Uribe's rising popularity fuels prospects of 3rd term

Uribe's domestic support is founded on building up the security forces and restoring some measure of law and order, helped by more than $5 billion in U.S. aid under the Plan Colombia initiative targeting drugs and terrorism. A country that a few years ago was slipping into chaos has seen kidnappings and murders plunge by two-thirds since he took office -- although the global cocaine traffic is booming.

Talk of a third term alarms critics and admirers alike who say Uribe exhibits anti-democratic tendencies reminiscent of a Latin American caudillo, or strongman.

"When leadership is concentrated in only one person, and this person stumbles, the country's morale may collapse," Sen. Gustavo Petro, part of the leftist opposition in Congress, told El Espectador newspaper.

Many see Uribe's drive to extend his power as detrimental to a nation struggling to cement a fragile democratic tradition after decades of instability.

"The orchestra is playing very well in many aspects," said former Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus, "but people only see the conductor."

Uribe is an unusual mix of technocrat and populist. He is a somewhat wooden orator, but his blunt proclamations connect with a population fed up with political doublespeak.

Critics say the scion of a wealthy landowning family treats the country as his personal finca, or estate.

"He has a feudal concept of government," Duzan said. "He is a control freak who wants to manage everything."

To his detractors, Uribe is a polarizing figure who brooks no dissent. He labeled Ivan Cepeda, the son of a murdered senator who leads a nationwide network of victims groups, a "terrorist."

Even Betancourt, the charismatic former senator and presidential candidate whose rescue last week with 14 other hostages sparked national euphoria, urged Uribe on Monday to soften his tone, after effusively praising the president upon her release.

Uribe has long denied links to paramilitary groups, and lately he and allies have dismissed allegations of electoral bribery. Democrats in the U.S. Congress have called for vigorous prosecution in extrajudicial slayings, including the deaths of scores of trade unionists since he took office in 2002.

Such issues continue to impede a U.S.-Colombia free trade deal, a priority for Uribe and the Bush administration.