Where does Uribe go from here?

So it seems Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will not seek a third consecutive term, instead likely waiting one out so he can run again for a nonconsecutive term in 2014 (for details/links, you can check out Adam Isacson, Boz and Steven Taylor).

This ties in nicely with my recent post about what Latin American presidents do after they leave office. In the case of Uribe, it is reasonable to expect that his goal is to get an Uribista elected and pull strings from the background while waiting for the next election--how well that works would depend a lot on who the successor is. If that candidate somehow lost the election, then Uribe would be the natural opposition leader, even if he weren't in an elected position.

But might he seek a congressional or gubernatorial office in order to ensure a continued political presence while keeping the presidency in mind, a la Eduardo Frei in Chile (where the nonconsecutive dynamic is also in place)? It doesn't seem his style, but who knows.

Individuals who become president of a country seek power, for whatever reason. What, then, shapes their choices about power once they are no longer in the office? Under what circumstances and in what manner can they continue to wield it in some way?