...and Santos went for PEACE in the 70-year Colombian civil war. Santos has also advocated for complete legalization of all drugs. Uribe hates Santos for these reasons, because Uribe is a narco-trafficker himself, as are all his cronies, and because of Uribe's close ties to rightwing death squads (who worked hand in hand with the U.S. "war on drugs," during the Bush Junta, to eliminate the smaller or rival players, with $7 BILLION in U.S. military funding).
I think Santos--though a rightwing politician--became disgusted with all this humongous corruption and violence. I do think Santos was handpicked by the CIA (Leon Panetta) to implement a new corporate strategy in Colombia, that goes something like this: Now that the fascists/narco-traffickers/death squads/U.S. & Colombian militaries have murdered thousands of labor union leaders and other advocates of the poor, and have brutally displaced FIVE MILLION peasant farmers from their lands, it's time for "U.S. free trade for the rich", but Colombia is SO dirty and such a blood-spattered mountain of bodies, that its image needs a cleanup. Santos' personal inclinations and CIA/Corporate policy gel in this respect.
It's true that Santos was Uribe's Defense Minister for three years, but Santos resigned that post in 2009, and went his own way politically. They belong to the same rightwing party, but are bitter rivals within in it.
It's VERY CURIOUS, indeed, how the CIA/Corporate has "handled" Uribe. They've protected and even honored this dirtbag. (Cushy academic sinecures at Harvard and Georgetown, for instance.) I get the feeling that Uribe knows where the bodies are buried--so to speak--in Colombia, re Bush Junta war crimes and vast corruption in Colombia. He seems to have been given Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-type immunity. And there is thus the constant threat that Uribe could re-gain power, say, if Jeb Bush gets Diebolded into the White House.
One other note: I am convinced that Santos' advocacy of drug legalization is part of a corporate strategy to monopolize and GMO-ize herbal, medicinal, recreational and/or addictive drugs--another instance of Santos' personal political inclination gelling with CIA/Corporate plans. This may be the only way that drugs get legalized--with multinational corporations now ready to implement their long term plan. But we shouldn't have any illusions about it.
So, Santos has risked a lot--including risking his life, I'm sure--to end the horrors of the civil war, to oppose Uribe's criminal network and to bring about a sane drug policy--but he is NOT a liberal; he is a NEO-liberal (i.e., Corporations and the 1% running the world). What he isn't is neo-conservative--war/death/conquest fascist--though he was associated for a while with that element, and though the one (the fascists) often serve the other (the corporatists) in one-two punch style (ravage the country with war and militarism, then take over its economy and resources).
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