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¿Qué Es Lo Que Quiere Juan Manuel Santos? The Colombian Defense Minister’s Visit to Washington and His Likely Bid for the Presidency in 2010

Council on Hemispheric Affairs

July 24, 2008

Excerpt from report:

Juan Manuel Santos, one of the few political figures in the Uribe administration who has been practically left untouched by the para-politics scandal, is now extremely popular as a result of the enormous success of Operation Jaque. According to a Gallup poll Colombia survey taken after the rescue mission, Juan Manuel Santos enjoys a 70 percent favorability rate. Unquestionably, he is an Uribista hardliner and very close to President Uribe. At the same time, his close associates acknowledge that Santos is predisposed to do whatever is necessary to advance his presidential ambitions, even if it means challenging Uribe in 2010 in a pitched battle for the seat. Moreover, if Uribe decides to step down after 2010, a Santos candidacy could result.

As Peruvian writer and politician Vargas Llosa stated in his article “Operation Jaque,” for the newspaper El Pais, “The Minister of Defense Santos can replace Uribe when the latter’s mandate ends.” Santos’ obdurate and hard line stance on the guerrilla problem in Colombia, is one of the reasons why the FARC has been wary of entering into negotiations with Colombian authorities. At the Center for American Progress meeting on July 23, Santos blamed the guerrillas for not negotiating with the “generous hand of the government.” In spite of invading Ecuador on March 1, killing their leaders and offering to pay a high reward for the murder or turning in of top leaders, Santos naively seems to believe that the FARC should be grateful to the one figure who has shown the greatest malevolence to it. Surely the Uribe government’s policy does not reflect the attitude of a government committed to achieving a peace agreement with the guerrilla armies...

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