Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos hinted that he will be vying for the first citizen’s position come 2014, citing continuity of his policies and bringing to conclusion peace talks with Marxist FARC rebels as reasons.
Though the Colombian President did not explicitly announce his candidacy< Mr. Santos also informed that Colombian housing minister German Vargas Lleras, who led the free housing programme has resigned from the cabinet and will run a foundation that helped steer the president’s campaign win in 2010.
Vargas Lleras, who ran against Santos in 2010, is now considered a Santos ally, and his probable heir. No replacement for Vargas Lleras was announced.
In a move popular with millions of Colombia’s poor, Santos has sought to provide cheap housing to Colombia’s most needy, offering 100,000 free homes and mortgages at rock bottom interest rates.
Last week Colombia’s agriculture minister, Juan Camilo Restrepo, also stood down ahead of the May 25 cut-off date for cabinet officials seeking to participate in next year’s presidential election.
Santos, 61, told reporters in Bogota that he would make a formal announcement on his re-election plans by the November deadline.
“But I want to be respectful of the rules of play and so I won’t take a formal decision about my future until the date required in the Law 996 of 2005, that is to say, six months before the next presidential elections,” he said.
Santos took the greatest risk of his political career last year, launching peace negotiations with the nation’s biggest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in the hope of ending five decades of war.
Talks have dragged on for almost seven months without reaching accord on the first of a five-point agenda, putting in doubt Santos’ goal that the two sides will reach agreement this year.
