MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Hardliner elected Colombian president

A resounding victory in hand, President-elect Alvaro Uribe promised that Colombians from all walks of life will benefit from his crusade to bring law and order to the most insecure and violent nation in Latin America.

Uribe, a 49-year-old former governor and mayor of Colombia's second-largest city, Medellin, easily swept the vote Sunday. With 98.9 percent of precincts reporting, Uribe had 53 percent of the vote, compared to 31.7 percent for his closest challenger, former Interior Minister Horacio Serpa. The majority vote gave Uribe an outright victory and averted a runoff next month. More than 11.2 million voters cast ballots ? a slightly lower turnout than expected.

The hard-line independent promised in an acceptance speech at a Bogota hotel to bring "Security, so (the rebels) don't kidnap the businessman, so they don't kill the labor leader, so they don't extort the rancher, so they don't force the peasant to flee his home."

From urban centers to Andean villages and sweltering jungle hamlets, voters expressed frustration over failed peace talks and a belief that their nation was on the brink of a wider war. The overwhelming vote was a clear sign that most Colombians support Uribe's tough position on taming the 38-year guerrilla insurgency.

The race was closely watched by U.S. officials, and U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson arrived at the hotel to congratulate Uribe late Sunday. She predicted Washington would have a close relationship with Uribe's government, which takes charge in August. "Colombians are fed up of terrorism," she said.

In his nationally televised speech, the Harvard-and-Oxford educated Uribe showed his agenda goes beyond plans to beef up the military, seek U.S. counterinsurgency aid and recruit 1 million civilians to be an early warning system for the armed forces.

Uribe said he would carry out a "revolution" in education and root out Colombia's rampant political corruption. He also pleaded for international lending agencies to soften loan conditions so that the government can spend more money on the poor.

A virulent critic of peace talks during President Andres Pastrana's four year-term, Uribe also left open the possibility of future negotiations with the rebels. Pastrana is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.

While Pastrana won election on a peace platform, Uribe was elected on a war platform, fueled by voter disgust that the rebels did not grasp Pastrana's olive branch. Military commanders say the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces, known as the FARC, used the negotiating period ? in which they were granted a huge safe haven ? to strengthen their forces.

Uribe said he would seek international mediation and be willing to engage in talks if the guerrillas agree to tough conditions: a cease-fire and a halt to "terrorist" actions.

But few Colombians are expecting peace any time soon.

Many voted for Uribe knowing that it could unleash even wider fighting before things improve. The hemisphere's longest running conflict already claims at least 3,500 lives a year, has generated a world-leading kidnapping industry and hobbled a once-productive economy.

"We want a solution to the violence in this country. We cannot continue in this way," said Ramiro Contreras, a 41-year-old businessman who voted for Uribe. "We know that he will hit the guerrillas hard, but it must be done."

Throughout the evening Sunday, jubilant Uribe supporters drove through Bogota's rain slicked streets with campaign posters plastered on their windows, beeping their horns in celebration.

"This is the beginning of a new country!" shouted Enrique Vergara, a publicist. "We are going to defeat the violent ones!"

The Bush Administration has proposed broadening its military aid to Colombia to provide counterinsurgency assistance in addition to aid for fighting drugs.

Both the Colombian and U.S. governments say the leftist rebels, who finance themselves through drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion, are terrorists who long ago abandoned their idealistic motives. A right-wing paramilitary group that has massacred thousands of leftists is also on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations.

Uribe's critics tried during the campaign to link him to the paramilitaries. He emphatically denies any ties, and has promised to fight all illegal armed factions equally ? a pledge he may have to make good on to maintain support in Washington.

Rebels waged scattered attacks during the vote, but there was apparently no widespread sabotage campaign.

Officials reported rebels dynamited an election headquarters in one town, burned ballots in others, and placed cars packed with explosives along highways. In the southern state of Meta, guerrillas warned residents by radio in five towns that they would be considered "military objects" if they voted.

Most of the violence and intimidation occurred during the run-up to the vote. Uribe survived an assassination attempt in April, guerrillas and paramilitaries threatened voters and one candidate ? Ingrid Betancourt ? was kidnapped but remained on the ballot.

Although a solid majority went for Uribe's iron-fisted prescriptions, other voters were afraid they will backfire.

"He wants to arm everybody to the teeth," said Fanny Ramos, an unemployed accountant who voted for leftist candidate Luis Eduardo Garzon, a leftist union leader who came in third with about 6 percent of the vote.