Regional Reactions to Juan Manuel Santos

A day after the election of Uribe heir Juan Manuel Santos in Colombia, two of the most anticipated reactions were those from Colombia’s two neighbors, Venezuela and Ecuador – the country's on-again, off-again sparring partners. According to the AP, Santos indicated before Sunday’s election that he would send an inaugural invitation to Hugo Chavez, should he be elected. And on Monday, Chavez responded to the Santos victory with conciliatory words, saying he wished the new Colombian president success and hoped for “sincerity and respect” as Santos assumes office. The foreign ministry of Venezuela also published a five paragraph communiqué on the Santos victory, congratulating the Colombian people on Sunday’s vote. This according to BBC Mundo. However, the BBC says the Venezuelan statement added that it would be “very attentive to not only the words of the new government and its spokespeople but also to its actions…” And many analysts remain doubtful that any we’ll see any significant change in the tenuous Venezuela-Colombia relationship.

In Ecuador, meanwhile, Rafael Correa called Santos personally to offer his congratulations following Sunday’s vote. The country’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, said his country now waits “with caution” to see what the new Colombian government does with respect to investigations of the 2008 cross-border attack on a FARC camp in Ecuador. Ecuador has demanded Colombia hand over all of its information related to the attack before the two country’s severed relations are re-established.

Finally, in the US, Juan Manuel Santos had no trouble winning over three of the major US papers which regularly cover the region. A Washington Post editorial contrasts Santos with both Brazil’s Lula and Hugo Chavez. “Juan Manuel Santos has demonstrated that pro-American, pro-free-market politicians still have life in Latin America. Mr. Santos … has no interest in courting Iran, unlike Brazil's Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva. He has rejected the authoritarian socialism of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez,” the paper claims. The Post’s call is on the US to return the favor with a free trade agreement. Ditto from the Wall Street Journal. The paper also praises Alvaro Uribe, citing a “drop in murders of labor union members” under his watch as one of the outgoing president’s major successes [“It is now statistically safer to belong to a union than to be a member of the general population,” the paper claims]. Those words come just days after two DAS agents were arrested in connection with the murder of trade union leader five years ago. And, the Miami Herald’s editorial board also has words of praise for Santos. But unlike the others, the paper says human rights must become the president’s priority. In contrast to the Journal’s take, the Herald writes:

“Although the picture is somewhat improved, Colombia is regarded as the most dangerous Western country for trade unionists. Colombia's military has been accused of murdering young men and later claiming falsely that they were guerrillas. The president's security agency has been involved in a scandal over illicit surveillance of human rights activists and other perceived enemies.”

Behind the headline:

· On violence in Mexico, the Dallas Morning News reports that Mexico’s Western state of Nayarit has become the latest area to be transformed into a drug war battleground. “Best known for the sleepy beach towns that dot its coastline,” the DMN writes, the state is “now facing the kind of brutal drug violence that has plagued the Texas-Mexico border for years.” Over 100 have been killed just this year in Nayarit – 30 in the last week alone. That’s more than the last four years combined, says the paper. And according to organized crime expert, Phil Williams, “The violence remains part of the ongoing realignment” which has continued since the crackdown of the Beltrán Leyva cartel six months ago. Those changes are raising new concerns within the Mexican Catholic Church, as well. The Archdiocese of Mexico, in an editorial this weekend, expressed its concern that organized crime syndicates might “impose candidates” in upcoming July 4 elections.

· With the latest murder tally, the DMN puts the total number killed in Mexico over the last week at 300. That includes the recent murders of two Mexican mayors (one from the northern city of Guadalupe and another in the southern town of San José del Progreso). Meanwhile, a new report from Mexico’s El Universal says 95% of those killed in the country’s drug wars are going uninvestigated.

· New violence connected to organized crime and drug traffickers also struck El Salvador late Sunday. The LA Times has the report about the attacks on two passenger buses in San Salvador’s Mejicanos neighborhood which killed 16 [El Faro says 14]. Here’s how the paper analyzes the incident in Central America’s murder capital.

“The attacks represented a dramatic surge in ongoing street violence attributed largely to gangs but exacerbated lately by a growing presence of drug traffickers, authorities say. Police say gangs have been demanding protection money from bus companies, and major criminal forces, including drug cartels, are believed to be recruiting gang members to do their dirty work.”

More from El Faro, which says today that eight individuals have been arrested in connection with those attacks. More arrests are expected in the coming days, according to the National Police.

· From the AP, a piece on a new US Senate report on Haiti. This time it’s Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, John Kerry, who says Haiti has made little reconstruction progress in the five months since the January quake. It blames an “absence of leadership, disagreements among donors and general disorganization” for the delays. The report comes as legislators consider the authorization of $2 billion of reconstruction aid to the country. On the performance of the government of President Rene Preval and PM Jean-Max Bellerive, Kerry’s report says it has “not done an effective job of communicating to Haitians that it is in charge and ready to lead the rebuilding effort.” More on the report from Jacqueline Charles at the Miami Herald.

· In Chile, former presidential candidate Marco Enríquez-Ominami, is saying that the Concertación no longer exists “como tal” and he’s preparing for the launch of a new party, the Partido Progresista, to “re-found” the Chilean Left.

· In Argentina, the country’s current ambassador to the US, Hector Timerman, was named the country’s new foreign minister last Friday. This after the resignation of Jorge Taiana. Timerman, son of the late writer Jacobo Timerman, is well-known in the human rights community. As the AP reports, Hector Timerman was imprisoned for seven years during Argentina's military dictatorship, co-founded Americas Watch, and coordinated a Latin American peace and justice center after the return of democracy in 1983.

· Foreign Policy has released its annual list of what it calls the “world’s worst dictators.” FP puts two Latin Americans – Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro – on their list of 23, as the Miami Herald reports today. And perhaps even more notable than the simple fact that Chavez made the FP list is the fact that he is placed “above” Raul Castro. [Chavez at #17 and Castro at #23].

· Which leads into the last point today: a response from CEPR’s Mark Weisbrot (also, co-writer of Oliver Stone’s new movie South of the Border) in the Guardian to what he calls a “misleading and one-sided picture of Venezuela” offered by the BBC’s Stephen Sackur during his recent interview with Hugo Chavez. Weisbrot’s claim: “Most of the western world thinks that Venezuela is some kind of dictatorship where Chávez has made people poorer. They have no idea why he has been re-elected twice, each time by a larger majority.”