Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 8 august 2018
Incoming Colombia president faces long list of challenges

By MANUEL RUEDA lombia's economy and the
Associated Press peace agreement as well
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) as reversing coca produc-
— The young protégé of a tion that last year reached
powerful former president levels unseen in more than
is being sworn in as Colom- two decades of record
bia's new leader Tuesday, keeping and $10 billion
tasked with guiding the im- in U.S. counter-narcotics
plementation of a peace work. The soaring coca lev-
accord with leftist reb- els have tested traditionally
els that remains on shaky close ties with the United
ground. States.
Ivan Duque, 42, will be the Throughout his campaign,
youngest Colombian chief Duque promised to push
of state ever elected in a changes in the peace
popular vote when he is agreement, including
sworn into office at Bogo- creating tougher penal-
ta's Plaza Bolivar. ties for former leaders of
The prematurely graying the now defunct Revolu-
father of three describes tionary Armed Forces of
himself as a centrist who will Colombia responsible for
unite the nation at a time crimes against humanity.
when many are still fiercely Under the accord, most
divided over the peace rebels who fully confess
agreement that ended their crimes will be spared
more than five decades of any jail time, a sore point
bloody conflict. for many Colombians who
His detractors fear he will be still vividly remember the
little more than a puppet atrocities of war.
for Alvaro Uribe, the con- Colombia's conflict be-
servative ex-president who tween leftist rebels, the
led a referendum defeat of state and paramilitary
the initial version of peace groups left at least 260,000
accord in 2016. Uribe is still dead, some 60,000 missing
backed by millions of Co- and millions displaced.
lombians, though he is per- In this June 17, 2018 file photo, Ivan Duque, candidate of the Democratic Center party, gives While some fear Duque's
haps equally detested by thumbs up to supporters after voting in presidential runoff election in Bogota, Colombia. anti-accord rhetoric and
legions who decry human Associated Press proposed changes could
rights abuses during his ad- further destabilize what has
ministration. solve this problem and find aid flotilla and helped him Uribe briefly stepped down already been a slow and
Duque is taking Colombia's a way to bring the state write his memoir. from the Senate in July after tumultuous implementa-
presidency at a critical into the countryside, we're Then in 2014, Uribe pro- the Supreme Court asked tion, others hope that in
juncture: Coca production going to keep having the pelled Duque into the po- him to testify on allegations the long-term the agree-
is soaring to record lev- same problems we've had litical limelight when he of bribery and witness tam- ment could enjoy broader
els, holdout illegal armed for decades," said Jorge encouraged him to return pering in a case related to support from a divided Co-
groups are battling for ter- Gallego, a professor at Co- to Colombia to run for a claimed ties to paramilitar- lombian society if led by
ritory where the state has lombia's Rosario University. Senate seat and placed ies, which he vehemently someone with a critical ap-
little or no presence and a Duque is the son of a for- him on a list of newcomer denies. Uribe later reversed proach.
spate of killings of social ac- mer governor and energy candidates that he urged course and withdrew his Cynthia Arnson, director
tivists has underlined that minister and friends say he his multitude of supporters resignation letter. of the Latin America pro-
peace remains a relative has harbored presiden- to elect. In the weeks since Duque's gram at the Woodrow Wil-
term. tial aspirations since early Within Uribe's conservative resounding victory over son International Center
On Monday night, a mo- childhood. But his rise from Democratic Center party, leftist ex-guerrilla Gustavo for Scholars in Washington,
torcycle bomb exploded unknown technocrat to a Duque's reputation as a Petro, the president-elect noted that Duque's rhetoric
outside a police station in popular senator and now more moderate voice can has signaled both his loy- on the peace accord has
the western province of president has been extraor- at times put him at odds alty to Uribe and a convic- softened somewhat since
Cauca, an area where dinarily rapid, propelled in with the solidly right-wing tion to chart his own path. his election.
several groups are fight- large part by the support of faction. Uribe's support is While many of his Cabinet "There was a sense that
ing over drug trafficking his mentor, Uribe. thus considered crucial for picks have ties to Uribe, because Uribe had cam-
routes abandoned by the Just four years ago, Duque Duque to rule with the full there are also a number of paigned so strenuously
former FARC guerrillas. The was a Washington subur- backing of his party. But he incoming ministers with no against the peace agree-
National Liberation Army, banite with a job at an in- will need to build a broad- links to a traditional politi- ment that Duque was go-
a smaller guerrilla group ternational development er alliance to pass laws in cal party. ing to come into office and
that is still in peace talks, bank. It was there that he Congress. "So far I think he has shown just rip the thing apart," she
last week kidnapped three developed close ties to Duque's dependence on more independence than said. "I don't think that that's
policemen and a soldier in Uribe, assisting the former Uribe has sparked concern some sectors believed," likely."
an attack that highlights president when he taught a from critics, though analysts Gallego said. "Treating Outgoing President Juan
the government's struggle course at Georgetown Uni- believe the former leader's Duque as a puppet of Manuel Santos, who was
to bring law and order to versity. Later Duque helped mounting legal troubles Uribe is a very simplistic way awarded the 2016 Nobel
Colombia's most remote Uribe lead a United Nations could provide the incom- of analyzing things." Peace Prize, is set to leave
areas. probe into Israel's deadly ing president a new de- At the top of Duque's Colombia in the fall to lec-
"If Duque is not able to attack on a Gaza-bound gree of independence. agenda are likely to be Co- ture at Harvard University.q