economic policies only driven to improve profits and economic variables, but disregarding the fundamental needs of the majority of the population. This seems manifested in their health system problems that sound similar to the problem the US has with its health system.

Also similar to other countries, Colombia root social problems manifestation is moving from old discredited jungle base gerrillas to urban crime, a more challenging and difficult problem to resolve for globalized economies with not appropriate socioenomic policies.

It seems Colombia is ready for changes at the top leadership with fresh people and economic oriented policies

morart

Uribe can be a lot of things to many people, but Colombia is much better off now than when he took office 7 years ago.

It´s curious that the same people who describe Uribe´s government as totalitarian, describe Colombian media as "controlled" or "goverment friendly", claim to be colombian, etc., show they have no clue of Colombia is like and where its coming from.

Like the article points out "Not yet the promised land" but 8 years ago Colombia was at the brink of becoming a Latin American Afganistan.

I hope Uribe does not run again, but I will always give the man teh credit he deserves.

of course the oposition wants mr uribe out... the oposition always wants the incumbent out in any country, right?

@suma sin laude "The real problem for most Colombians is the belief of the elites that Colombia has never been better and that Uribe is the messiah"

All right, so that's the problem. Not unemployment, crime or poverty levels. The belief that Uribe is a Messiah is Colombia's problem. No wonder you call yourself sin laude.

As a foreigner who has visited Colombia since the 70s, I can tell you that you can actually feel the difference on the streets. I'm not telling that Uribe is the only one who has contributed, but he has certainly been a contributor. And, so you know, even the best of governments will eventually face a recession, so your "economic myth" is pointless.

Let's talk about facts. Colombia is a better place now than it was 20 or 30 years ago. By any measure. Period.

@bogotareader

Uribe is tearing what apart? The little he has built? Where were you 20 years ago when Colombia as a state was a joke and nearly a failed one? I can almost see you throwing confetti if Chávez won (he couldn't) a war against Colombia, for that wouldn't be a dictatorship. For that matter, just try living in Caracas and to think differently from the dictator. You're gonna love your democratic participation in jail or in exile.

The fact is the country should not be dependent on one man, and Uribe's turn to bat is over. To continue would undermine democracy and the rule of law. Luckily there are other candidates with as good qualities or more than Uribe, such as Mockus or Fajardo or Pardo that can do a good job also.

But I must add a few comments:
1. For those who believe that uribe is popular thanks to friendly media coverage, should check the websites of the main newspapers (for example eltiempo.com; semana.com; cambio.com) for the last few years and you will hardly find favorable coverage. On the contrary they are the driving force in uncovering all the scandals we all know about. Uribe's popularity has yet to be properly explained, but it seems to be a fact as measured by diverse polls. Please check the edition of last september 11/09 of Cambio, in which they try to explain why the vast mayority mainstream columnist oppose the reelection, but yet the polls continue to show a large support for Uribe. Interestingly enough the comment on the cover is "porque no le creen a los columnistas?" (why the columnist are not being followed by the public opinion)?
2. Uribe's political abilities plus his strong management skills (quick to decide and execute) are definitely an unusual combination for the average politician in the region. Add to that combination the fact that he is preceived as honest and truly concerned and focused on the critical issues of the people, seem to explain his popularity.
3. For those who believe that uribe is responsible for all of Colombia's problems (poverty, internally displaced, human rights violations, drug business corrupting politicians, etc) I must remind them that these problems were not originated by Uribe, and existed prior to Uribe in a much larger scale than today. To a few I must also remind them that the main originators of displacement, human rights violations is not the government but are responsibility of either the FARC or the drug funded criminal gangs, as reported by Human Rights Watch.
4. For those who believe that Colombia was saved by Uribe I must remind them that improvement in the above mentioned issues also began prior to Uribe. Progress in Colombia is quite evident, not as skewed as portrayed by some; but the tragic fact is it is not a nicely consistent curve and a lot remains to be done.

While a third term for Mr Uribe would certainly not be advisable since
it would undermine democracy, I would hardly condemn the entire Colombian political system as a dictatorship, since in dictatorships the opposition is systematically excluded from all key positions of power and actively persecuted. In today's Colombia key opposition figures hold high posts: the mayor of Bogota is from the left-leaning PDA coalition ( the mayorship of Bogota is considered the second most important elected position in the country), the governor of Narino department is from Mr Navarro Wolf of the former M-19 guerrilla movement, The recently killed ( by the FARC) governor of Caqueta department was a member of an independent party. While hardly a perfect system, plagued with corruption, vote buying (mostly in the Caribean coast), armed intimidation away from political participation in some rural areas ( by the rightist paramilitary reducts and the stalinist FARC), the situation is still delicate, but the country itself is out of the ICU as it where and more in a state of delicate recovery, however another term by Mr Uribe could cause a relapse, the country needs somebody along the lines of Mr Penalosa or Mr Mockus, who will invest in education ( only 10% of Colombians have a college degree, only 40% of high school graduates go on to college), infraestructure ( barely any working rail, road shipping costs because of bad roads and security almost as high as overseas shipping), investement in small farmers with "country appropiate" technification of farming, more intensive affordable housing programes ( the current programes build only about 100,000 houses per year, the country has a 4 million housing units shortage),real reform to the health care system, the current system offers widesprad low-quality healthcare and does not have a well funded public option.

Mr. Septembro, my perception is some of Colombian security advances and the "improvements" you mention for the Colombian middle class have been achieved under an Asian-type of "totalitarian democratic state", supported and accepted by the majority of Colombian people. The type defined by historians such as J. L. Talmon as the government that "maximize its control over the lives of its citizens, using the dual rationale of general will (i.e., "public good") and majority rule. The argument can be made that in some circumstances it is actually the political, economic, and military élite who interpret the general will to suit their own interests. Again, however, it is the imperative of achieving the overarching goal of a political nirvana that shapes the vision of the process, and the citizen is expected to contribute to the best of his abilities.."

But in Colombia, similar to some Asian countries, that "general will" and "public good" are far of being a realization because more than half of the Colombia population still lives under the poverty level, and any globalization benefits are just for a few, most of them foreing investors.

There's truth in all of the comments.Alvaro Uribe has done an above average job during both terms and Washington could have helped him even more with the much delayed Free Trade Agreement. What's the senate waiting for? Is this the way you payback a good ally? Shame.
I do not see anyone else in the horizon {among potential candidates}that can build on Mr. Uribe's accomplishments.Is a 3rd. term in office the right outcome? If the colombian people AGREE that it is - Why Not? Colombia's neighborhood is hot & complicated at present.I am encouraged that changes will take place in 2010 and Uribe's steady course could be benficial. I do not forsee Chavez lasting beyond 2010. The economy is rapidly deteriorating and his throng of red t-shirt supporters will soon be on the streets in force {blackouts,water shortages,crime & hoplessness}.Correa in Ecuador is broke & facing a similar situation.Teflon Lula {The EC darling}will soon be out of office and hopefully a more determined leader {as far as South America leadesrship is concerned}could take office. 2010 will be an interesting year to watch for changes.

Colombia can be the second happiest people on earth, but also the most violent. President Uribe has placed a high priority on eliminating criminal groups who paint themselves left or right (they are neither), but in the relative security of their Bogotá offices, many people envy his popularity and conspire to accuse him and his supporters of whatever wrong they can. All in all, I only have gratitude for someone who was willing to risk his life to save our country from becoming a failed state, and for restoring the rule of law in the country.