Santos' Fast Start

Colombia’s new President, Juan Manuel Santos, inaugurated barely two months ago on August 7, is already proving equal to the difficult task of following former President Álvaro Uribe’s impressive eight-year mandate. But he is no Uribe clone. He has moved quickly to put his own stamp on the presidency, working to reduce Colombia’s challenges internationally in order to free himself to focus on his top priority—recharging Colombia’s economic growth and providing jobs for its people. It’s a tall task in the current global economic environment, but one that the new president campaigned on and one that he has to deliver.

Even before the inauguration Santos was immediately faced with a legacy-defining choice. The Uribe Administration left office having just accused neighboring Venezuela, in a dramatic presentation at the OAS in Washington, of harboring FARC guerrillas. For various reasons the hemispheric community wanted nothing to do with the crisis. When the presentation to the OAS was made, much of the hemispheric community, including the United States, yawned. Lacking broader hemispheric backing, the incoming Santos administration realized that it would either have to go it alone in the face of Venezuelan provocations, or it would have to find a way to accommodate to reality, establishing a modus vivendi with the Chávez regime. This would minimize the threat of aggression while giving a face-saving solution to restore relations and reopen the border to economic activity and exchange.

A face-to-face summit of presidents Santos and Chávez was quickly arranged in Santa Marta, Colombia, where the presidents pledged to restore relations and pursue a less confrontational agenda. In truth, Chávez, too, needed breathing room, given sinking poll numbers prior to the September 26 legislative elections in Venezuela and the government’s desire to goose the economy.

At the same time, Santos was working to improve relations with his neighbor to the west, Ecuador, which had an outstanding arrest warrant for him given his role as then-Defense Minister in the cross-border Angostura raid of March, 2008. His diligent efforts to smooth relations with his counterpart Rafael Correa resulted in a revocation of the warrant and a process to normalize relations with Ecuador.

With neighborhood tensions thus reduced, Santos outreached to Brazil, visiting that nation and calling it a strategic partner while proposing to work on a common regional agenda with the Brazilians. In doing so, Santos has sought to reposition Colombia as a South American nation first, rather than, as a number of regional observers uncharitably implied under President Uribe, a United States outpost in South America.

Some commentators have suggested that this means Santos is looking to cool relations with the U.S., finding that the close bilateral relations of the previous administration proved to be counterproductive to Colombia’s interests. In fact that is not the case. Santos has already met with President Obama, on September 24 at the United Nations, one day after the successful take-down of FARC military head Mono Jojoy. There is no doubt that Colombians have been stung by the refusal of the U.S. to pass the pending free trade agreement, and they are concerned that the U.S. may be too anxious to draw down its commitment to Colombian security after a decade of Plan Colombia success. And there may be a new layer of reserve in Colombia’s relations with the U.S. going forward, for example in the so-called base rights agreement that the Colombian Supreme Court has now invalidated.

But that does not mean that Colombia is any less interested in close relations with the U.S., only that the Santos Administration will continue, rightly, to diversify its political and economic options. Can’t get an FTA with the U.S.? Do one with Canada, and one with China, and others in the meantime. Worried about regional isolation? Reach out to Brazil and polish Colombia’s South American identity. Need to open borders to enhance economic activity? Downplay the scandal of FARC guerrillas in neighboring states.

In other words, minimize international difficulties the nation faced under the previous government, while increasing opportunities to allow the new government to focus on job creation and broad-based economic development that is widely shared. It’s a strategy with great merit for Colombia, and the reality that has underlain President Santos’ strategy right from the start.