By Hugh Bronstein BOGOTA, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's popularity has jumped to 73 percent as he shrugs off accusations that his government is linked to drug-running militias and calls his opponents terrorists, an Invamer Gallup poll showed on Wednesday. A poll by the same company in December put the conservative Uribe, respected for cutting urban crime as part of his U.S.-backed crackdown on leftist guerrillas, at 65 percent. Three members of his governing coalition have been jailed for their ties to right-wing paramilitaries, who are wanted for drug smuggling and responsible for some of the worst atrocities of this Andean country's four-decade-old war. Other lawmakers, including the brother of Colombia's foreign minister, are under investigation in the "para-political" scandal. "But this has not touched his image in general," Jorge Londono, manager of the polling company, told Reuters. "Security continues to be the most important thing on people's minds and the president has been very smart in emphasizing his struggle against the guerrillas, who have very little support," Londono said. "People like Uribe's strong character." The paramilitaries were formed in the 1980s as private militias to combat the guerrillas. Both groups are branded terrorists by Washington and fund their operations with Colombia's multibillion-dollar cocaine trade. The latest survey was conducted earlier this month in the middle of a public spat between Uribe and leftist politicians. Uribe, a staunch U.S. ally in the left-tilting Andean region, has traded barbs with Sen. Gustavo Petro, a former member of the M-19 rebel group. Petro says Uribe is too close to the "paras" while the president says Petro and people like him are "terrorists" who have traded in their camouflage fatigues for suits and ties. Invamer Gallup polled 1,600 people in Colombia's biggest cities. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. Uribe's success on the security front, including the disbanding of more than 31,000 paramilitaries, is seen as a key reason the country had economic growth approaching 7 percent last year, according to preliminary government estimates.
