Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Santos interview

Juan Forero interviews Juan Manuel Santos in the Washington Post. Very rational discussion about drugs, particularly in terms of wanting a broader discussion about strategies without trying to force a particular proposal. Here is a particularly good point about measuring success:

“When I was minister of defense, we were very successful. We took down all the members that were in the list of high-value targets in the drug trafficking, all of them. They are either in jail or dead. We confiscated unprecedented amounts of cocaine. We eradicated unprecedented amounts of hectares of coca, and the DEA director came here and congratulated me and congratulated our people, saying we are doing very well. And you know how success was defined? By the price of cocaine in Los Angeles or in New York or in Washington. And so, because the price went up, we were being successful. But at the same time, if the price goes up, the incentive goes up. So there is a structured sort of contradiction in the whole setup.”

Meanwhile, Moisés Naím recently had a worshipful interview with Alvaro Uribe, who is really mad about Santos' moderation (and also does occasional Twitter rants).

1 comments:

Defensores de Democracia 11:48 AM  

Santos is the opposite of Alvaro Uribe.

Santos is friendly, amicable, kind, civil, courteous, polite, well mannered with everybody.

There is nothing in his past or family to raise suspicions.

The guy is a moderate indeed.

So it is very difficult to attack Juan Manuel Santos.

Add this :

The President of Colombia is a very close and old friend of the Powerful in Washington, including the most prominent bankers and financiers.

And he pays close attention to the economy and economists everywhere.

I hope that these qualities may help the Colombian Economy and that he does not fall in abuses of Neo Liberalism like his predecessor Alvaro Uribe.

I am sure that this guy won't aspire to be president for life ( eternal or "vitalicio" ) like Uribe.

....

  © Blogger templates The Professional Template by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP