Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe and his political allies are frightening off foreign investment, said President Juan Manuel Santos on Monday in the fiercest attack on his predecessor since taking office.
In an interview with Radio Caracol, Santos explains that he does not understand why Uribe has become an “obsessive critic.” He went on to say that Uribe “has spoken very badly of [Colombia], and frequently.”
“I feel some frustration. I have never understood it, and I say this from my heart, why he has turned into a critic this bitter. He doesn’t accept anything. Everything seems bad to him,” Santos said.
The President also claimed that Uribe was talking to far-right politicians in the United States, telling them that Santos was handing Colombia “to Castro and Chavez, that the country is on the wrong path and that the peace process is a failure.”
Uribe, who was recently voted the greatest Colombian of all time on the History Channel, has been a stern and consistent critic of the Santos administration’s peace process ever since leaving office. The first rift between the former allies became visible after Santos appointed political rivals of Uribe as ministers. Since then, Santos and Uribe grew further apart and Uribe increasingly attacked his successor and his policies.
Sources
- Uribe y Pacho Santos ahuyentan la inversion extranjera: presidente Santos (Radio Caracol – video, in Spanish)
- “Uribe le ha hecho mucho daño al país”: Santos (Semana)
