Juan Manuel Santos
Juan Manuel Santos
Juan Manuel Santos Calderónis the 32nd and current President of Colombia, in office since 2010. He was Minister of Defence from 2006 to 2009...
NationalityColombian
ProfessionWorld Leader
Date of Birth10 August 1951
CityBogota, Colombia
CountryColombia
conflict settling week
You can't settle a 50-year conflict in 52 weeks.
latin youth latin-america
I want to see Colombian youth become the best-educated in Latin America by 2025.
mean thinking people
At this moment, I don't think people would back the old-fashioned Marxist-Leninist ideas of FARC. But I do hope that the rebels will continue to pursue their agenda by legal means and not through violence.
effort drug
Colombia is applauded for the efforts that we continue to make to combat drug trafficking.
realizing economic circumstances
If you analyze the production of coca in Colombia, you will realize that it is like economic cycles. It goes up and down, it goes up and down depending on the circumstances.
perfect
A perfect peace is not possible; it doesn't exist.
revolution
The Bolivarian revolution has no future and it has shown a lack of results.
country suffering dramatic
For decades, Colombia has been accused of being the world's principal provider of cocaine. If this comes to an end, it would be a dramatic change for our country - which has been suffering more than any other from the consequences of drug-trafficking.
war making-peace
There are times for making war and times for making peace.
accepting
I would never accept general impunity for the guerrillas!
lying army giving
Unfortunately, my rivals are spreading all kinds of suspicions for political reasons that are absolutely not true. They've tried accusing me of agreeing to dismantle the army, of jeopardizing private property, of giving the pensions of policemen to the guerillas - all kinds of lies. What they want is for people to be afraid of peace.
war people
I've not lived one single day of peace in Colombia, and 90 percent of people here say the same thing. We have gotten used to living in a war - we don't even react to massacres.
fighting terrorism
I fight terrorism as if there was no peace process, and I negotiate the peace process as if there was no terrorism.
expectations
I don't like to generate too many expectations.