As had been expected, Juan Manuel Santos, Colomba’s minister of defense since July 2006, turned in his resignation today. A longtime heavyweight in Colombian politics, Santos is considering a run for president in 2010, unless – as appears likely right now – President Ãlvaro Uribe changes Colombia’s constitution to run for a third term. According to Colombian law, cabinet ministers with presidential aspirations must leave office a year before the presidential election. That deadline is imminent.
Santos’ tenure was marked by successes against the FARC guerrillas, including the death of two Secretariat members and the killing or capture of dozens of commanders, as well as the bloodless July 2008 rescue of fifteen hostages. Along with technocratic vice-ministers Juan Carlos Pinzón and Sergio Jaramillo, Santos made “consolidation” the key word of his strategy. Instead of simply launching bruising large-scale military offensives, he sought to apply counterinsurgency doctrine more comprehensively than his predecessors. He directed more resources to intelligence, encouragement of guerrilla desertion, and programs to bring non-military government presence into stateless areas. He also enacted a series of human rights directives [PDF] that had no precedent in the history of Colombia’s security forces.
However, two and a half years is not enough to bring about deep cultural change, as the “false positives” scandal made clear. And particularly where human rights are concerned, Santos was a tepid reformer at best. He denied the severity of the “false positives” allegations, even attacking non-governmental investigators’ credibility as late as September 2008 and January 2009. In public statements, he has falsely sought to tie opposition politicians and journalists to the guerrillas.
Who will President Uribe name to replace Santos as the fifth defense minister of his administration’s first seven years? The list of most likely replacements includes the following, notes an analysis piece in El Tiempo:
- Gen. Freddy Padilla de León, the current head of the armed forces, who would retire from the military before assuming this post, which has been held by a civilian since 1991.
- Juan Carlos Pinzón, a young official currently serving as one of Santos’ vice-ministers of defense.
- Rodrigo Rivera, a former Liberal Party senator and presidential primary candidate who has become a vocal Uribe supporter.
- Luis Carlos Villegas, head of Colombia’s National Association of Industrialists (ANDI).
May 18th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Hmmm, let’s see … who could mr Uribe be thinking of … hmm let’s see hmmm GOT IT! CUCHILLO? he he he he he
May 20th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
[...] the most logical successor to Uribe is his now-former Defense Minister, Juan Manuel Santos. Plan Colombia and Beyond notes that the timing of Santos’ resignation appears to have everything to do with [...]
May 21st, 2009 at 2:08 am
Correction, Adam: Santos term in office was marked by the death of THREE, not two, Secretariat members: Ivan Rios, Raul Reyes and Manuel Marulanda. How Marulanda went is open to question, FARC says heart attack, Santos himself say heart attack as Colombian army bombs rained down around him. But he’s definitely dead along with the other two scumsuckers.
May 21st, 2009 at 2:15 am
FTA: In public statements, he has falsely sought to tie opposition politicians and journalists to the guerrillas.
I don’t agree that the Santos allegations against the oppo politicians and journalists are false. FARC seeks to penetrate every organization to influence the left. Plenty of them are soft on FARC, as the FARC computer showed us. And remember: A Colombian union leader turned up a few months ago in a FARC camp in clear evidence of being there with his pals the guerrillas (the clown claimed he was kidnapped, kinda like that Miss Sinaloa did when she was caught with her doper boyfriend, but FARC did not remove his cellphone, which is SOP for a kidnap operation.). He was in the FARC camp along with his Colombian-government supplied bodyguards. So don’t say nobody in the anti-Uribe opposition has no truck with FARC, some of them do, and the sooner the left admits this, the better it can separate itself from them. It can’t pretend this isn’t happening in some quarters. I believe Santos.
Who will make a terrific president after Uribe!
July 27th, 2009 at 9:36 am
[...] in May, Juan Manuel Santos left his post as Defense Minister of Colombia, in a move to legally preserve his right to run for [...]