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KLMNO
THE WORLD
In Colombia, presidential race is still in play
STRUGGLES
Disconnect with voters obscures track record
By Juan Forero
popayan, colombia — In
speech after speech, Juan Manu- el Santos, candidate to succeed President Alvaro Uribe in Sun- day’s election, reminds his audi- ence that he was Uribe’s defense minister when the most decisive blows were delivered against the country’s much-reviled guerril- las. The message is clear: Santos wants Colombians to see him, and not the other five candidates running for office, as the natural heir of a president popular for his security policies. Yet the Uribe magic has failed to rub off on Santos, and polls show that it is Antanas Mockus, an eccentric former Bogota mayor who em- phasizes social issues and clean government, who has the mo- mentum. The two candidates are in a
virtual tie in at least four recent polls, and neither is expected to get the 50 percent needed to win outright Sunday. If that happens, a runoff between the two will take place June 20. Mockus’s momentum has cre-
ated a dilemma for Santos, 58, a Harvard-educated economist who is a favorite in Washington for having shepherded billions in U.S. military aid for the fight against terrorism and drug traf- ficking. Political analysts said Santos needs to retool his cam- paign so that he benefits from what Colombians like about Uribe while distancing himself from what they do not, namely a string of scandals that have marred his two-term presidency. “Being associated with the
Uribe government is a mixed blessing,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington policy group that studies Latin Amer- ica. “There’s success, but the ad- ministration is also associated with a lot of problems and a lot of scandal.” Just three months ago, pundits
predicted that Santos would cruise to victory. In a country obsessed with se-
FERNANDO VERGARA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Colombian soldiers patrol a road on the outskirts of Bogota. The government has tightened security ahead of Sunday’s presidential election.
“Being associated with the Uribe
government is a mixed blessing.”
— Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue
curity, he had overseen an army that recuperated territory once under guerrilla control while kill- ing or capturing rebel command- ers once thought invincible. San- tos also extolled extensive eco- nomic experience, having served as minister of finance and com- merce, and his close ties with lawmakers in Washington and Europe. “He’s really good at speaking the language up here, able to press the right buttons, on secu- rity, on investment,” said Adam Isacson, an analyst at the Wash- ington Office on Latin America who tracks U.S. military aid to Colombia. “And he does it in a way that would make them much more comfortable than with Uribe.” The problem for Santos, according to political analysts, is
that Colombians do not feel as comfortable with him as they do with Uribe. A rancher from northern Co- lombia whose father was killed by guerrillas, Uribe successfully projected himself as an outsider willing to take on the estab- lishment. He
effortlessly con-
nects with villagers, and is fa- mous for his hours-long weekly town hall meetings.
Santos is the scion of one of Colombia’s most influential fami- lies, which for decades controlled the country’s most influential newspaper. Articles in Colom- bia’s press describe him as more comfortable playing golf or poker with friends from the political es- tablishment than shaking hands with working-class Colombians. On a recent swing through Po-
JUAN FORERO/THE WASHINGTON POST
Presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos, a former defense minister, greets vendor Marleny Fernandez and samples an oblea during a visit to Popayan, a historic city in southwestern Colombia.
payan, a historic city in Colom- bia’s southwest, Santos appeared uneasy as he began walking the cobblestone streets. With a presi- dential candidate in their midst,
people handed him their babies and took photographs. “Are you going to visit the poor neighborhoods?” asked Marleny Fernandez, 72, a vendor. “I invite
SANTOS
you to my little house.” Santos answered, “Not today, but I will go.” His entourage then quickly veered off to a meeting with the city’s business leaders. “Uribe knows pueblo life to its
very depth in a way few Colombi- an leaders know,” said Aldo Civ- ico, a Colombia expert and direc- tor of Columbia University’s Cen- ter for International Conflict Resolution. “Santos has not spent his life talking to farmers and ranchers so this is a new role for him. And no matter how much you prepare, you can’t in- vent charisma.” The inability to connect, and the baggage Santos carries as a member of the capital’s elite, has left him unable to gain traction in the polls. Mockus, meanwhile, skyrocketed from the 3 percent approval he had in January. “The big problem for Santos is
that he appears to be rejected by a public that seems to increasing- ly like the option that is being planted by Mockus,” said Maria Jimena Duzan, a magazine col- umnist who is highly critical of Santos.
Santos has also had to repeat-
edly explain that as defense min- ister he aggressively put a stop to a scandal that roiled the army in 2008, when it was revealed that troops were killing innocent ci- vilians to inflate combat kills. “That was the most devastat-
ing experience for me in the three years that I was defense minister,” Santos said in an inter- view in Popayan, noting that he cashiered nearly 30 officers and soldiers, including three gener- als.
He has also increasingly fo-
cused on how, as president, he would improve the lives of ordi- nary people in a country with grinding poverty. He said that the Uribe administration had in- creased foreign investment, “but in a way, we have failed in trans- lating that foreign investment in well-being and prosperity for all.” Asked in a recent interview by
El Pais, Spain’s leading paper, if fatigue over Uribe’s governing style is hurting him, Santos agreed.
But he added, “You have to
take into account that I’m not Uribe.” “And if Colombians are tired over a particular style of govern- ing, they can rest assured,” he said, “because I have my own way of governing.”
foreroj@washpost.com
Drone operators blamed in U.S. airstrike that killed civilians
by Karin Brulliard
kabul — A biting U.S. military report released Saturday criti- cized “inaccurate and unprofes- sional” reporting by operators of unmanned drones for contribut- ing to a mistaken February air- strike that killed and injured dozens of civilians in southern Afghanistan. As many as 23 people were killed in the attack in Uruzgan province, where a strike intend- ed for what military officials be- lieved was an insurgent force hit a civilian convoy. The incident
was condemned by the Afghan cabinet as “unacceptable,” and it prompted Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghani- stan, to apologize to Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The U.S. military said in a
statement that four senior offi- cers were reprimanded and two junior officers were admonished in connection with the strike — disciplinary actions that could damage their careers. In a memo accompanying the military re- port, McChrystal announced bol- stered training to prevent similar incidents in the future, and he
asked the U.S. Air Force to inves- tigate the Predator team. McChrystal has made it a top
priority to reduce civilian casu- alties as the U.S. strategy in Af- ghanistan has shifted from kill- ing Taliban members to protect- ing the Afghan populace. He has restricted the use of airstrikes, night raids and home searches, all in a bid to quell public hostil- ity.
“Inadvertently killing or in- juring civilians is heartbreaking and undermines their trust and confidence in our mission,” McChrystal said in a statement. The Feb. 21 incident in Uruz-
gan occurred when a U.S. heli- copter fired Hellfire missiles and rockets on a three-vehicle convoy approaching the village of Khod, where U.S. Special Forces and Af- ghan troops were battling Tali- ban fighters. A Special Forces ground commander had deter- mined the convoy was carrying militants arriving to provide backup to the fighters, according to the report, written by Maj. Gen. Timothy P. McHale. But the four-page report said
that judgment was based on flawed information from “poorly functioning” ground command posts and faulty reports from
DIGEST
PAKISTAN
Police: Attackers belonged to Taliban
Police said Saturday that mil- itants who attacked a minority sect, killing 93 people in the east- ern city of Lahore, belonged to the Pakistani Taliban and were trained in a lawless border region where the United States wants the Islamabad government to mount an army operation. The revelation could help the
United States convince Pakistan that rooting out the various ex- tremist groups in North Waziri- stan is in Islamabad’s own inter- est. Until now, Pakistan has re- sisted, in part because, it says, its army is stretched thin in opera- tions elsewhere. Suspicion that the man ac-
cused of a failed bombing at- tempt in New York’s Times Square earlier this month may have received aid from the Paki- stani Taliban has added to U.S. urgency about clearing North Waziristan. Local TV channels have report-
ed that the Pakistani Taliban, or an affiliate, had asserted respon- sibility for Friday’s attacks on two mosques of the Ahmadi sect. Senior police officer Akram
Naeem in Lahore said the in- terrogation of one suspect re- vealed that the gunmen were in- volved with the Pakistani Taliban. The 17-year-old suspect told po- lice the attackers had trained in North Waziristan.
— Associated Press
MALAWI
President pardons jailed gay couple
Malawi’s president on Satur-
day pardoned a gay couple who had been sentenced to 14 years in prison and ordered their release, but he also said homosexuality remains illegal in his conserva- tive southern African nation. President Bingu wa Mutharika announced the pardon, which he said was given on “humanitarian grounds only,” during a news conference with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Lilong- we, the capital. Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Ste-
ven Monjeza were arrested in De- cember a day after celebrating their engagement. In Washington, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs praised the move, urging an end to “the persecution and crimi- nalization” of sexual orientation
Japanese leader pessimistic about reelection: Japanese
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said he will stay in his post de- spite a political furor over a U.S.- Japan deal on a Marine air base but is not optimistic about the party’s chances in a looming elec- tion. Hatoyama’s decision to give up on a pledge to move the Futen- ma air base off Okinawa has risked hurting his ratings ahead of the upper house election ex- pected in July.
REUTERS
Members of the Ahmadi Muslim community hold names of victims of Friday’s attacks as they stand over their graves in Chenab Nagar, Pakistan, about 80 miles west of the site of the violence in Lahore.
and gender identity.
— Associated Press
RWANDA
Government urged to free U.S. lawyer
An international lawyers group
on Saturday called for the imme-
diate release of an American law- yer charged with genocide denial in Rwanda, saying the charges are politically motivated. Peter Erlinder, who is in Rwan- da to help defend an opposition presidential hopeful against charges that include promoting genocidal ideology, was arrested Friday by Rwandan police.
He is the president of an asso-
ciation of defense lawyers at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, an organization that is trying the alleged masterminds of the 1994 genocide. He is also a law professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn.
— Associated Press
Tiananmen statue confiscated in Hong Kong: Hong Kong police
confiscated a statue mourning victims of China’s 1989 crack- down on protesters in Tianan- men Square and arrested 13 ac- tivists, a participant said, in what critics called an escalation in po- litical censorship in the semiau- tonomous Chinese territory.
Czech vote is inconclusive:
The left-wing Social Democrats eked out a narrow win in the Czech Republic’s parliamentary elections, but center-right parties won more votes overall, creating uncertainty over who will form the next government.
— From news services
Predator drone operators, who were tracking the convoy from their stations at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. Those operators, the report said, “deprived the ground force commander of vital information” as they tracked the convoy for 31
⁄2 hours. Those observing the convoy re-
ported adult men “moving tacti- cally and appearing to provide security during stops.” But Pred- ator operators failed to notice women in the convoy, the report said, and though they did spot two children nearby, the infor- mation they provided led the ground crew to believe the vehi-
cles carried only “armed mili- tary-aged” men. The report said the aircraft
crew stopped firing when its members spotted brightly col- ored clothing, leading them to believe women might be at the site. By then, 23 men had been killed and 12 had been wounded, including one woman and three children, the report said. In a statement, Karzai said he
was satisfied with the investiga- tion and measures taken to pre- vent similar incidents, which he called “deeply regrettable.”
brulliardk@washpost.com
SUNDAY,MAY 30, 2010
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