The Ex-Presidents Álvaro Uribe and Andrés Pastrana, politicians from opposite sides of the political spectrum who have often disagreed and confronted each other numerous times, are now forming a coalition in the pursuit of the Colombian presidency in 2018. The alliance represents an extraordinary turn of events from the two former political rivals.
Both Pastrana and Uribe, who in their respective terms of office as presidents made their attempts to eliminate the guerrillas from Colombia, have become the principal opposition to the treaty signed with FARC terrorists by the current President, Juan Manuel Santos.
During Uribe’s presidency, the FARC organization was decimated, falling from more than 20,000 members in 2002 to less than 8,000 by 2011. Pastrana, on the other hand, attempted a peace treaty with the FARC, only to have FARC terrorists use that opportunity to re-arm and regroup against government soldiers.
Both politicians appointed five representatives each, charged with defining a joint political strategy. The focus will be upon choosing candidates. According to El Tiempo, a newspaper in which the family of the current president is a minority shareholder, Uribe has proposed Iván Duque, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, Rosario Guerra, Paloma Valencia and Rafael Nieto as pre-candidates for the presidency, while Pastrana has only mentioned Marta Lucía Ramírez.
Traveling in Spain, Uribe told reporters earlier this week that if his party wins the presidency he would not tear up the existing agreement with FARC terrorists but modify it.
