This week, Colombia's re-elected president, Alvaro Uribe, officially began his second term in office. There has never been a more popular leader in Colombia's history than Uribe. Last year, he spearheaded a campaign to get the constitution amended to allow incumbent leaders to seek a second term. With his typical unfailing determination he succeeded, paving the way for his historic victory in May. In the 2006 May election, the conservative hard-liner won 26.7 million votes, representing 62.2 per cent of the vote. The Oxford- and Harvard-educated president not only surpassed the number of votes he received in the previous election but obtained more votes than any other presidential candidate in the country's history. During Uribe's first tenure, his approval rating rarely fell below 70 per cent.
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