Juan Manuel Santos is the President elect of Colombia after trouncing his opponent Antanas Mockus in the second round of the elections in this country on June 20, 2010 showing that for Colombians, continuity and stability in the long running internal civil conflict is most important.
Antanas Mockus Fails to Make the Grade
It was never going to be an easy task for Green Party leader Antanas Mockus to make up the distance and overtake Juan Manuel Santos’ almost unassailable vote haul in the first round and it has to be said that despite some polls suggesting a huge popular following the first round, the former Mayor of Bogota, was never able to urge his voters to the polling booths.
Voting Day Marred by Violence
With some 98 per cent of the votes counted, on a day that was marred by the deaths of various military personnel after a landmine exploded and various skirmishes with the leftist FARC guerrillas, Mr Santos has hauled in an impressive 69.9 per cent of all votes counted to the 27.5 per cent of his rival. With a lead of more than 5 million votes Mr Santos will take over the presidency from Alvaro Uribe.
Who is Juan Manuel Santos?
The Colombian, US and UK educated Mr Santos, who resigned from his position of Minister of Defense in President Uribe’s cabinet to run for the presidency and who comes from one of Colombia’s most traditional families that includes a former President and the Editor and owner of El Tiempo, the country’s largest national daily newspaper, was widely expected to win given his high profile successes in recent years.
Operation Check Mate
Mr Santos presided over Operacion Jaque that resulted in the liberation of the three American Contractors and former Presidential hopeful Ingrid Betancourt from the country’s southern jungles after more than five years in captivity. He was also behind the attack on the illegal FARC camp within Ecuadorian territory that led to the death of the No.2 in that group Raul Reyes. International outcry ensued but his popularity was unabated by a war weary Colombian public.
Antanas Mockus, on the other hand, is largely unknown outside of the capital city of Bogota and just as in the first round he failed to win the city where he was formerly mayor and managed only to secure the southern Department of Putumayo. An unknown quantity beyond Bogota and furthermore beyond Colombia, Mockus was always going to suffer for his often unintelligible intellectual ramblings.
How Will President Santos Govern?
Mr Santos’ victory will be viewed by foreign business and investors as a safe bet for Colombia for the future. What remains to be seen is how Mr Santos will try and turnaround he predecessor’s scandals in recent months such as the infamous falsos positivos and a poor human rights record. He will also have to address Colombia's dire unemployment problem as well as issues with neighbouring Venezuela.
Richard McColl - I am a freelance writer from deepest darkest London but for the past 10 years or so I have been maintaining my extended "writing break" in ...
