Meet Colombia’s New President
Colombia has a new president, Juan Manuel Santos, who was sworn in on Saturday and will immediately face a fractured diplomatic state -- Venezuela and Ecuador have severed ties with the country -- along with continuing drug violence and a long-festering rebel insurgency.
Colombia has a new president, Juan Manuel Santos, who was sworn in on Saturday and will immediately face a fractured diplomatic state — Venezuela and Ecuador have severed ties with the country — along with continuing drug violence and a long-festering rebel insurgency.
Santos, who beat out leftist challenger and Abraham Lincoln-beard stand-in Antanas Mockus, is expected to continue in former President Alvaro Uribe’s political footsteps. –JCL
WAIT BEFORE YOU GO...The BBC:
Juan Manuel Santos has been sworn in as the new president of Colombia.
In his inaugural speech, Mr Santos said that mending relations with neighbours Ecuador and Venezuela would be one of his government’s main priorities.
In response, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he would like to meet “face-to-face” with Mr Santos.
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It's an exciting day in Colombia as citizens head to the polls to vote for a new president. The two front-runners are former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos and former Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus of the Green Party.
Tensions are running high, and relations running low, between Colombia and Venezuela. The latter's president, Hugo Chavez, told his generals to prepare for war, while the Colombian government announced a new base on the countries' border and activated six air battalions.
Despite profound ideological differences and a long history of fighting between the groups, the two largest Colombian guerrilla armies, the ELN and the FARC, have forged a pact to fight the country's security forces.
A new book casts an illuminating spotlight on Colombia’s guerrilla war, fueled by cocaine profits and U.S. military aid.
After weeks of embarrassing displays of political incompetence and general ignorance of current events, Sarah Palin participated in a daylong tour de force of international relations at the United Nations. Henry Kissinger, Hamid Karzai and Alvaro Uribe were among the officials she encountered on a day during which she "largely listened."
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