Former presidents are like old furniture
An Ex-President Who Won’t Keep Away
By HÉCTOR ABAD, NYT
Medellín, Colombia
SOMEONE once said that former presidents are like old furniture. One thinks of a chest, revered for its noble appearance but no longer in use, eaten by termites, falling apart. Ever since modern medicine made longevity the rule and not the exception, countries have been accumulating these antiques. Four ex-presidents are living in the United States: the 39th, the 41st, the 42nd and the 43rd; it’s very likely that the 44th will occupy some dusty corner until nearly the middle of the 21st century.
However, Colombia’s former president, Álvaro Uribe, is refusing to play this part.
For many years, Colombia’s presidency followed the Mexican model: a monarchical ruler for a single term of office, with re-election prohibited by law, as a vaccine against strongmen who fell in love with power. This was a wise rule, given that Latin American leaders often prefer the Vatican’s electoral system: a president who stays in office until he dies or, in rare cases, is too ill to serve. Fidel Castro is one such case, and after manipulating constitutional reforms to allow them to stand for re-election, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Hugo Chávez in Venezuela (who is battling cancer) aspire to follow in his footsteps.
Colombia has moved in this direction. Thanks to his successful fight against the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and his having restored the country’s faith in the future, Mr. Uribe was a very popular president. He was also very fond of power. For that reason he fostered a constitutional amendment that, in 2006, allowed him to stand for re-election and stay in office for eight years instead of four. In 2010 he pushed for a referendum that would let him run for a third term, but — in an act of dignity rare in our region — the proposal was declared unconstitutional by the country’s highest court. Reluctantly, Mr. Uribe gave up power. The last thing he did was handpick his successor, Juan Manuel Santos, the former defense minister, who easily won the vote.
(More here.)
By HÉCTOR ABAD, NYT
Medellín, Colombia
SOMEONE once said that former presidents are like old furniture. One thinks of a chest, revered for its noble appearance but no longer in use, eaten by termites, falling apart. Ever since modern medicine made longevity the rule and not the exception, countries have been accumulating these antiques. Four ex-presidents are living in the United States: the 39th, the 41st, the 42nd and the 43rd; it’s very likely that the 44th will occupy some dusty corner until nearly the middle of the 21st century.
However, Colombia’s former president, Álvaro Uribe, is refusing to play this part.
For many years, Colombia’s presidency followed the Mexican model: a monarchical ruler for a single term of office, with re-election prohibited by law, as a vaccine against strongmen who fell in love with power. This was a wise rule, given that Latin American leaders often prefer the Vatican’s electoral system: a president who stays in office until he dies or, in rare cases, is too ill to serve. Fidel Castro is one such case, and after manipulating constitutional reforms to allow them to stand for re-election, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Hugo Chávez in Venezuela (who is battling cancer) aspire to follow in his footsteps.
Colombia has moved in this direction. Thanks to his successful fight against the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and his having restored the country’s faith in the future, Mr. Uribe was a very popular president. He was also very fond of power. For that reason he fostered a constitutional amendment that, in 2006, allowed him to stand for re-election and stay in office for eight years instead of four. In 2010 he pushed for a referendum that would let him run for a third term, but — in an act of dignity rare in our region — the proposal was declared unconstitutional by the country’s highest court. Reluctantly, Mr. Uribe gave up power. The last thing he did was handpick his successor, Juan Manuel Santos, the former defense minister, who easily won the vote.
(More here.)
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