COLOMBIA: Mr Alvaro Uribe's decisive first round victory in Colombia's presidential elections on Sunday marked a major shift in the nation's political fortunes, ending two hundred years of Liberal and Conservative party hegemony.
Mr Uribe, who won 53 per cent of votes cast, plans to increase military spending, double the number of troops and create an armed militia of one million citizens. The prospect of armed civilians patrolling rural villages conjures up images of genocide from Guatemala, where "civil patrols" slaughtered thousands of indigenous people during the government war on guerrillas.
However Mr Uribe is more than a right-wing caricature. In his victory speech he took a swipe at free-trade orthodoxy, advising multilateral institutions that radical changes would be required in order to preserve democracy and promote social equity. Mr Uribe also called for international mediation to resolve the 50-year conflict, once armed rebels agreed to an unconditional ceasefire.
The successful candidate is a lawyer, aged 49, whose father was killed by FARC rebels during a kidnap attempt in 1984.
The inexorable advance of the Uribe campaign mirrored the growing despair of Colombians at chronic violence which has cost thousands of lives, crippled the economy and displaced two million people.
Last August Mr Uribe's ratings stood at 5 per cent but six months later, with the peace process in tatters, his ratings soared to 50 per cent, as voters rallied behind his law-and-order message. However Mr Uribe's popular mandate is less clear cut than the figures indicate, as high abstention rates left him with just six million votes - 25 per cent of eligible voter preferences.
On the campaign trail Mr Uribe offered rebels "thirty days to put down their weapons or face annihilation" after he assumes office in August.
Mr Uribe's critics have described him as a "paramilitary in a necktie", due to his support for right-wing gunmen, responsible for two-thirds of the country's political killings.
Mr Uribe, a former governor of Antioquia province, has survived 15 assassination attempts, the most recent last month.
Outgoing president, Mr Andres Pastrana, won the previous election by pledging to bring the FARC rebels in from the cold, offering them a safe haven and a dialogue of equals. The continued kidnappings and an upsurge in rebel operations derailed the process.
Mr Uribe's campaign promises included the ritual pledge to eliminate corruption and combat poverty but it was his promise to end violence which secured him victory.
In congressional elections in march Uribe allies won more than a quarter of the seats in the Senate and dozens in the 166-member House of Representatives - a high total in Colombia where Liberals and Conservative have long dominated politics.
However Mr Uribe intends to call a referendum, on the day of his inauguration, to call fresh congressional elections, which would undoubtedly return the legislative majority required to implement constitutional changes.
In some respects Mr Uribe's whirlwind victory mirrors the rise of President Hugo Chavez in neighbouring Venezuela, albeit with one key difference; Uribe enjoys the enthusiastic support of the US government and the local media. Mr Uribe's decision to name a media mogul as his running partner undoubtedly helped his image.
Colombians have a popular saying that "only the tough can make peace" and many voters hope that the rebels will take Uribe more seriously than his predecessor, who always needed one more concession to keep a fragile peace process afloat.
Mr Uribe hails from Antioquia where the native 'paisas' are respected for their hard work and strong character.