By the way, you are mistaken if you think Uribe is a rightwinger. He comes from the center-left of Columbian politics: before running for presidency he had been a member of the (left-of-center) Liberal party. The only thing he is a "rightwinger" on is defeating the rebels, and that's something that unites much of Columbian political spectrum. Hence - and because he has been rather competent at that - his popularity. What's more, he is not even that authoritarian, given the fight he is in - just compare him with the self-coup prone Fujimori. In the absence of the war he is likely to have been very similar to Chilean Sociallists in outlook. He isn't a Pinochet, or even a Fujimori.
I don't care if he's a right winger or not. He's pro-American enough for me.
If that is your criterion, you simply chose a wrong guy. He is not Anti-American, of course - and he, correctly, perceives a substantial coincidence of interests between the US and Colombia. But on this count he is not different from almost a dosen other Latin American presidents (he is not any different here from leaders of Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica and many others). If governmental alegiance to the US is your criterion, your favorite country on the continent should, probably, be El Salvador.
If you think that Uribe would ever do what US wants him to do when it would hurt Colombia, just for the pleasure of beign helpful, you are badly "misunderestimating" him. It makes no more sense to say that he is pro-American than to say that US is pro-Colombian. He does what he does in Colombia not to do good by the US, but because it is good - in his perception - for Colombia. In fact, if he were to be, at any moment, perceived to be more "pro-American" than "pro-Colombian", he wouldn't stay president for more than a few months.
He's not an anti-American Marxist nut like Chavez, so Uribe wins the 'sane' award from me.
And yes, I'm well aware he's an ally, not a puppet, and one of those wonderful examples that indicates that alliance with the Unites States does not equal dependency or subservience in spite of what the International Left says.
Oh, and I did root for the current leader of El Salvador in their last election, despite my neutrality towards ARENA-as-a-whole, because the FMLN ran one of their rabid frothing anti-American leftist nuts. I don't care for the FMLN either, actually...I'd be voting for one of the centrist parties instead.
