The sun was barely setting over a
colonial villa in rural central Colombia as Álvaro Uribe Vélez, by any
measure Colombia’s most transformative modern president, recited lines
of poetry to a small crowd beside a courtyard fountain. The former head
of state, who left office in August 2010, projects the air of a
financier in his official portraits. But today he was dressed like
a paisa—with a traditional sombrero, a white handmade cloth draped over
his shoulder, and a walking stick given to him by citizens of a nearby
town.
On that perfect summer
evening in early July, Uribe liked one particular verse—about a
beautiful woman with enchanting eyes—so much that he recited it over and
over to the dozens of locals seated in a circle around him. Also in the
audience was the Colombian celebrity Catalina Maya, an actress and
model, who sat perched on an armchair, her body twisted over its back to
regard Uribe. Women and girls were crammed onto the villa’s steps, and
housemaids pretended to continue working as they peeked for glances at
the expresident, who every so often locked eyes with a new member of the
crowd.
Álvaro Uribe is a
well-loved man. During the eight years in which he led Colombia, he won
the hearts of millions of his countrymen, from those in small villages
to the most elite urban circles. And the reason why these millions adore
Uribe largely boils down to one word: security. Uribe still casts a
powerful spell over his former constituents because he used his time in
office to smash a four-decades-old guerrilla insurgency with an
overwhelming show of force—and in so doing made countless Colombians’
lives immeasurably safer. READ MORE
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