Help don’t hinder Colombia - el éxito de Santos

“Juan Manuel Santos takes oath as Colombia's new president

By Juan Forero

Sunday, August 8, 2010

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Eight years ago, homemade rockets fired by Marxist rebels rained down on the presidential palace as Álvaro Uribe took office, forewarning the all-out war that would come in his efforts to take back much of the country from potent guerrilla groups.

This Story

• Colombia swears in new president

• Colombia's new president lays out his vision in speech

On Saturday, Uribe stepped down and Juan Manuel Santos took his place, with the inauguration staged outdoors and the new president speaking of job creation, democratic checks and balances and rural development. It was not until the 34th minute of an hour-long speech that Santos mentioned his commitment to fight the rebels.

The tenor of the day's ceremony reflected the sharp differences in style and substance that seem to be emerging between Uribe, whose government severely weakened the rebels, and Santos, a U.S.-educated technocrat and scion of one of Colombia's most politically influential families.

Since winning the presidency in a June 20 landslide, Santos has marked distance between himself and Uribe, signaling the arrival of a leader who, unlike his predecessor, intends to focus on a social agenda and the country's frayed relations with its neighbors.

"I will preside over a government of national unity that will bring social prosperity for all Colombians," said Santos, 58, delivering his remarks before Latin American leaders and a large delegation of U.S. congressmen. "If we want to have economic and social development, we need to build unity among us."

A former defense minister in the Uribe government, Santos is expected to maintain the same tough approach toward the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a waning, hermetic guerrilla group that has bedeviled Colombia since 1964. But Santos is emphasizing the need to address issues that were not priorities during the Uribe era, such as improving Colombia's track record on human rights and seizing tens of thousands of square miles of farmland now in the hands of drug traffickers and corrupt politicians.”