Chavez: Santos Is The Number
One 'Little Yankee' In Colombia"
CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
has said a presidential election win in
neighboring Colombia by former defense
minister Juan Manuel Santos would be a
disaster for efforts to repair relations
between the two countries.
Santos is one of two leading candidates
ahead of a May 30 ballot to replace
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe,
Washington's main ally in a region where
Chavez and other left-wing leaders say they
are resisting U.S. influence.
In a speech late on Friday, Chavez said any
new leader in Colombia could help restore
bilateral ties -- except Santos.
"This should be understood clearly, clearly,
by the people of Colombia. That man really
is a mobster," Chavez said.
"We can only re-establish economic and trade
ties with a government that we can talk to
... Santos is the number one 'little Yankee'
in Colombia."
Santos told the Reuters Latin America
Investment Summit this week that Colombia
must maintain a firm hand toward Chavez to
resist what Santos charged was the leftist's
campaign to spread his revolution across the
border.
Caracas and Bogota are locked in a feud that
has battered bilateral trade and led to
frequent sniping between Uribe and Chavez,
who accuses the U.S. government of wanting
to halt his so-called Bolivarian revolution
for the poor.
Chavez and Santos have often sparred in the
past. Santos says he and Chavez are like
"oil and water," but urges mutual respect.
The Venezuelan accuses Colombia's elite of
plotting against him, singling out Santos as
a "threat" to the region.
A poll late on Thursday showed the other
main candidate in Colombia -- former Bogota
mayor Antanas Mockus -- maintaining his lead
less than a month before the vote and also
that he would win a second-round run-off.
Mockus took 38 percent of intended votes
while Santos had 34 percent, said the Centro
Nacional de Consultoria, or CNC.
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