Uribe 2.0: Juan Manuel Santos Wins Colombia's Presidency

In the May 31st blogpost on FPA’s Latin America blog called: Voting for a New Colombia, we discussed the run-off election for Colombia’s Presidency between the recent Mayor of Bogota, Antanas Mockus and former Uribe Defence Minister, Juan Manuel Santos. While Mockus initially had a lot of support and managed to get enough votes to bring Santos to a run-off election, Santos won the election this past week with 69% of the ballots.

Santos’ victory comes at a time where no compromise with the FARC and the rescue of three police officers and a soldier that had been held by the FARC for more than 12 years. Santos made it clear in his campaign and his election victory speech that there would be no compromise with the FARC and that Colombia would continue to fight against its internal enemy. Security in Colombia had improved drastically since Uribe took office and went on an offensive against the FARC. It is likely the case that fears of the return of the Colombia of 20 years ago put Santos in the winner’s seat, and started his Presidency as Uribe 2.0.

The great payoff of a relatively safe Colombia has been not only security under Uribe, but also an economic strategy to promote high economic growth in the new Colombia. While the FARC, ELN, and narco-trafficking still have a strong base in Colombia, “War Presidents” like Uribe and now Santos will always win a lot of support in Colombia as long as kidnapping is still rampant and drugs remain a violent problem in the country and the region.

For a video commentary and article on Santos’ election victory, please see the June 21st BBC article: Government candidate Santos wins Colombia Election here.