Colombia's Santos will get closer to Andean countries: analysts

Colombian President-elect Juan Manuel Santos would seek to mend relations with other Latin American countries suspicious of its ties to the United States, especially neighbors Venezuela and Ecuador, analysts said Tuesday.

Analysts polled by Xinhua said the Santos administration would be less confrontational than that of outgoing President Alvaro Uribe, looking to build "a great deal of national unity" at the local level and better diplomacy with the outside.

Javeriana Fernando Giraldo, a PHD in political science, said the Santos government would recover Colombia's role in the international arena, which has lost due to internal problems caused by armed conflicts.

Giraldo said Santos had made it clear that he would do everything to restore relations with the neighboring countries.

Santos welcomed a statement released Tuesday by the Venezuelan government, saying his victory was "a very positive gesture that aims to restore relations for the good of our peoples."

Alejo Vargas, a professor at the National University of Colombia, also believes Santos will manage the country's diplomatic relations in a "much less personalized" way than Uribe.

However, the search for better relations with neighbors does not mean its strong ties with the United States will fade.

"We must continue to combat drug trafficking as it has been done for many years," Santos told a press conference about the U.S. support to fight drug trafficking and terrorism in Colombia.

U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Tuesday he did not anticipate significant changes in the relationship with Colombia.

Both the government of Santos and Washington were interested in working together and "deepening" cooperation, Crowley said.

Analysts interviewed by Xinhua also felt that armed conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) would be one of the important issues for Santos' administration.

Source: Xinhua

Giraldo and Vargas both agreed there would be continuity in the democratic security policy promoted by Uribe in his eight-year rule. Santos's support for the policy was a key factor in his election success.

Vargas said Santos' "less confrontational" approach would make the government "more harmonious" in both the domestic issues and international relations.

However, the president-elect said he did not intend to stray far from the path marked by Uribe in the past eight years.

Vargas said Santos was elected as the candidate closest to Uribe, who has just over a month to leave his post and has a popularity rating of above 74 percent because of the achievements during his administration, especially in the fight against the FARC.

Uribe has also succeeded in the economic field. In 2002, he inherited a country whose exports totaled only 12 billion U.S. dollars. The figure is expected to jump to 40 billion dollars by the end of this year.

Vargas said Santos hoped to further all of those achievements Uribe had accomplished, but to improve some social indicators such as the high levels of poverty, which was nearly 70 percent of the population, and unemployment which was above 12 percent, the highest in Latin America.

Source: Xinhua