Colombia: A Risky Push to Bring Down Uribe

The Colombian Liberal Party has chosen Cesar Gaviria as its new leader and voted that its greatest priority in the 2006 presidential election will be to block President Alvaro Uribe Velez from winning a second term. Gaviria has already accused Uribe of links to paramilitaries and drug traffickers, and Uribe has fired back similar charges against Gaviria. While skeletons in Uribe's closet could be exposed in the process, so could those of many Liberal leaders like Gaviria and Horacio Serpa. Gaviria is trying to reclaim the Liberal Party's traditional political primacy, but ultimately its anti-Uribe offensive could weaken the party beyond repair.