URIBE'S POLICIES THREATEN COLOMBIA'S DEMOCRACY

Re your Aug. 7 editorial Strong steps in Colombia: Many of us question
whether Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is the superman that the U.S.
press has made him out to be.

Uribe's solutions will not help build a more just, democratic and
peaceful Colombia. The changes he is trying to implement are
profoundly anti-democratic. Colombia's people are sick of violence and
desperate for solutions. Understandably, they will buy the Uribe
public-relations pitch that one man can save Colombia.

Reality is different. Uribe's hard-line approach is inhumane,
ineffective and a threat to the rule of law. His proposals -- to give
police and military new powers to arrest, search and place wiretaps
without warrants; the increasing use of arbitrary detentions;
accusations that nongovernmental groups are guerrilla fronts, and the
neglect of the growing internal refugee population -- are likely to
distance many from the government and create new recruits for
guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug gangs.

In the 12 months up to June 30, 6,978 Colombians were killed or
"disappeared" for sociopolitical reasons, some 75 percent in
noncombat situations. The average number of people killed per day was
19. This rate is higher than it was just three years earlier. The
annual death toll has nearly doubled in the last four years.

Senior Colombian figures and the media are starting to speak out.
Jaime Araujo, constitutional court magistrate, last week accused the
Uribe administration of creating "an authoritarian state." A
Colombian foundation, Security and Democracy, has questioned
government statistics showing that military operations are
dramatically more effective.

Last month Colombia's Semana magazine documented how the AUC
paramilitaries are strengthening in regions retaken by the military.
Many fear that the peace process will simply allow AUC members to
formalize their ties to Colombian security forces by entering Uribe's
new "peasant soldier" units.

History has taught us that authoritarian states constructed through
democratic means are just as dangerous as those brought about by
violent coup. Colombians are right to express their fears; it is the
only way that they will protect their country and fragile democracy.

Gustavo Gallon, Bogota, Colombia