Juan Manuel Santos sworn in as Colombia's president
By Daniel Brody, Editorial Director
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Colombian congressional president Armando Benedetti officially swore in Juan Manuel Santos as Colombia's 59th president at an inaugaural ceremony in Bogota on Saturday.
Santos' inauguration speech addressed many themes. On Colombia's internal conflict, he said that while the "door to dialogue (with armed groups) is not closed with a key" he warned that if those groups kept kidnapping and perpetrating terrorism, that he would continue to fight them "by any means available."
"It is possible to have a peaceful Colombia, a Colombia with no guerillas, and we will prove that by reason or by force," he continued.
Nevertheless, Santos also said that his primary goals as president are economic in nature. He vowed to lower unemployment to single digits, and reduce economic inequality in Colombian society.
Other notable goals in Santos' speech included vows to help Colombia's displaced population to return to their places of origin and to improve bilingual education in Colombia.
Despite receiving an invitation to come to the ceremony, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez did not appear. However, a foreign minister from the country, Nicolas Maduro, did arrive and sounded conciliatory in his remarks despite recent tensions between the two countries.
"We want to extend our loving hand to all the Colombian people," Maduro said upon his arrival to Bogota. "We came with the greatest disposition to advance and work looking towards the future."
Relations between Colombia and Venezuela have been ruptured recently, as outgoing Colombian president Alvaro Uribe's statements that the Venezuelan government is harboring FARC guerillas in its territory motivated Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to break off diplomatic relations with Colombia.
Among other national leaders in attendance was Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa, who made his first visit to Colombia since the bombing in Ecuador by Colombia's armed forces that led to the death of FARC leader Raul Reyes and 25 other people in 2008.
Juan Manuel Santos had been Colombia's Defense Minister at the time of the bombing, and the attack motivated Ecuador to break off diplomatic relations between the two countries. Warrants for Santos' arrest have been issued should he ever go to Ecuador, although there is still some confusion over whether they apply in the face of immunity protections given to heads of state.
However, none of this difficult history seemed to affect Correa's statements to the press in Bogota. "They can always count on our total support. We are here to confirm that unbreakable brotherhood between our people," said Correa.
Other leaders in attendance at the inauguration included Mexico's Felipe Calderon and Brazil's Inacio Lula da Silva.
Representing the United States at the event were national security advisor Jim Jones and a congressional delegation led by congressional representative Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat who is the chairman of the House subcommittee on Western Hemisphere affairs.
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Colombian Culture
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- September 20, 2010
U.S. President Barack Obama will meet his Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos for the first time on September 24th in New York, at a United Nations General Assembly meeting.
The two leaders plan to have a conversation about the future relationship between the two countries.