BOGOTA, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has signed a bill that clears the way for a referendum on changing the constitution to allow him to seek re-election for a third term.
Uribe is keeping mum on whether he will run for president if the constitution is changed following a yes vote in a referendum. But analysts said the president, a U.S. ally in the Andean region's war on drug trafficking from Central and South America to the United States, is unlikely to announce his candidacy until the referendum produces a vote in favor of constitutional change.
If approved, this will be the second constitutional change instigated by Uribe to secure his re-election. A previous constitutional change in 2006 allowed Uribe to run for a second term and continue political and economic reforms, particularly anti-drug measures, that won him popularity.
This time around, however, unease is growing over Uribe tampering with the constitution to ensure continued rule, emboldening critics to attack the president on grounds that a further constitutional change could damage Colombia's fragile democracy.
The bill passed through Congress last week and, following Uribe's ratification, goes to a constitutional court where deliberations are likely to be fraught and heated, analysts said. The next presidential election is not due until May 2010.
The controversy over re-election has come amid intense pressures on Uribe from Colombia's socialist neighbors, led by Venezuela, who oppose his close ties with the United States and U.S. use of Colombian military bases to fight the drug cartels.
The last mediation attempt brokered by Argentine President Critstina Fernandez de Kirchner ended with no easing of the stance of South American countries opposed to the use of Colombian military bases by U.S. troops. Uribe returned home virtually empty handed from the summit of South American leaders, but ill with swine flu.
Although Uribe has drawn anger from the socialist states for allowing more U.S. troops to use Colombian bases, he is following in the footsteps of his detractors in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, who have already changed statutes to extend their presidential terms of office.
Most other Latin American states, with the notable exception of Mexico and Guatemala, have been relaxed about presidential re-elections.
The last president to have tried to change the constitution to prolong his hold on power, Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya, ran into difficulties soon afterwards and was ousted in a coup on June 28.
His successor, de facto President Roberto Micheletti, has ruled out Zelaya's return to office and announced plans for a new election in November.
