Juan Manuel Santos, minister of War

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After calling the “legitimate defence” to “hit terrorists” inside or outside Colombian territory theory on, Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos makes the headlines again. Colombia and her neighbourhood are worried, and they are right to do so. Though this is not the first time that Santos or his boss, President Álvaro Uribe, spread the Bush theory (or "doctrine"), it is surprising their insistence with such an inconvenient timing for Colombia.

It seems the Colombian government is not willing to realize that the international panorama is changing with Barack Obama as the President of the United States, putting the Bush doctrine aside, the same doctrine urging not only the “legitimate defence” argument which was the reason to embark on the costly Iraq war, but also the same which justifies the “preventive war” used by Israel, its unconditional ally, so often.

Meanwhile, in a complicated chess move which puts the US back into international law, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks in the Middle East about the "two state" solution and builds bridges to talk with Syria, and at the same time Obama negotiates with his Russian counterpart the anti-missile shield in exchange of Moscow to stop Iran’s nuclear race, Uribe and his minister Santos insist that the facts are above the Law.

But today Santos is discredited, by President Uribe himself in the first place, as it is forgotten that a few days ago the President claimed that there would not be any ground out of his reach for FARC bosses living abroad and, later, ordered a total war policy, consisting in scorched earth, extermination and peace, of course, the peace of the cemeteries.

The curious thing is that it is the terrorism the one ignoring international law, the one with no borders to perpetrate its excesses. And the message the Colombian government is sending is the same one issued by those it’s fighting. There are no sovereignty nor international instances, nor legitimate constituted governments nor diplomatic channels when it comes to “hit terrorists”.

It is seriously worrying that, besides Uribe himself, Juan Manuel Santos does it, as a candidate with possibilities of succeeding Uribe as President of the Republic for the next term. Therefore, does turning the "democratic security" policy into State policy mean to make permanent the disowning of domestic and international law?

As if this weren’t enough, and despite Uribe’s “rectification” of Santos’ words, asking in plural for “great care” on these remarks, which only was enough to become a “hint”, the concern deepens when it is realized that, besides the military top, 40 Party of the U congresspeople had come to support the minister. This means that the lawmakers, those constitutionally in charge of making the laws of this country are those who, as a single man, support the one which disowns them. Such an unique paradox, though, coming to think about it, if you notice this party is the one with the highest number of prosecuted for allegedly allying themselves with illegal groups, their position should not be seen with surprise.

But there are two more situations even more disturbing. The first one is the silence of the presidencial [pre]candidates. Neither the Uribistas nor the opposition ones have sharply rejected the Minister’s words. Some, such as former Defence Ministers Marta Lucía Ramírez (Party of the U) and Rafael Pardo (Liberal Party), only voice the inconvenience that the call for a Security Council had been made public, as was the request by Santos and the military top.

This shows how difficult this issue is and the fear of losing votes in a pre-electoral year. In short, the Uribe theory stating that qwhoever shows weakness when fighting FARC (or "LAFAR" ("the" + "FAR[C]"), as he calls them) is a friend of FARC has made a deep impression here. But Mr Santos’s rowdy spirit also shows that his presidential campaign has started, seeking to snatch space and prominence to former Agriculture Minister Andrés Felipe Árias, the Uribito ("Little Uribe," for his resemblance with the current president) who enjoys Uribe’s complete trust.

But, would it be convenient to be more Catholic than the Pope?

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This article was originally published 5 March 2009 on equinoXio. Translated from Spanish by Julián Ortega Martínez

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