[NYTr] Colombia's Pres Uribe Nearly as Loathed at Home as Bush in US
 
Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:17:22 -0500 (CDT)


Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Reuters via Yahoo - Jul 14, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070714/wl_nm/colombia_uribe_poll_dc_2

Unfavorable rating of Colombia's Uribe hits high

By Hugh Bronstein

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, bruised by a political scandal, saw
his disapproval rating hit a high of 27 percent in an Invamer Gallup
poll published on Saturday.

As the scandal grew, linking some of Uribe's closest congressional
allies to paramilitary death squads, the survey showed a 9-point rise
in Colombians who do not like the way the president is doing his job.

His popularity rating sank to a still relatively strong 66 percent,
compared with 75 percent in a Invamer Gallop poll taken in April. Most
Colombians like Uribe's tough security policies, which have reduced
urban crime rates, sparked foreign investment and helped the economy.

But the paramilitary scandal, known locally as "para-politics,"
deepened on Wednesday when the Supreme Court opened an investigation
into Uribe's first cousin, Senator Mario Uribe.

"People see para-politics as corruption," said pollster Jorge Londono.

The poll of 1,000 people, carried out July 6-8, had a margin of error
of 3 percentage points.

Uribe's standing overseas has also been hurt as a handful of his allies
in Congress have been jailed along with his former security chief, who
is accused of providing a death list of union leaders to the
paramilitaries.

Colombia has received billions of dollars in U.S. aid to crack down on
the drug trade, but the Congress is toughening conditions on aid and
putting off voting on a trade pact over human rights concerns.

The paramilitaries, formed in the 1980s to help protect drug lords and
cattle ranchers from left-wing rebels, entered Colombia's
multibillion-dollar cocaine business themselves and became notorious
for massacring suspected leftists.

Another negative factor for Uribe were the deaths last month of 11
provincial lawmakers who had been held hostage by the rebels since
2002, the poll showed.

The rebel army known as the FARC said the 11 died in cross-fire when
their secret jungle prison was attacked. The government accuses the
rebels of murdering the hostages.

"The death of the 11 lawmakers showed that the FARC is still very much
a threat," Londono said. "The public wants to see more results in the
struggle against the guerrillas."

Copyright B) 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
       
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