Hints and tips:
...Until now, the conservatives have relied on the popularity of former president Álvaro Uribe to drum up support for their cause, but his star is waning....
...“When my generation was young, every year we’d say ‘this year the Cuban revolution will fall’ and it never fell,” said Mr Uribe, still Colombia’s most powerful politician at the age of 68....
...As Colombians we’re afraid we might go back to what we thought we’d left behind.”...
...Another former president, Álvaro Uribe, described him as “a gladiator for democracy, for culture…,” and current president Iván Duque said Mr Betancur would serve as “an example for all future generations...
...Mr Uribe vehemently denies the accusations, which supporters say are politically motivated, and he has never been charged....
...“There have been a great number of concessions,” warns Iván Duque, a member of Mr Uribe’s No camp....
...“I’d like to think he could increase foreign investment,” said Luis Echeverry, a 57-year-old market stall owner in central Bogotá....
...“Duque can’t let himself be Uribe’s puppet but at the same time he can’t afford to betray Uribe....
...Mr Uribe has also received death threats....
...I’d have liked Colombia to be more united,” Mr Santos told the Financial Times. “Now I see it more divided . . . Polarisation seems to be a global ill . . .[everywhere] the centre has been weakened.”...
...“They need around 400,000 votes to win even a couple of extra seats and I’d be surprised if they get more than 100,000,” said Sergio Guzmán, Colombia analyst at Control Risks in Bogotá....
...“Come back at the weekend, and it will be so crowded, no bailas — sino que te bailas,” says one of our guides, Danilo Uribe: “you don’t dance — you get danced.”...
...But after the turn of century the government started to crush it under the hardline rule of then-president Álvaro Uribe....
...In his office in the Venezuelan frontier town of La Fría, the head of the local cattle ranchers’ association, Isidro Uribe, acknowledges that “the Colombians are in charge”....
...This is the president’s final year in office and he is determined to ram the peace process home before next year’s elections, when his former boss, now foe, Álvaro Uribe — a vociferous opponent of the process...
...This was the first time Mr Santos and Mr Uribe had shaken hands in six years. Both leaders were once allies....
...Furthermore, political participation lies at the heart of every peace process; indeed, replacing bullets with ballots is their raison d’être. The impasse clouds what happens next....
...It is unclear to what extent the Farc would be willing to renegotiate the accord with Mr Uribe....
...Mr Uribe has said the “Farc confesses its likelihood, and willingness to impose the [Hugo] Chávez doctrine that has played out in Venezuela”....
...Alfredo Rangel, a senator with Mr Uribe’s party, tweeted that the announcement was loaded with “rhetoric to hide and conceal impunity for the Farc”....
...On Thursday, Mr Uribe continued his counter-attack on Twitter, where he has 4m followers....
...more recent exposure of armed forces murdering civilians and dressing them as guerrillas to boost body counts and claim rewards — a practice alleged to have been widespread under former president Álvaro Uribe...
...Venezuelan security forces have painted a “D” for demolition on the doors of houses where Colombian immigrants have lived illegally, and an “R” for reviewed on those housing legal residents....
...Daily output this year has already surpassed 1m b/d as attacks fell during Farc’s ceasefire, according to Cerac, a security think-tank in Bogotá....
...From 2002, the “democratic security” policy of President Álvaro Uribe made the cities safer and began to open the country to visitors and investors. The art scene has thrived....
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