Colombia looks past Washington

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia looks past Washington

WASHINGTON -- Juan Manuel Santos is not wasting any time. Three days after being inaugurated as Colombia's president, he met Tuesday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

The two leaders restored diplomatic ties and reviewed how to better manage their countries' often volatile relationship. US relations with Colombia -- Washington's major Latin American ally over the past decade -- may be on the verge of some important changes as well.
Chávez broke off diplomatic relations two weeks ago after Colombia publicly accused Venezuela of harboring rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). But the tough charges were the last hurrah of Colombia's outgoing "democratic security" president, Álvaro Uribe. Ironically, Santos -- who was the notoriously hard-line defense minister under Uribe and won the presidency largely thanks to his immensely popular predecessor -- is shifting gears and adopting the role of conciliator and diplomat in dealing with Chávez.

While Santos is familiar with Chávez's unpredictability and knows as well as anyone where the FARC rebels are and what they are up to, he also knows the economic stakes for Colombia: Bilateral trade with Venezuela has dropped from $7 billion in 2008 to less than $2 billion today. Santos and Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin, who served as Colombia's ambassador in Venezuela, intend to remain vigilant on FARC while using diplomacy to build confidence between the countries. One promising step was the leaders' agreement to set up a "security commission" to monitor the often chaotic and violent border.

Yet in seeking to ease tensions with Chávez, Santos faces a fundamental dilemma: balancing a more diplomatic approach toward Venezuela with an overall strategic alignment with the United States. Chávez surely will continue to challenge such an alignment and try to curtail US influence in the region. The Colombian "special relationship" with the US, cultivated during the Bush administration, when Latin America often viewed Uribe as doing Washington's bidding, does not help Santos' pursuit of a more balanced foreign policy. Although the US has been Colombia's closest ally in fighting rebels and drugs, for Colombia the relationship often resulted in isolation from its neighbors.

Santos is moving to distance himself from the man he recently praised as "Colombia's second-greatest liberator" (behind Simon Bolivar). Domestically, Santos has made clear that he does not intend to govern in Uribe's shadow. Several members of Santos' Cabinet had fallen out with Uribe. Notably, Santos has extended an olive branch to Colombia's high courts, often the target of Uribe's verbal attacks. He has extolled the virtues of the give-and-take of democratic politics and human rights guarantees. In his inaugural address, Santos outlined significant policy changes in health care, land redistribution and the justice system, and he stressed the importance of addressing Colombia's severe social ills and creating jobs.

More:
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-218998-104-colombia-looks-past-washington.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. You gotta admire the cleverness of the writing, though you'd be a fool to believe any of it.

Another piece out of Langley, is my guess.