Juan Manuel Santos’ overwhelming victory with a win of 69% of the ballots

New Colombian president caps victory by telling FARC to “get out of Dodge”

 By Judi McLeod  Monday, June 21, 2010

Bogota Free Planet (BFP) reports that Sunday was an Agua Ardiente “Salute!” day in Colombia.

Juan Manuel Santos, the man who basically told FARC to “get out of Dodge” won the final round of Colombia’s presidential elections yesterday.

Santos’ overwhelming victory with a win of 69% of the ballots--more than 40 points ahead of his rival Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus--throws a lifeline to Colombia’s security.

The former defence minister, who shares outgoing President Alvaro Uribe’s tough stance on security, told the country’s main rebel group FARC, that their “time had run out”.

His stance will likely put Venezuela President Hugo Chavez out of work as he said there would not be “the slightest chance of negotiations” with FARC, demanding instead that they unilaterally release the hostages they still hold.

It was only last week when Colombia security forces rescued three police officers and a soldier who had been held captive by FARC for almost 12 years.

Santos takes over the presidency with the vow to not rest until “every inch” of the country has been secured.

The president elect also issued a warning for the military to abide by the constitution and respect human rights.

Santos shared his victory with his predecessor Alvaro Uribe, for whose Social National Unity Party he ran for election.

The outgoing Uribe is leaving office with approval ratings as high as 60%.

“This is your triumph, too, President Uribe,” he said. “We’ll build on the progress you achieved over the past eight years.”

“Thanks to the security we’ve created, we can now focus on creating jobs, fighting poverty and providing opportunities for all Colombians,” he said.

Canada signed a Free Trade deal with Colombia last week.

Uribe will be in Toronto for G20 meetings this week.

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Judi McLeod  Bio

Judi McLeod Most recent columns Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared on Rush Limbaugh, Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, and Glenn Beck. Judi can be emailed at: