New Colombian Leader takes office

COLOMBIA: Juan Manuel Santos took office as the new Colombian President Saturday in front of a large international representation, and hoping his administration supports him taking the country out of the regional isolation outgoing President Alvaro Uribe plunged it into.

A few weeks prior to the Saturday inauguration ceremony, Santos took some steps in that direction when visiting various nations of the region, though various analysts say that he will have a hard task, since he will have to deal with the opposed interests of Columbia’s main ally, Washington, on the one hand and those of Latin American and the Caribbean on the other.

However, improving diplomatic and trade relations with Venezuela will be one of the main challenges for Santos, while outgoing Uribe persists in torpedoing any possible rapprochement between the two nations to overcome the bilateral crisis. Colombia’s social inequity will be another urgent problem for Santos to face, as well as finding a solution to the long internal armed conflict.

Santos’s task of improving Bogota-Caracas relations will require an additional effort, since Uribe made the political scene even worse for Santos. Bogota, Prensa Latina