The Technocrat of Steel

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It's a pledge he can't keep without foreign aid. Washington has given Colombia almost $2 billion in the past two years but has restricted the assistance to antinarcotics work. Now that the U.S. has officially deemed the FARC and AUC to be terrorist groups, the Bush Administration stands a good chance of freeing up direct military funds. But if the aid passes, warns a FARC comandante named Asdrubal, "the violence will get very, very grave. The U.S. will just make the war longer." American politicians also worry about the Colombian military's poor human-rights record.

And given Colombia's epically corrupt and feckless governing class, many in Washington wonder if the U.S. wouldn't be wasting its money on this oligarchy. But the conflict has already begun to destabilize a region of large significance to U.S. trade and oil. "No democratic nation can afford to be careless about Colombia," Uribe says--making it clear that even the U.S. could get a tough earful from the candidate the guerrillas couldn't kill.