Juan Manuel Santos: Colombia’s ‘peace dividend’ will rework economy
Juan Manuel Santos, the president of Colombia, tells the News Agency that peace will elevate country’s expansion forever, as he urges Colombians to assist conclude the “senseless war” among the authorities and rebel fighters 
 
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Juan Manuel Santos is a man completely ready for alter.
Colombia’s president is utilized to generating rapid choices that do not constantly follow protocol.
A few years ago, he was due to deliver a general public lecture at the London College of Economics (LSE) on how Colombia would provide “prosperity for all”. Just as he was about to walk on stage, he tore up his remarks and tried a different tack.
For an hour, Santos stood at the podium and took concerns from supporters and opponents alike. Some matters were controversial, most ended up ample to send any particular adviser into a panic. But Santos answered them all, believing it was the right point to do.
“I imagined that alternatively of offering a uninteresting speech I could have an trade with pupils that had been quite inquisitive,” he remembers in an job interview with the News Agency. “They had quite very good concerns. In that type of predicament it works equally techniques: they learn and I understand.”
Santos’s spontaneity lately resurfaced at an occasion to rejoice journalism. The president – a reporter by trade – was asked to converse at the collecting. Once the spotlight fell on him, Santos turned the tables and invested time asking the audience about their lives as an alternative.
Juan Manuel Santos, president of Colombia, talks to the News Agency from his workplace in Bogota (Image: Iain Gill)
Whilst ending Latin America’s longest-at any time conflict requires distinct intent as opposed to fast improvisation, Santos has turn into the personification of modify in Colombia . The previous defence minister accountable for fighting the war from the country’s rebels is now the a single keeping out the olive branches.
A flourishing economy and alter in the political local climate implies the relaxation of the region might just be prepared to comply with. Last week, the Colombian govt took its largest step nevertheless towards an eventual stop to hostilities, buying an fast halt to aerial bombings of rebel guerrilla camps .
“We were a failed state 15 many years back. Our economic climate was backwards … now we’re a flourishing star.”
Nonetheless, Santos believes Colombia can not “turn the page” on fifty many years of inside conflict until finally households reconcile their variations and support to stop the “senseless war” amongst the govt and rebel fighters,.
While he is self-confident that negotiations with still left-wing group, the Innovative Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), will guide to an accord, political polarisation and concern of change remained hurdles in a nation exactly where generations of Colombians experienced by no means known peace.
“We’ve created far more progress than at any time ahead of. I feel we are reaching the ultimate section, which is the most hard one particular, but in these quite challenging and intricate processes, 1 can’t assert victory till you see it,” he claims.
“In the short time period, I feel it is essential for Colombians to seek out reconciliation among ourselves and turn the page so that we can develop a new foreseeable future jointly.”
Santos thinks a peace deal will support to rework the economic system even more. “We have been a failed point out fifteen years in the past. Our financial system was backwards … now we are a flourishing star.
“We need to describe every day the method and the dividends of peace. We have lived so long in war, that surprisingly sufficient some folks are frightened of it … So there’s quite crucial perform to do to explain the method and to plant the seeds for reconciliation.”
Official peace talks between the FARC and Colombian govt began in 2012 in Havana, Cuba. While the two sides have agreed to spend in rural advancement, deepen democracy and eradicate cocaine manufacturing, deep divisions stay in excess of an amnesty settlement and a determination on reparations.
“This is the initial peace method where we place the victims at the centre of the remedy of this conflict,” states Santos.
“We need to have to reach an equilibrium that would enable us the maximum of justice but also a peace settlement. Where to strike that balance is possibly the essential to the total process.”
Thousands and thousands of people have either endured initial hand from the violence in Colombia or been displaced by conflict. The US has named Bernard Aronson as a unique envoy to the peace talks as The usa actions up its function in negotiations.
Many research estimate that peace will include at minimum 1pc and most probably 2pc to Colombian expansion – eternally.
Development is gradual but fruitful. The two sides have introduced an arrangement to get rid of landmines and other explosives from the nation.
“We have substantial position officers from our navy and law enforcement major the doing work committee. This will make certain we accomplish a last bilateral ceasefire to end a senseless 50-yr war,” claims Santos.
The president is confident that long lasting peace would enhance growth in a place that is envisioned to expand by 4pc this calendar year, in spite of a halving in oil rates that the country’s finance minister has said is the “new typical” .
“Several studies estimate that peace will include at least 1pc and most almost certainly 2pc to Colombian expansion – forever. If we grew previous year at four.8pc, you can make the calculation,” he states.
Policymakers will make an “unprecedented” infrastructure press that is anticipated to insert an additional .7pc for every year to Colombian expansion, like plans to build a metro program in Bogotá.
The palace the place Mr Santos – who staked his re-election on peace – is primarily based, is complete of reminders of his ambition.
The president wears a dove pin on his remaining lapel, whilst the white material coasters utilized by personnel in the palace are also embroidered with the very same symbol in gold, together with the letters JMS – Juan Manuel Santos – and 2014 – 2018. The concept reinforces his sole aim for the up coming 4 many years.
President Santos satisfies Kofi Annan on a pay a visit to to Colombia (Picture: Xinhua/Rex)
Last thirty day period, Santos fulfilled with Kofi Annan, the previous UN secretary standard, to discuss the scope and design of Colombia’s fact-in search of method.
He states concluding a peace offer would call for difficult and unpopular decisions. In a war he explained as “cruel”, the president explained all choices will be hard.
“We have to abide by rules and methods and I would say for a president of a place that’s as challenging to govern as Colombia you have a good deal of issues every day that you need to have to fix. That’s why we want to be patient. I meditate a whole lot, I have a mantra, that aids me kind of navigate really difficult conditions.”
So what is the phrase that retains the president of Colombia serene? “The guru who gave me the mantra explained by no means expose it,” he smiles.
Sympathy, empathy, and previously mentioned all persistence will be the keys to unlocking prolonged-lasting peace in a region that was when torn apart by war.
Pointing to a pair of duplicate Oxford sneakers on a single of the tables in his place of work, Mr Santos suggests the wooden models – a present from his wife – encapsulate the pressures and predicaments he has as Colombia’s president.
“Now when an individual issues me [on a difficult problem] I just position above below and say to them: put your self in my shoes.”
A lot more: Colombia: from unsuccessful point out to Latin American powerhouse