COLOMBIA: PRESIDENT URIBE CELEBRATES HIS FIRST YEAR IN OFFICE/ AUTHORITIES DISPLAY REBEL CONFISCATED WEAPONS

Record ID: 230486

  • Title: COLOMBIA: PRESIDENT URIBE CELEBRATES HIS FIRST YEAR IN OFFICE/ AUTHORITIES DISPLAY REBEL CONFISCATED WEAPONS
  • Date: 7th August 2003
  • Summary: (W8) BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (AUGUST 7, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF MONUMENT TO FALLEN HEROES 0.02 2. SLV GUARD STANDING BY FLAME IN FRONT OF MONUMENT 0.06 3. WIDE OF MILITARY BAND PASSING THE MONUMENT 0.11 4. SLV PRESIDENT OF COLOMBIA ALVARO URIBE GREETING MILITARY COMMANDERS 0.15 5. SMV SOLDIERS IN FORMATION 0.20 6. SLV URIBE WALKING DOWN STEPS TOWARD SOLDIERS 0.30 7. SMV URIBE DECORATING SOLDIERS 0.37 8. SMV OF SOLDIERS HOLDING A MOMENT OF SILENCE 0.41 9. SLV URIBE AND MINISTER OF DEFENCE MARTA LUCIA RAMIREZ APPLAUDING 0.47 10. PAN UP OF POLICE IN FORMATION 0.52 11. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PRESIDENT OF COLOMBIA ALVARO URIBE, SAYING: "From the President of the Republic to the most humble of public servants - all of our generals by day and by night during all the weekends, in all the parts of the country are at the forefront of the operations, leading the soldiers and the police, the Air Force and the members of the Navy in order to bring peace to Colombia as quickly as possible." 1.23 12. SMV SOLDIERS LISTENING TO URIBE 1.26 13. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) URIBE SAYING: "Colombia cannot continue idolizing terrorists. What Colombia has to do is honour all the heroes that put themselves forward into military service and risk their lives in order to bring peace to the nation." 1.44 (W8) TUNJA, COLOMBIA (AUGUST 7, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 14. WIDE OF THE BRIDGE OF BOYACA AND THE MILITARY CEREMONY 1.49 15. VARIOUS OF ATTENDEES HOLDING THE COLOURS OF THE FLAG IN AN ACT OF HOMAGE 1.59 16. SLV URIBE ARRIVING AT THE BRIDGE OF BOYACA 2.02 17. SMV URIBE SINGING NATIONAL ANTHEM 2.09 18. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE RE-ENACTING THE HISTORY OF THE BRIDGE OF BOYACA 2.20 19. WIDE OF PEOPLE WITH FLAGS 2.24 BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (AUGUST 07, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 20. VARIOUS OF CONFISCATED EXPLOSIVES (3 SHOTS) 2.39 21. VARIOIS OF CABLES FUSES FOR EXPLOSIVES 2.42 22. VARIOUS OF CONFISCATED WEAPONS AND CARTRIDGES (3 SHOTS) 2.56 23. CLOSE OF WEAPON WITH TELESCOPIC LENS AND POLICE COMMANDER 3.02 24. CLOSE OF BARREL OF GUN 3.05 25. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) POLICE COMMANDER OF CUDINAMARCA LUIS HERRERA SAYING: "We cannot quantify the damage that could have occurred with these weapons - but it was less than this that caused the attack against El Nogal [a nightclub that suffered serious damage after an attack several months ago]." 3.23 26. WIDE OF CONFISCATED EXPLOSIVES 3.27 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 22nd August 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BOGOTA AND TUNJA, COLOMBIA
  • Country: Colombia
  • Reuters ID: LVAEM0OUE7LISADWEPJWRG2NW8L6
  • Story Text: Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe has commemorated
    his first year in office while authorities have discovered
    3.5 tonnes of explosives in Bogota.



    With pomp and pageantry, Colombians celebrated the
    one-year anniversary of popular President Alvaro Uribe's
    election to office on Thursday (August 07).

    After his first 12 months, Uribe enjoys a 70 percent
    approval rating and seems to have accomplished one of his
    campaign goals - to instil in Colombians plagued by a
    brutal civil war confidence that the government is trying
    to provide better security.

    During a ceremony in Bogota to inaugurate a monument to
    fallen soldiers, Uribe praised the military.

    "From the President of the Republic to the most humble
    of public servants - all of our generals by day and by
    night during all the weekends, in all the parts of the
    country are at the forefront of the operations, leading the
    soldiers and the police, the Air Force and the members of
    the Navy in order to bring peace to Colombia as quickly as
    possible," he said.

    Uribe has spent his past twelve months trying to weaken
    the left-wing guerrillas, control drug trafficking,
    jump-starting a faltering economy and opening up peace
    negotiations with far-right paramilitary groups.

    "Colombia cannot continue idolizing terrorists. What
    Colombia has to do is honour all the heroes that put
    themselves forward into military service and risk their
    lives in order to bring peace to the nation," Uribe stated.

    In the first of his four years in office, the austere
    51-year-old lawyer has also consolidated the support of his
    principal ally, the United States, which in the last three
    years has given millions of dollars of military assistance
    for Plan Colombia, a joint strategy to fight drug
    trafficking. The celebrations continued at the
    Bridge
    of Boyaca -
    located some 120 kilometres north of Bogota - where Uribe
    commemorated the 184th anniversary of the Battle of Boyaca,
    the definitive battle which won Colombia's independence
    from Spain.

    Meanwhile, back in Bogota, the reality of the country's
    brutal civil war cast a shadow on the festivities when
    police seized 3.5 tonnes of explosives and foiled an attack
    by leftist rebels.

    The explosives were found in a rural area 15 miles (25
    km) south of the war-torn nation's capital. Four suspected
    rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- a
    17,000-strong peasant army known as FARC -- were arrested
    in the raid.

    Last year, the FARC launched a mortar attack against the
    presidential palace during Uribe's swearing-in ceremony,
    killing 21 people in a nearby slum. The army has beefed up
    security in cities and on roads to prevent rebel attacks
    meant to coincide with Uribe's anniversary.



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