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Since President Alvaro Uribe Velez came to power in 2002, Colombia has experienced some positive changes. Security has been heightened which now facilitates freedom to travel the countryside without fear of being kidnapped or murdered. This can be credited to the national police force and the Colombian military's strategic positioning throughout cities and the byways that connect them. As far as security is concerned, Uribe has managed to succeed where his predecessors have failed. This makes the president a fairly popular leader among middle and upper-class citizens.

President Uribe heads a democratic government that is structured in similar fashion to that of the United States. It has executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. Elections for the presidency are held every four years under the Colombian Constitution of 1991 which used to maintain a single-term limitation of power that had been in place for more than 120 years. But during Uribe's first term in office, he managed to convince the Congress to support an amendment that overturned the inconvenient restriction on re-election.

In the middle of his second consecutive term, the president is looking to overturn the constitutional law once again. Supporters of Uribe see no problem with him running for a third consecutive term. His critics, however, are up in arms. Regardless, fractions from both sides believe that he will be successful in manipulating conditions to his favor and thereby maintain his authoritarian rule over the country.

The remainder of the country's executive branch consists of 32 department governors (one for each department) and municipality mayors which are also publicly elected. The legislative branch is controlled by the National Congress, while the judiciary branch is governed by the Colombian Supreme Court of Justice. Certain members of the court are investigating allegations of the president's close ties and cooperation with the country's paramilitary group (the AUC).

Touted as one of the strongest democracies in Latin America, the country also functions analogous to the United States with a predominant two-party system. The Liberal Party and the Conservative Party are the two most represented parties in the Congress, which consists of a Chamber of Representatives and a Senate. Politicians of the legislative branch are elected for four-year terms with indefinite re-election potential under the amended constitution.

While the president is traditionally elected from one

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