Well, first of all, they can't get reelected. Uribe tried, but the news is just in that Colombia's Supreme Court, which is not the bunch of yes-men we have here, doesn't allow him to have a "referendum" that would allow him to run for a third term. Party! No more of the narco-president and his parapolitica!
Another thing Uribe and Martinelli have in common is that they have cousins who pursue careers in crime.
Uribe's cousin, Mario Uribe Escobar, was arrested this week on charges of collaborating with the paramilitaries. Colombia's paramilitaries were notorious for their drug trafficking and massacres against civilians. They were supposedly disarmed by the government of Uribe, but have in reality been recycled into new and smaller groups, the most famous of which is the Aguilas Negras. Ties of Uribe family members and political allies with the paramilitaries have been uncovered for years now.
And Martinelli? He has a cousin too. Ramon Martinelli Corro was arrested in Mexico recently on charges of running a Mexico-Panama money laundering scheme for the infamous Beltran Leyva cartel, believed to be responsible for assassinating members of the Central American parliament, among others.
Earlier in his career, Ramon Martinelli was funneling money from IDAAN offices to the coffers of Cambio Democratico, the political party of president Martinelli. Such was denounced by Guillermo Cochez in La Prensa at the time. Cochez called it "una barbaridad". Today he works for Martinelli: He represents Panama as its ambassador with the OAS.