Juan Manuel Santos, a former defense and finance minister, won Colombia’s presidency by a landslide on Sunday, handing him a strong mandate to tackle tasks from a stubborn deficit to tense ties with Venezuela.
Santos succeeds Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as the leader of Washington’s top ally in South America and has vowed to continue pro-business policies that saw foreign investment soar and maintain a popular tough line against the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels.
Santos won 69 percent of the votes in the run-off election against eccentric former Bogota mayor Antanas Mockus, who won 27 percent by challenging traditional parties with his call for cleaner government.
PHOTO: AFP
Uribe steps down in August, still popular after two terms during which he weakened the FARC and disarmed outlawed paramilitaries. Oil and mining investment is booming despite lingering violence from the cocaine-fueled conflict.
The victory by a staunch Uribe ally will be applauded by Wall Street as a continuation of his pro-investment policies and likely help Colombia’s peso, stock market and local TES bonds.
“Now thanks to the security we have, we can focus on prosperity, in creating more jobs, in fighting poverty and generating opportunities for all,” Santos told cheering crowds at a victory rally late on Sunday.
Santos easily won a first round on May 30 but fell short of the 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a run-off against Mockus, a former university professor.
Santos, who guided Colombia through a fiscal crisis in the 1990s, must deal with double-digit unemployment, a persistent deficit and a costly public health system as the economy recovers from the effects of the global downturn.
A US. and British-trained economist, Santos got more than 9 million votes — a record for a Colombian president — and will assume the presidency in August with a strong mandate and solid initial support in Congress.
Santos has called for a “unity government” and secured backing from the Conservative and Cambio Radical parties and part of the opposition Liberal party , but he may struggle to match the influence of Uribe, whose popularity remains around 70 percent.
“We do not expect the presidential transition to bring about a noticeable change in the direction of investor friendly macro and financial policies,” Goldman Sachs analyst Alberto Ramos said in a report.
“Governability going forward might not be as strong as under the eight years of President Uribe’s presidency as no other candidate enjoys such a high level of charisma, political capital, and personal leverage,” the report said.
Tense ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will also challenge Santos. Chavez cut trade in a dispute over US involvement in Colombia.
Santos says Chavez and he are “oil and water” but offered to talk based on mutual respect.
As defense minister, Santos oversaw some of the sharpest blows against the guerrillas. He also ordered a successful operation to rescue prominent hostages held by the FARC, including a former presidential candidate and three American contractors.
However, his tenure was later tainted by charges troops killed civilians to artificially lift combat figures. The scandal cost the army chief and 27 officers their posts but Santos said he worked to halt rights abuses by the armed forces.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
RSS