In Colombia, Uribe more popular than ever

As he stood in the plaza of this remote coffee-growing town hoping for a glimpse of President Alvaro Uribe, cattle rancher Antonio Jaramillo said the reason for Uribe's striking popularity was simple.

Before Uribe became president, life was chaotic because of armed groups that terrorized residents, Jaramillo said.

"Now we have peace," he said. "That's why we want him to stay for another election. If not, life will become difficult again."

A seemingly humorless workaholic, the thin and bespectacled Uribe could be mistaken for an accountant or professor. But in places such as Aguadas, the no-nonsense Harvard-educated lawyer is widely admired for having subdued rebels and having brought Colombia back from the abyss of violence and despair.

A few years ago, right-wing paramilitary gangs and left-wing rebels took turns terrorizing this town of 20,000, threatening residents, extorting from businesses and killing at will, said Mayor Jorge Ivan Salazar. One of the victims was a mayoral predecessor, Oscar Trujillo, killed by unknown assailants in 2000.

Last week's spectacular army rescue of 15 hostages, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three American defense contractors, boosted Uribe's already stratospheric popularity. Several polls over the weekend put his approval rating at above 80%.

Now the daring operation has also elevated the president's chances for a third term despite constitutional hurdlesand criticism that he is autocratic and intolerant of views that differ from his own.

Although Uribe has not said whether he will seek another term, analysts say that his overwhelming popularity makes his candidacy in 2010 a near certainty. He won a second term in 2006 thanks to a constitutional amendment that provided a one-time exception to the country's ban on reelection.

"It's what the country wants," said Maria Jimena Duzan, a magazine columnist who wrote a book critical of Uribe. "He has a blank check."

The 56-year-old Uribe is Washington's closest ally in Latin America and a crucial counterweight to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in a region where leftist ideology and anti-U.S. sentiment are widespread. President Bush has welcomed Uribe at his Texas ranch and called him a friend.