Uribe does not give interviews: director Semana

[struggle4progress]

Sunday, 01 March 2009 22:54

Semana has been the center of attention this week after it revealed Colombia's intelligence service had been wiretapping political opponents of the government. Time for director Alejandro Santos to explain more about his magazine.

Semana -- that publishes most its articles in English too -- often has been the one to break stories that led to serious crises in the Government. The past six months alone, the magazine was the first to break the news on members of the army killing civilians and presenting them as guerrillas, the death of supreme leader of the FARC, Tirofijo and now, the wiretap scandal that has making the country's spy service shake to the foundation.

The director, Alejandro Santos is a nephew of Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos and thus part of the powerful Santos family that owned the country's least critical newspaper El Tiempo and had different generations in Colombia's government, yet Alejandro Santos' magazine is considered the most critical and least compromised of all Colombian media.

Santos was interviewed by conservative Spanish daily ABC. The following is a translation of this interview ... http://colombiareports.com/colombian-news/news/3070-uribe-does-not-give-interviews-director-semana.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. This is REALLY interesting, learning the honcho at Semana is a nephew of the

Defense Minister, and he dares to write articles which would get him killed, if he were NOT the nephew of Juan Manuel Santos!

This adds some real intensity to the situation. I won't be able to forget this.

Thank you so much.

[rabs]

2. Cold war between Uribe and Santos

Ah ha, Semana catches up with what we were saying last week here on DU; that there is power struggle between Santos and Uribe.

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Recent events indicated that his (Uribe's) patience is coming to an end. The tipping point seems to have been Santos’ visit to Washington last week. His displeasure was not only because of the statements regarding the shutting down of the DAS but because the minister tried to initially organize a trip to the United States almost as if he were the head of state, bypassing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The visit to Washington was eventually reorganized to include Minister of Foreign Relations Jaime Bermúdez. But the whole episode, with a lot of back and forth, left a sour taste with the government and in particular at the presidential palace.

http://www.semana.com/noticias-print-edition/cold-war-between-uribe-and-santos/121359.aspx

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Thanks to struggle4progress for tipping us off about Semana's English edition. :toast:

[Judi Lynn]

3. Uribe'd better watch his back, right?

Looking forward to reading this article. It looks terrific. Thank you.

Santos would be a dangerous enemy.

[rabs]

4. Explosive blurb published by Semana on Feb. 28

Judi, Semana is the most-read and most informed magazine in Colombia; sort of a combined Newsweek/Time. It has a section that resembles Newsweek's Periscope, where insiders' stories are published in digest form.

Found this today and it could be a bombshell that no other media has touched yet, or at least not any I have seen.

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Dos mensajes
Sábado 28 Febrero 2009
En una reunión a puerta cerrada que tuvo lugar el miércoles pasado en el Brookings Institution, uno de los think tanks más importantes de Washington, a la que asistieron los ministros Juan Manuel Santos y Jaime Bermúdez, quedaron claras dos cosas: primero, que el TLC con Colombia está muerto mientras la economía de Estados Unidos siga en crisis; y segundo, que una nueva reelección de Álvaro Uribe sería muy mal vista por el Congreso de Estados Unidos y la administración Obama.

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Paraphrasing:

Two Messages
Saturday 28 Feb. 2009

Closed door meeting last Wednesday at the Brookings Institution, one of the most important think tanks in Washington. Attending were (Def.) minister Santos and (Foreign) minister Bermudez.

Two things became clear; first, the TLC (Free Trade Agreement) is dead while the economy of the United States remains in crisis; Secondly, a new re-election of Alvaro Uribe would be poorly received by the Congress of the United States and by the Obama administration.

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Think maybe Alvarito may be joining bushchimp in retirement next year. And yes, Santos is sinister but Uribe may derail his potential candidacy.

http://www.semana.com/noticias-confidenciales/dos-mensajes/121279.aspx