BOGOTÁ, Colombia (Agence France-Presse) — Legislators debated sharply on Tuesday about a referendum that would change the Constitution to allow President Álvaro Uribe to run for a third term.

The proposal is part of a trend among Latin American leaders who have sought to use referendums to undercut constitutional term limits and prolong their time in power.

Voters in Venezuela and Bolivia have approved the lifting of term limits to extend incumbents’ stays in office.

Efforts by President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras to remove term limits were the cause of a military coup in the Central American nation in June.

In Colombia in 2006, Mr. Uribe, a conservative, became the first president to be consecutively re-elected in more than a century after his political supporters gained approval of a constitutional amendment that removed an existing one-term limit for the presidency and created a two-term limit.

To achieve passage of the new referendum that would permit Mr. Uribe to run for a third term, his supporters would have to gain the backing of at least 84 lawmakers. Before the debate, Interior Minister Fabio Valencia said he was confident of at least 91 votes from the governing coalition.

If lawmakers approve the measure, it will then go to the constitutional court for review.

President Obama and the Roman Catholic Church have questioned Mr. Uribe’s bid for another term as president.

Mr. Uribe has said that he is not seeking to extend power, but that he simply wants to provide continuity for his administration’s crackdown on the leftist FARC guerrillas.

He has not yet said conclusively that he will run in the presidential election next year, if the term limit is altered.

The president remains popular, despite extrajudicial killings by the army and the wiretapping of rivals.