Certificate of Special Studies in Administration and Management
WINTER 2003

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CSS Candidates from Colombia Discuss
Their Country's New President,
Alvaro Uribe, CSS '93

"If we don't drive out drugs, drugs will destroy our freedoms and our ecology, and the hope of living in peace will be no more than an illusion"

ALVARO URIBE

Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, CSS '93

All six were in agreement that this has been an uncommon election because of the extraordinary economic and social pressures facing their country, which President Uribe himself outlined candidly in his inaugural address. "Colombia faces a series of grave difficulties," said Uribe, who went on to describe his country's economic challenges, including an unemployment rate of 16 percent and the high percentage of citizens--nearly 60 percent--living below the poverty line. The serious economic situation, Uribe continued, had been aggravated by social turmoil caused mainly by drug cartels. According to Uribe, the country endures 34,000 murders a year and between 3,000 and 3,600 kidnappings. "If we don't drive out drugs, drugs will destroy our freedoms and our ecology, and the hope of living in peace will be no more than an illusion," he warned.

The CSS candidates agreed that safety issues were a pressing concern. "In Colombia today kidnapping is on everyone's mind," claimed Cristina Barvo, who comes from Bogotá. "You feel like a prisoner in your own city," agreed Ana Diez, who comes from Medellín, Uribe's hometown.

Most people would recoil from challenges like these, but Alvaro Uribe is taking them on with the same zeal that enabled him to bring about tough economic and social reforms as mayor and city councillor of Medellín, and later as governor and senator of Antioquia. President Uribe is wasting no time introducing measures to restore financial solvency, reduce bureaucratic inefficiencies (beginning with the President's Office), eliminate government corruption, create economic growth, and fight the drug cartels. "We didn't come to complain," he said in his inaugural address, "we came here to work."

"Colombians are sometimes bemused by Uribe's nonstop activity and his promise to work 26 hours a day," said Lina Azuero of Bogotá, "but my aunt told me the other day on the phone that our people are finally beginning to feel that they have a real president."

CSS candidates (l to r) Magda Manosalvo, Ana P. Diez, and Corolina Sanz, Dean Raymond Comeau, and CSS candidates Cristina Barvo, Lina Azuero, and Elizabeth Saieh

Despite Uribe's many qualities and his strong support from the electorate, the CSS candidates harbor no illusions regarding the difficulty of his task. "Alvaro Uribe is the right person for the job," said Carolina Sanz, who comes from Bogotá, "but he and all Colombians must understand that if he is to succeed, the hardest times and the sharpest pain are still to come." This realistic appraisal of the situation does not deter them from hoping for the best, however. "If he asked for my opinion, I would tell him to keep his feet on the ground and Colombia's dreams in the sky," said Cristina Barvo.

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