President Álvaro Uribe had hinted for some time that he might run for a third consecutive term, despite the constitution's two-term limit. Last summer Colombia's House and Senate, controlled by allies of Uribe, passed a bill to change the constitution. The next and final step was a popular referendum in May to endorse Uribe's reelection. If that sounds familiar, it should. It was by popular referendum that Venezuela's Hugo Chávez installed himself as a virtual president-for-life. But late last month Colombia's constitutional court rejected the bill. The referendum is dead, and Colombia's democracy lives.
Uribe would almost certainly have been reelected had he been allowed to run again. He is overwhelmingly popular in Colombia. He has beaten back terrorism and the drug cartels and made even the streets of Medellin safe to walk. If anyone could make a case for a third term, it was Uribe. And if the court decided to approve the referendum, many were prepared to look the other way.
Fortunately, the court took a different view, perhaps understanding that a third term would have been bad for Colombia, bad for the hemisphere and bad even for Uribe. It would have been a blow -- possibly fatal -- to the democracy he has done so much to save.
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