August 26, 2010. Copyright 2010, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Profile of Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, August 26, Graphic News:  Juan Manuel Santos inherits a Colombia that has indeed undergone a transformation during the past decade. It has been pointed out that while the inauguration ceremony of his predecessor was marred by the sound of missiles from FARC leftist rebels, for Santos the insurgents barely rated a mention when he was sworn in as president in August.
 
Santos declares he is open to the possibility of dialogue with the rebels whose 46-year insurgency had made many areas of Colombia no-go territory. But his presidency is founded on the "democratic security policy", which it was his job to enforce as defence minister from 2006-2009. By increasing security to halt kidnappings and murders by rebels and drug-traffickers, he is credited by many with making the country a safer place.
 
But Santos, 58, who hails from an influential family -- he is the great-nephew of a celebrated former president -- and has held three cabinet posts, will want to make his own mark on the job. A trained economist, he says his next task will be to deliver "democratic prosperity", including a pledge that at least one member of every family will have a formal job. Investors and tourists have begun to return, but tackling vast social inequalities would give even the poorest Colombians hopes for the future.
 
However, that's if trouble does not erupt on a different front. Santos might look forward to a prolonged honeymoon period at home, but ties with his Latin American counterparts are less than harmonious. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has extended an olive branch but remains angry after Bogota accused the country of harbouring FARC rebels. Ecuador is still seething after Colombian soldiers bombed a rebel camp on its territory.
 
And then there are the stories -- which just won't go away -- that Colombia's new security has been achieved at too high a price, with the deaths of countless civilians at the hands of the military. There is also the risk that, if economic and social reforms do not happen quickly enough, there remains an unending stream of desperately poor Colombians ready to inject new blood into the FARC as a way out.
 
Santos is married and has three teenage children.  
/ENDS