"No solution can be viable with Maduro still around." So said Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez about the longstanding mess in Venezuela during a Zoom session with the Council on Foreign Relations this morning. "We need to find a way out for him," the President added in referencing Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Márquez faces many steep challenges. Chief among them has been the arrival of at least 1.7 million migrants in recent years fleeing Maduro's disastrous regime in neighboring Venezuela as well as ongoing narco-trafficking concerns. The President started his remarks addressing the enormous challenges presented by COVID-19. He underscored the point by saying, "The pandemic is the biggest challenge we have faced in humanity since the Second World War." He added that his most urgent requirement as a "fact-based" leader is "creating an atmosphere inside the country in which every single citizen is convinced that by protecting themselves they are protecting society." Good luck with that one, Mr. President.
Colombia's turnaround in recent years has been admirable, aided in large measure by the United States. One can travel with reasonable safety to Bogotá, as my sister and I did in recent years, or even to Cali. This was a much riskier proposition in the 1980s and '90s. The economy has been growing considerably, until the pandemic struck, and Colombia earned its way into the OECD and is about to assume chairmanship of the Pacific Alliance. Márquez deserves credit for understanding the role that creativity and culture play in economic development and job creation, too, and has invested resources in building these sectors.
Márquez is a protege of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribehe, a right-winger. He ran against the peace treaty with the FARC and he has been criticized for the rise in murders of former FARC guerillas as well as union activists and environmentalists. He's certainly not a friend of human rights and freedom of expression, either, but he is a far more capable leader than the populist fools currently running Venezuela, Brazil and other nations that immediately come to mind. With Master's degrees from Georgetown and American Universities, Márquez also understands the United States and spends considerable time grooming that relationship.
Márquez faces many steep challenges. Chief among them has been the arrival of at least 1.7 million migrants in recent years fleeing Maduro's disastrous regime in neighboring Venezuela as well as ongoing narco-trafficking concerns. The President started his remarks addressing the enormous challenges presented by COVID-19. He underscored the point by saying, "The pandemic is the biggest challenge we have faced in humanity since the Second World War." He added that his most urgent requirement as a "fact-based" leader is "creating an atmosphere inside the country in which every single citizen is convinced that by protecting themselves they are protecting society." Good luck with that one, Mr. President.
Colombia's turnaround in recent years has been admirable, aided in large measure by the United States. One can travel with reasonable safety to Bogotá, as my sister and I did in recent years, or even to Cali. This was a much riskier proposition in the 1980s and '90s. The economy has been growing considerably, until the pandemic struck, and Colombia earned its way into the OECD and is about to assume chairmanship of the Pacific Alliance. Márquez deserves credit for understanding the role that creativity and culture play in economic development and job creation, too, and has invested resources in building these sectors.
Márquez is a protege of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribehe, a right-winger. He ran against the peace treaty with the FARC and he has been criticized for the rise in murders of former FARC guerillas as well as union activists and environmentalists. He's certainly not a friend of human rights and freedom of expression, either, but he is a far more capable leader than the populist fools currently running Venezuela, Brazil and other nations that immediately come to mind. With Master's degrees from Georgetown and American Universities, Márquez also understands the United States and spends considerable time grooming that relationship.
Image courtesy of the Office of the President of Colombia