Uribe, on his knees in a presidential bathroom, begging for re-election

[rabs]

A book went on sale in Colombia this week that made Alvaro Uribe apoplectic with rage.


Yidis Medina: confieso...De rodillas en el baño presidencial (Title of the book)
(Yidis Medina: (I) confess ... on knees in the presidential bathroom)

Yidis is the national congresswoman who was pressured by uribistas to change her vote so that alvarito could be re-elected in 2006. For that she was convicted on charges of bribery and sentenced to 47 months in prison.

Now her story has come out, written by a Colombian journalist, in which she says that on the day of the vote, she was invited to the presidential palace. alvarito wanted to speak to her in private but since there were so many people around, he escorted her to an ornate presidential bathroom.

There, she says uribito got on one knee and flexed his other and begged for her vote. He got it and a change in the Colombian Constitution was approved allowed his re-election. (Guess one could say the constitution went down the toilet that day.)

Last week alvarito responded with rage, saying in strong language that what Yidis claimed was a "repugnant lie" by a "mentirosa" (liar).

Don't know if this story has been covered by the English-language media but it has caused much merriment in Colombia, as cartoon below illustrates.




Caption:

alvarito: "Yidis, help me so that the re-election will come.
Yidis: "aaaah, it's coming out."

[EFerrari]

1. If he thought he'd just be able to pretend to lecture somewhere

as a retired statesman, he's insane.

Uribe, Blair, Bushito, we have to find that mold and melt it for scrap metal.

[rabs]

2. yep, things have not gone well for alvarito

since he left the presidency in August.

Well, except maybe at Georgetown and Harvard.

Btw. he seems to be everywhere except Colombia. Last week he was in Argentina and Chile. He's recently been in Panama, Honduras, Madrid and the United States that recall off the top of my head.

It would seem that his safety is not guaranteed in Bogota, even though he and his family were given housing at a heavily-guarded army base in the capital. With the truckloads of enemies that he has, it must be a nightmare to protect him.

He should move to Dallas to be a neighbor of bushito. :rofl:

[Judi Lynn]

3. Amazing! She's got guts. Yidis must be pretty sure Uribe is washed up in Colombia,

or she wouldn't do something the old Uribe would have had her vaporized for doing.

That in itself is an intriguing idea. He's lost his power? I never would have believed someone could make him lose face so seriously and not get "smoked," "greased," "clipped!" That and the book by Escobar's mistress have scratched some big gashes in his Teflon coating!

http://jmrg.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2010/02/correa-y-uribe.jpg
Recommending.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Anybody know if Uribe can run again, after the Santos interim?

We've got to remember what's coming at us in this U.S. Puke Congress (they've already met with their Latin American Puke counterparts) and what could be coming at us in 2012. (John Bolton just floated his name for the Puke nomination!) (Don't laugh. With these 'TRADE SECRET' code voting machines, and ES&S/Diebold's 80% control of the "market" in U.S. election results, the far rightwing can do anything it wants to. That is the situation.)

So consider all this protection that the CIA has provided to Uribe: whisking all the death squad witnesses and spying witnesses out of Colombia; laundering Uribe's image with prestigious appointments to this and that. Maybe they're not just buying his silence (re Junior's crimes); maybe they're grooming him for another shot at Oil War II. His very last words in office were basically, "Invade Venezuela!" (--wanted an international peacekeeping force to exterminate FARC on Colombia/Venezuela border, without Venezuela's consent).

Anyway, just read about remarks by Lula da Silva aide, that Lula might run again if Dilma falters (a rather dubious thing for this aide to say--he probably should be fired for it--but still...).

When Uribe re-wrote the law in that bathroom to give himself a second term, did he include a provision for running again later--or did Colombia already have such a provision? Could Santos be a placeholder?

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Edited to add: Judi Lynn post on Lula in 2014...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x46151