Latin American Herald Tribune

Colombia ruling party backs former Uribe aide for President

March 10--President Alvaro Uribe’s Social Party of National Unity chose former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos as its standard-bearer in Colombia’s May 30 presidential election.

10 de marzo de 2010

Santos’s nomination became a virtual certainty after a Feb. 26 ruling by the Constitutional Court overturned a law authorizing a referendum on amending the country’s charter to allow Uribe to seek a third consecutive term.

In his acceptance address, Santos said that it was an immense honor to receive the nomination and thanked “President Uribe for the faith he has placed” in him.

The former defense chief recalled that in the past few years the leftist FARC rebels have been “hit harder than ever before,” but that, as Uribe says, “the snake is still alive.”
 
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