More on Alvaro Uribe and his indecisive soul

Last month Alvaro Uribe said he was trying to convince his own soul not to run for a third term. Now he says it would be "inconvenient" and that he's "afraid" of keeping a president in power ("Tengo temores. Le temo a perpetuar al Presidente"). He said he also does not want future generations seeing him as someone who wanted to stay in power.

Inconvenient? Yes, especially for your former defense minister, who quit his job because he wants yours, but you won't tell him what you're doing. But now, Uribe says, he is at a "crossroads of the soul."

So what does all this mean? Actually, not much. He made sure not to rule out running again. In fact, the same El Tiempo article notes that his aides hastened to explain that these statements did not mean any sort of decision. I tend to think he's telling the truth--he wants to run again really, really bad and knows he would win. But he really, really does not want to end up compared to Hugo Chávez.