Santos meets Obama in New York

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos declared himself “very satisfied” with the meeting he held on Friday with United States President, Barack Obama. The leaders spoke about the pending Free Trade Agreement between the two countries. Santos was one of the five presidents Obama invited for a private discussion in New York after attending the United Nations General Assembly. He revealed that they also discussed ecological issues, after being congratulated by Obama on Colombia military’s success in killing FARC No. 2, “Mono Jojoy”.

Santos to offer speech before the UN in New York

Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos will attend to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and will offer a speech in which he is expected to expose Colombia’s advance’s in security issues. “In New York we will take advantage as is usual in these types of meetings to have bilateral meetings with many heads of state”, said president Santos, referring to Colombia´s intentions to use this trip to improve relations with other countries. Santos is also set to meet for the first time with President Barack Obama on Friday September 24.

Colombian court blocks military agreement with U.S.

The agreement has been a source of tension between Colombia and neighboring Venezuela.

The court said that the agreement must be sent to the Colombian Congress for approval before it can become effective.

The court ruled that the agreement over use of the bases was not an extension of treaties signed between the two nations in the past, but a new treaty that requires the approval of the legislature to be valid.

"It's certainly a big bump in the road, but it's not a huge setback," Adam Isacson, senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America organization told CNN.

The congressional make-up is about 80 percent backers of current president Juan Manuel Santos and former President Alvaro Uribe, who was in office when the agreement was signed, Isacson said. So congressional approval could come quickly.

But there is also the possibility that it could drag for a year, he said.

Because the military bases agreement had not yet been implemented, there would be no major changes on the ground, Isacson said, adding that under previous agreements, the United States already has some troops in Colombia who will continue to operate under those previous treaties.

The United States says it needs to operate on the bases to help in its fight against terrorists and narcotraffickers, especially since the closure a few months ago of a U.S. base in Ecuador. The United States maintains similar "forward operating locations" in El Salvador and Aruba-Curacao.

Colombia's agreement to host the Americans has come under criticism in Latin America, particularly from President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

In the past, Chavez has likened the agreement to an act of war and accused the United States of wanting to stage military personnel nearby to destabilize his leftist government. More recently, he has said that Colombia has the right to pursue an agreement if it wants.

Santos Says Colombia Car Bomb Was ‘Terrorist Act’

Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Colombian President Juan Manual Santos said a blast from a car bomb that shook the capital this morning was a “terrorist act” that “won’t intimidate” the nation.

The pre-dawn explosion occurred in Bogota at the intersection of 67th Street and 7th Avenue, in front of the studios of Caracol Radio and five blocks from the city’s financial district and the stock exchange. No fatalities were reported.

The blast injured as many as nine people, Hector Zambrano, Bogota’s health secretary, said in comments broadcast by Caracol television.

“We can’t let down our guard,” Santos said while visiting the site of the blast. “They won’t intimidate us. They want us to fall into that trap.”

Santos took office Aug. 7 vowing to maintain the outgoing government´s offensive against Marxist rebels, whose half- century campaign to topple Colombia’s democracy claims hundreds of civilian lives every year.

The blast blew out the windows of nearby businesses including branches of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA and Bancolombia SA. Residents picked glass as helicopters flew overhead and soldiers in camouflage patrolled inside cordoned off streets nearby.

A twisted black ball of metal remained from the car, which held 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of explosives, Bogota Mayor Samuel Moreno said.

No Structural Damage

The blast caused no structural damage to buildings, Santos said.

Authorities yesterday deactivated a car bomb in the city of Neiva, in Huila province, newspaper El Espectador reported.

In 2003, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia killed 37 people and injured 200 with a car bomb at social club El Nogal. Military strikes have since weakened guerrilla groups, helping to fuel international investment in oil and mines and gains by the Colombian peso.

The peso has rallied 13 percent this year against the U.S. dollar, the best performance among 26 emerging market currencies tracked by Bloomberg. The peso strengthened by 0.1 percent to 1799.25 per dollar at 9:28 a.m. New York time.

The attack may be “designed to test the mettle” of the new government, analysts Roberto Melzi and Jimena Zuniga at Barclays Capital said today in a report. It won’t affect the economy or the currency, according to the report.

A wistful Uribe bids Colombians adios

A humble, sometimes wistful Alvaro Uribe bid Colombians adios Thursday, two days before his two terms and eight years as president are to end.

"I tried to carry out in the best way this big responsibility," he said in a 16-minute televised address during which he praised Vice President Francisco Santos as loyal and frank, and the members of his administration as honorable.

Uribe, 58, who gained plaudits for weakening the guerrilla movement that had controlled much of the country, said he was leaving seeds he hoped would take root and grow, one of them being "a country convinced that security is possible; that we have to recover security fully."

Uribe said he is leaving another seed -- "a country convinced that Colombia is a great destination for investment; that investment with brotherhood is the only road to employment."

Employment, linked to social security, is the way to overcome poverty and to build equity, he said.

Yet another seed: "A country convinced that it is possible to advance in social class."

Uribe praised Colombia's workers as "excellent" and said the international community has come to regard them that way too.

The president, who was denied running yet again by term limits, described his eight years of dialogue with Colombians as "a heaven on earth."

And he asked that his countrymen pardon him for any mistakes or failures that may have occurred under his watch. "The errors are mine," he said.

Finally, Uribe asked Colombians to support Juan Manuel Santos, his former minister of national defense, who is to succeed him for the next term. "I hope that it will be a period of great prosperity for the country," he said.

Will Washington treat Colombia's Santos as an ally?

JUAN MANUEL SANTOS has demonstrated that pro-American, pro-free-market politicians still have life in Latin America. Mr. Santos, who romped to victory in Colombia's presidential runoff on Sunday, has no interest in courting Iran, unlike Brazil's Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva. He has rejected the authoritarian socialism of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. A former journalist with degrees from the University of Kansas and Harvard, he values free media and independent courts. His biggest priority may be ratifying and implementing a free-trade agreement between Colombia and the United States.

So the question raised by Mr. Santos's election is whether the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders will greet this strong and needed U.S. ally with open arms -- or with the arms-length disdain and protectionist stonewalling to which they subjected his predecessor, Álvaro Uribe.

Mr. Uribe will leave office in August as one of the most successful presidents in modern Latin American history, though you would never know it from listening to his critics in Washington. He beefed up Colombia's army and economy, and smashed the terrorist FARC movement; murders have fallen by 45 percent and kidnappings by 90 percent during his eight years in office. Though most Colombians wanted him to remain in power, he bowed to a Supreme Court ruling against a referendum on a third term -- which means that unlike Mr. Chávez, he will leave behind a strong democratic system.

Colombia has nevertheless been treated more as an enemy than friend by congressional Democrats, who have steadily reduced U.S. military aid and worked assiduously to block the free-trade agreement Mr. Uribe negotiated with the Bush administration. The Obama administration, which has courted Mr. Lula and sought to improve relations with Venezuela and Cuba, has been cool to Colombia, recommending another 11 percent reduction in aid for next year and keeping the trade agreement on ice.

Mr. Santos's election offers an opportunity to revitalize the relationship. As defense minister, he demonstrated a commitment to addressing the human rights concerns that troubled some in Congress. He has pledged to seek better relations with both Venezuela and Ecuador, despite the material support those countries have provided to the FARC.

Ratification of the free-trade agreement would serve the administration's stated goal of boosting U.S. exports while bolstering a nation that could be an anchor for democracy and political moderation in the region. It would also allow the administration and Congress to demonstrate that friends of the United States will be supported and not scorned in Washington.

Santos' challenges in Colombia

The incoming president, who succeeds Alvaro Uribe, must transform himself from a military leader into a chief executive who can address a broad range of issues with diplomacy and finesse.

It's no surprise that voters in Colombia chose a tough former defense minister to succeed outgoing President Alvaro Uribe, who is leaving office after two terms. A resounding 69% of those who cast ballots opted for continuity, replacing Uribe, who made serious headway against the leftist guerrillas seeking to overthrow the government, with the man who helped him do it, Juan Manuel Santos.

Santos' military's successes against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia included a daring operation in which rebels were duped into freeing high-profile hostages, and a cross-border raid into Ecuador in which the FARC's No. 2 was killed. But as he heads to the Casa de Narino, the presidential palace, his challenge will be to transform himself from a military leader devoted solely to combating rebels into a chief executive who will be called upon to address a far broader range of issues with diplomacy and finesse. Awaiting him is a multitude of nonmilitary concerns: desperate poverty, entrenched government corruption, unchecked human rights abuses and rampant drug trafficking. He also has diplomatic fence-mending to do with neighbors Ecuador and Venezuela.

Santos comes with some heavy baggage. On his watch, the military developed an anything-goes swagger, not only when taking on guerrillas but also with noncombatants; troops were found to have killed civilians and claimed that they were guerrillas to boost their kill numbers and make themselves appear more successful. And if many Colombians became more optimistic about defeating the FARC, others are more hopeless about their government. Corruption permeates not just the military but the entire political system. Dozens of lawmakers have been indicted or arrested on charges of colluding with paramilitary death squads, the right-wing answer to the FARC.

The most pressing problem, however, is the economy. Santos, a Harvard-educated economist and former finance minister, is viewed as the capable steward the country needs during the global recession. It's not as clear that he'll be the man to deal with some of Colombia's other woes. Ongoing conflict between rich and poor, such as the frequent assassinations of workers attempting to organize unions, has become an international disgrace. Notably, it has hindered the ratification of a trade pact with the United States.

Santos has said he wants to forge a new relationship with the U.S. And this is an appropriate moment to do so, because financial aid to Colombia is being steadily reduced by the Obama administration. In the months ahead, Santos will have many of the same challenges as Uribe but fewer resources. Uribe, in a sense, was Colombia's wartime president. The military man who follows him will be charged with leading the country to peace.