COLOMBIA: The Institution

Old Laureano Gómez rode a wheelchair to the polls in Colombia last week-and rode away from the election a revitalized political strongman. Less than five years ago, Rightist Gómez was ousted by military coup from power as a hated dictator; only six months ago he returned from banishment in Spain. But when he put his leadership of the Conservative Party into the balance against the party's other factions in the voting, the strong-willed ex-dictator, now 69 and weakened by a series of four heart attacks, easily won. "He is," Colombians explained with a shrug, "an institution."

Fifty-Fifty for Peace. Colombia's...

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