Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Tuesday he wasn’t fighting with his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, but that it’s the other way around.
In an interview with newscast CM& Tuesday, Santos denied a possible rapprochement with the former president in recent days, but claimed he had no issues with Uribe.
“I’m not fighting with President Uribe, he is fighting with me. I only have respect and gratitude for President Uribe. If he has said he wants to meet me, I have never received the call,” said Santos.
The Head of State said he had no explanation for the ever-growing divide between him and his predecessor, who were once close allies.
Commentators would beg to differ, saying Santos’ policies recognizing Colombia’s armed conflict and its victims of the state, in complete contradiction to Uribe’s stance, and his charge to prosecute corrupt former politicians, are behind the increasingly chilly nature of the relationship.
Santos revealed last November that the pair hadn’t spoken in months.
In a March 1 interview with newspaper El Espectador, Uribe denied any ill will towards his replacement but said he had “concerns for the country.”
