Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

All together for the answer
Should Colombia change its constitution to allow Uribe a third run? No, it should not.
Uribe, while he has been a great president in the fact that his country is now safer than it has been
in decades, produces only half the cocaine it did in 2001, and is becoming a safe haven for true
democracy, all that progress would be lost to the idea that a president could change the constitution
just so he could stay in office. Uribe’s own words sum up the lesson that lies at the heart of this
issue. In an interview with Charlie Rose on his PBS program, Uribe says that the important thing is
to re-elect the policies, not necessarily the person. The change that Uribe has started cannot end
with him should Colombia decide not to allow him to run, as it should. Someone needs to take up
the torch in order that Colombia might progress further toward being on the level that the United
States or any other advanced democracy is.
Uribe’s effect on Colombia is profound. To take a country that saw civil war and rampant
drug creation with very little in terms of stable traditional economy and turn it into a country with
continual economic growth is extraordinary. However, to use constitutional amendments to one’s
own personal benefit undermines those achievements and brings a country back towards the
instability it suffered in years past. Yet, Colombia can take satisfaction in the fact that they, under
the leadership of Alvaro Uribe, have pulled themselves from near total civil war, and that they have
become a model for Latin American countries for years to come.
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