THE RULE of thumb on Colombia's country roads used to be that if no cars were coming the other way, leftist rebels had probably blocked the highway to trap potential kidnap victims. Most people avoided long- distance road trips.
But truck driver Alvaro Bermudez had no choice. So every time he set out with a cargo of chocolate or rice, he would entrust himself to Our Lady of Carmen, the patron saint of drivers.
Today, travelling across country is a very different experience. "The army is there, and there is no sign of the guerrillas," he says. Now, when Bermudez sees no oncoming cars, he just figures there has been an accident.
That change has been credited to the uncompromising security policies of President Alvaro Uribe, who steps down today after eight years in office.
Under watches m his rule, a country that seemed on the verge of becoming a failed state has undergone a remarkable transformation. Murder and kidnapping rates have plunged, the armed forces have doubled in size, and the economy has turned around. Meanwhile, Marxist Farc rebels have been beaten back into the jungles, and brutal rightwing paramilitary militias demobilised in a peace deal.
Barred from running for a third term by a constitutional court decision, Uribe hands over to his former defence minister, Juan Manuel Santos, who has promised to carry on his ex-boss's policies.
Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin America programme at the US- based Wilson Centre, says there is a "dark underside" to the success of Uribe's government. In a rush to show results against the Farc, the military created incentives for soldiers to present battlefield casualties. In what the UN called a "systematic and widespread" practice, hundreds of civilians were killed and dressed as guerrillas so soldiers could gain promotions.
That history makes Ana Paez doubt government claims of victory over the rebels. Her son, Eduardo Garzon, was presented as a guerrilla casualty in March 2008. But investigations revealed he was kidnapped from Bogota, where he lived, taken halfway across the country and shot at close range before being dressed in a camouflage uniform.
Paez said: "Today, every time I see the army announce it has killed guerrillas in combat, I wonder how many civilians are included in those numbers."
When the "false positive" scandal was first reported, Uribe's government dismissed the allegations as a guerrilla smear campaign. But then so much evidence piled up, it could no longer ignore the reports. Judicial officials are now investigating the death of 1600 people believed to have been killed by soldiers. So far, at least 15 soldiers have been convicted of murder and more than 500 other soldiers are being investigated.
For most of Uribe's time, Luis Eladio Perez, was trapped in the jungle. A senator, he was kidnapped by the Farc in 2001 and was a part of a group of hostages that included the French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. Perez was released in 2008 in a unilateral "goodwill gesture" brokered by Chavez.
What struck him on Replica Swiss Watches returning to civilisation was the hope he saw on people's faces. He remembered Bogota as a grim and oppressive place where people had "hunched shoulders and long faces". By the time the rebels released him, the faces had changed. "People seemed carefree and happy. It is a reflection of a pride I had not seen before."
But Perez does not forget the faces of the "
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