Saturday, October 28, 2006
Official gets tough treatment
BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Beware Colombian bureaucrats, your president is watching.
Famed for his tough approach, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe went one step further Thursday when he ordered a local official suspected of corruption arrested as he sat in the audience listening to the presidential speech.
Uribe, who has led a U.S.-backed crackdown on leftist rebels and the cocaine trade, has earned a no-nonsense reputation since first coming to office more than four years ago with a promise to crush the country's four-decade insurgency.
Speaking in the port city of Buenaventura, Uribe accused the city mayor's secretary of trying to get a naval officer to hand over a captured stash of cocaine and ordered police to detain the shocked official sitting in front of him.
"You are unworthy to carry out your duties," Uribe said wagging his finger as two plainclothes officers escorted the official out of the hall. "The government cannot do battle when someone in a position as important as yours lacks patriotism."
Police later released the man pending an investigation into the charges.
Uribe, whose father was killed during a rebel kidnap attempt, was re-elected in May after Colombians praised him for reducing violence. The bespectacled, U.S.-trained lawyer backed off from possible talks with guerrillas after charging them with setting off a car bomb in Bogota last week.
Critics say Uribe has not done enough to curb human rights abuses and corruption in the military and wonder whether his hardline stance can really end the country's conflict.
Famed for his tough approach, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe went one step further Thursday when he ordered a local official suspected of corruption arrested as he sat in the audience listening to the presidential speech.
Uribe, who has led a U.S.-backed crackdown on leftist rebels and the cocaine trade, has earned a no-nonsense reputation since first coming to office more than four years ago with a promise to crush the country's four-decade insurgency.
Speaking in the port city of Buenaventura, Uribe accused the city mayor's secretary of trying to get a naval officer to hand over a captured stash of cocaine and ordered police to detain the shocked official sitting in front of him.
"You are unworthy to carry out your duties," Uribe said wagging his finger as two plainclothes officers escorted the official out of the hall. "The government cannot do battle when someone in a position as important as yours lacks patriotism."
Police later released the man pending an investigation into the charges.
Uribe, whose father was killed during a rebel kidnap attempt, was re-elected in May after Colombians praised him for reducing violence. The bespectacled, U.S.-trained lawyer backed off from possible talks with guerrillas after charging them with setting off a car bomb in Bogota last week.
Critics say Uribe has not done enough to curb human rights abuses and corruption in the military and wonder whether his hardline stance can really end the country's conflict.
# posted by DVDMASTER4 @ 11:49 AM 
