Outlook Solid

President Álvaro Uribe’s handsome first-round victory in the May presidential elections, combined with strong showings by allied parties in March’s congressional elections, reinforces the short- to medium-term political outlook. Uribe has a powerful mandate (and the means to exploit it) to continue with his hard-line Democratic Security policies and his economic reform programme. Nevertheless, huge challenges remain, not least curbing the infiltration of the state by drug money. This problem was highlighted by the arrest of several soldiers for the murder of ten elite anti-narcotics policemen and a civilian informer. It seems as though an army colonel, a sergeant and five soldiers were acting on the orders of local drug barons.

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