Presidency of Juan Manuel Santos
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 Official portrait, 2010 | |
| Presidency of Juan Manuel Santos August 7, 2010 – August 7, 2018 | |
| Cabinet | See list |
|---|---|
| Party | Party of the U |
| Election | |
| Seat | Casa de Nariño |
.svg) Seal of the President | |
| Official website | |
Juan Manuel Santos's term as the 32nd president of Colombia began with his first inauguration on August 7, 2010, and ended on August 7, 2018. Santos, a center-right leader from Bogotá, took office after a landslide victory over the leftist leader. Antanas Mockus in the 2010 presidential election. Four years later, in the 2014 presidential election, he narrowly defeated the Democratic Center candidate Óscar Iván Zuluaga to win re-election. Santos was succeeded by right-wing leader Iván Duque, who won the 2018 presidential election.
In 2010, Santos won the presidential election as the protégé of Uribe.[1][2] Some months after Santos' possession, Uribe became his strongest opponent, and also founded three years later the opposition party Democratic Center.[3][4] This rivalry determined both Santos' unpopularity and his near-missed defeat during the 2014 Colombian presidential election against Uribe's protégé Óscar Iván Zuluaga.[5][6]
On 7 October 2016, Santos was announced as recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts negotiating a peace treaty with the FARC-guerrilla in the country, despite his defeat in the referendum held over the deal, where the "No" campaign led by Uribe's Democratic Center won.[7] The Colombian government and the FARC signed a revised peace deal on 24 November and sent it to Congress for ratification instead of conducting a second referendum.[8] Both houses of Congress ratified the revised peace accord on 29–30 November 2016, marking an end to the conflict. The treaty brought deep divisions and polarization in the country, which questions its legitimacy.[9] Santos has been named as one of Time's 100 most influential people.[10] Santos left office with one of the lowest levels of popular approval ever,[11][12] and his successor was Uribe's new protégé, Iván Duque, a moderate critic of Santos' peace treaty with the FARC guerilla.[13]
Santos achieved a landslide victory, with 69 per cent of the votes.[14] Mockus got 27.51 per cent of votes.[15] This was the largest margin of victory for a president in the democratic period of Colombia's history.[16] Santos won 32 of the country's 33 electoral districts.[14] His allies have an overwhelming majority in the Colombian Congress.[14] Santos vowed to continue his predecessor's hardline stance against the country's Marxist rebels.[14] He paraphrased Isaac Newton – "If we have come far it's because we are standing on the shoulders of giants" – and said he would rid Colombia of what he described as the "nightmare of violence".[17]
The United States State Department said it was "pleased" with the election of Santos and praised the "spirited debate" before the runoff and Colombia's "longstanding commitment to democratic principles".[16]
Administration
Cabinet
| Office | Name | Term |
|---|---|---|
| President | Juan Manuel Santos | August 7, 2010 – August 7, 2018 |
| Vice President | Angelino Garzón | August 7, 2010 – August 7, 2014 |
| Germán Vargas Lleras | August 7, 2014 – March 21, 2017 | |
| Óscar Naranjo | March 29, 2017 – August 7, 2018 | |
| Minister of the Interior and Justice | Germán Vargas Lleras | August 7, 2010 – August 11, 2011 |
| Minister of the Interior | Germán Vargas Lleras | August 11, 2011 – May 21, 2012 |
| Federico Renjifo | May 21, 2012 – September 3, 2012 | |
| Fernando Carrillo | September 3, 2012 – September 11, 2013 | |
| Aurelio Iragorri | September 11, 2011 – August 7, 2014 | |
| Juan Fernando Cristo | August 7, 2014 – May 25, 2017 | |
| Guillermo Rivera | May 25, 2017 – August 7, 2018 | |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | María Ángela Holguín | August 7, 2010 – August 7, 2018 |
| Minister of Finance and Public Credit | Juan Carlos Echeverry | August 7, 2010 – September 3, 2012 |
| Mauricio Cárdenas | September 3, 2012 – August 7, 2018 | |
| Minister of Justice and Law | Juan Carlos Esguerra | August 11, 2011 – July 12, 2012 |
| Ruth Stella Correa | July 12, 2012 – September 13, 2013 | |
| Alfonso Gómez Méndez | September 13, 2013 – August 11, 2014 | |
| Yesid Reyes | August 11, 2014 – April 25, 2016 | |
| Jorge Eduardo Londoño | April 25, 2016 – March 1, 2017 | |
| Enrique Gil Botero | March 9, 2017 – August 7, 2018 | |
| Minister of National Defence | Rodrigo Rivera | August 7, 2010 – September 5, 2011 |
| Juan Carlos Pinzón | September 5, 2011 – June 22, 2015 | |
| Luis Carlos Villegas | June 22, 2015 – August 7, 2018 | |
| Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development | Juan Camilo Restrepo | August 7, 2010 – June 2, 2013 |
| Francisco Estupiñán | June 2, 2013 – September 13, 2013 | |
| Rubén Darío Lizarralde |
First term
Santos said he would run for the Colombian presidency in 2010, according to him, if President Álvaro Uribe did not do so if a referendum was approved that would allow him to serve as president for the third time. After the Constitutional Court of Colombia determined that the re-election referendum was unconstitutional and unenforceable, Santos announced his presidential aspirations for the period 2010–2014 on behalf of the U party. Santos led the polls with Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus as possible options to win the Presidency of Colombia.
Santos's presidential campaign was based on continuing with the democratic security policy, implemented during the eight years of the Uribe government. Santos selected the ex-minister and ex-governor of Valle, Angelino Garzón, as the vice-presidential formula.
Santos shaking hands with the President of the Spanish Government, J.L. Rodríguez Zapatero in June 2010. Santos had the support of important sectors of the Liberal Party, the formal adherence Cambio Radical (third in the first round) and the Conservative Party (fifth) in this second round.
On May 30, 2010, Santos obtained 46.56% of the valid votes, so he agreed to the second round of elections, against the Colombian Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus, which took place on June 20. That day and with 68.9% of the vote (9,004,221 votes out of a total vote of 14 million), he emerged victorious for the post of president of Colombia against his rival.[18]
Santos' first foray outside of Bogotá, already inaugurated as president, was in La Mojana Sucreña, in San Jorge, a region in northern Colombia severely hit by floods. The Colombian government estimated that more than 160 thousand people from the municipalities of Sucre, Guaranda, San Benito Abad and Majagual, in the department of Sucre; as well as San Jacinto del Cauca and Achí, in the department of Bolívar; and Ayapel, in the department of Córdoba were affected, in the department of Putumayo he had to face the tragedy of Mocoa.[19]
Second term
From the beginning of the government of Juan Manuel Santos, speculation began about the possible candidates for the Presidency.9 2013 was the decisive year for the definition of the candidacies for the 2014 elections.
Within the government coalition, reunited under the name of National Unity, not only was the possibility that the president aspired for re-election sounded, but there was also speculation that government allies such as the former Minister of Housing, Germán Vargas Lleras,[20] the vice president, Angelino Garzón,[21] and the retired general of the Police, Óscar Naranjo, could aspire to the Presidency of the Republic. None of these speculations could be confirmed until November 20, 2013, when the current president publicly announced his intention to run for re-election for the 2014–2018 period.12 Juan Manuel Santos' candidacy for re-election was supported by the Liberal parties, 1314 of the U and Radical Change.15
Domestic policy
Security
Continuing with his predecessor's democratic security policy, Santos promised from his inauguration speech to fight narco-terrorist groups without truce. On August 12, 2010, there was an attack on Caracol Radio whose authorship was attributed to the FARC-EP, in addition this group carried out a series of attacks on members of the National Police as a welcome to the Santos government. From Montería, President Santos expressed;
On September 19, 2010, the Military and Police Forces bombed a camp of the 48th Front of the FARC-EP where its commander Domingo Biojó died,8 and on September 23 Operation Sodoma was carried out, in which Jorge Briceño Suárez, alias El Mono Jojoy, military chief of the FARC-EP.9 On November 4, 2011, within the framework of Operation Odysseus, Guillermo León Sáenz, alias Alfonso Cano, who had served until that moment as commander-in-chief of the FARC-EP after the death of Manuel Marulanda due to natural causes.10 He would be succeeded in the command of the FARC-EP by Rodrigo Londoño 'Timochenko'. 11
In his government, the Victims and Land Restitution Law (Law 1448 of 2011) was approved, to restore, through the Unit for the Attention and Comprehensive Reparation of Victims, the lands seized by the armed actors (paramilitary and guerrilla groups ) to civilian victims of the war and recognizing the existence of the internal armed conflict in Colombia.12
Regarding the fight against Criminal Bands (BACRIM) or Organized Armed Groups (GAO), as the government has called them since March 2016 to empower the Military Forces to combat these criminal groups13 supporting the National Police; He managed to dismantle three dangerous criminal gangs, one of them with a nationwide presence: Los Rastrojos. In February 2015, he ordered the dismantling of the GAO Clan del Golfo or self-styled Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC), led by Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, alias Otoniel, in Operation Agamemnon (reinforced and continued in the next government). In the Solemn Operation of October 2015, Víctor Ramón Navarro Serrano 'Megateo', commander of the dissidence of the Popular Liberation Army (EPL): GAO 'Los Pelusos' dedicated to drug trafficking, was killed.14 Since November 2017, the dissident groups they are considered Residual Organized Armed Groups (GAOR), fought by the Military Forces.1516
