March 19, 2008

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Public support for Colombian president Álvaro Uribe has reached an all-time high, according to a poll by Gallup. 84 per cent of respondents approve of Uribe’s performance, up three points since January.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Public support for Colombian president Álvaro Uribe has reached an all-time high, according to a poll by Gallup. 84 per cent of respondents approve of Uribe’s performance, up three points since January.

Uribe has been Colombia’s president since August 2002. In the May 2006 election, he won a new four-year term with 62.2 per cent of all cast ballots. He was able to run again after pro-Uribe lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Constitutional Court officially sanctioned a plan to allow immediate presidential re-election.

Despite several scandals surrounding his presidency—including the imprisonment of a dozen pro-government lawmakers for having ties with illegal paramilitary groups—Uribe has been commended for his hard stand against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a radical left-wing armed group.

The largest Latin American guerrilla finances its operations through kidnappings, and by trading drugs and precious metals. More than 700 people—and by some accounts more than 3,000—are currently being held in captivity by the FARC. Almost 50 of them are politicians, police and army officers that the FARC intends to use for the purposes of negotiating the release of its incarcerated members.

On Mar. 1, the Colombian armed forces attacked a FARC camp almost two kilometres into the border with Ecuador, killing Raúl Reyes, also known as the "chancellor of the FARC" due to his role as the group’s international spokesperson. Reyes was one of seven top FARC commanders. The Colombian army had never killed or imprisoned a FARC commander before.

The operation in Ecuador was followed by fierce condemnation by Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa and his political ally—and also head of a nation bordering Colombia—Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. The major crisis between the three nations ended at an international summit just days after the incident, when Uribe shook hands with both Chávez and Correa.

On Mar. 4, another FARC commander known as Iván Ríos was killed by one of his own men, allegedly with the assistance of an undercover army agent.

On Mar. 8, León Valencia, a Colombian political analyst who used to belong to the now dismantled M-19 leftist rebel group, assured that the killing of Reyes and Ríos represents a major boost to Uribe, saying, "These are very big victories. (...) How he handled this sometimes doesn’t fit with the politics of the rest of the Andean region, but they’re still very big victories."

Polling Data

Do you approve or disapprove of Álvaro Uribe’s performance as president?

	Mar. 2008	Jan. 2008	Nov. 2007
Approve	84%	81%	78%
Disapprove	13%	14%	19%

Source: Gallup
Methodology: Telephone interviews to 1,000 Colombian adults in the cities of Bogotá, Medellin, Cali and Barranquilla, conducted from Mar. 4 to Mar. 6, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.