The presidents of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, and of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, met on Tuesday and announced that they would reestablish bilateral diplomatic relations frozen for more than a year and ultimately broken by Caracas on July 22.

“We have decided that the countries (will) reestablish their diplomatic relations and relaunch a roadmap so that all aspects of the relationship may progress, advance and deepen,” said Santos at the end of his meeting with Chavez.

The Colombian leader also said that Chavez assured him that “he will not allow the presence of armed groups outside the law in his territory.”

Chavez, too, confirmed that his government does not “support, permit, nor will it permit, the presence of guerrillas, or of drug trafficking, or terrorism, in Venezuelan territory.”

Santos went on to say that “this is very important for us, so that those relations maintain themselves on a firm basis.”

It is an “important moment for Colombia and for relations between Colombian and Venezuela. I greatly celebrate this meeting today with President Chavez, two people who have had … such frequent differences, who decide to turn the page and think about the future of our countries and our peoples,” said the Colombian leader.

He also said that, starting on Tuesday, the two nations will begin “a frank, direct, sincere dialogue, as all good relations must be.”

He also added that Bogota and Caracas have taken a “big step,” referring to “the reestablishment of confidence that is also one of the basic conditions of any relationship.”

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On Thursday, Caracol Radio Station told its listeners that President Alvaro Uribe would expose incontrovertible evidence of the presence of FARC and ELN commanders in Venezuela. More than one was shocked by the news. Not so much by its content—it’s a known fact that there’s guerrilla presence in Venezuelan territories—but more by the chosen moment for making it public.

A day before, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez had approved a meeting between his foreign minister, Nicolás Maduro, and Colombia’s designated equivalent, María Ángela Holguín. Expectations grew around the fact Chavez might even attend Juan Manuel Santos’ presidential possession, once his most fierce critic, on august the seventh.. Holguín had already stated that her priority was to normalize the relations with the neighbors.

One doesn’t have to be an expert in international relations to anticipate a major disturbance and a fierce reaction from Chavez government if such a denouncement was made. It had already happened in the past. There isn’t anything that bothers President Chávez more than being accused of collaborating with Colombian guerrillas. In less than 24 hours, Venezuela’s president had already recalled his ambassador in Bogotá, and had insulted Uribe, whom he referred to as a “gangster” once again. Meanwhile, Uribe met Colombias’s Army Generals and his Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministers, to study Venezuela’s reaction and to prepare an answer, which was read at 5 o’clock by Uribe’s Press Secretary, César Mauricio Velázquez. In a letter addressed to the Organization of American States (OAS), Colombian government demanded “an extraordinary session at the Permanent Council, to examine the presence of Colombian terrorists in Venezuelan territory”.

The plans President-elect Santos had on initiating his government with calm waters in the region were destroyed in a glimpse. His Latin-American tour, to begin next 21st in Mexico, takes a different background in which security—not trade and investment, as was programmed—will dominate its media coverage.

Even if bringing the FARC-in-Venezuela issue to international grounds generates applause among some, this is neither the right timing nor the way to do the accusations. President Uribe is today what Americans call a ‘Lame-duck’: his influence is minimal and his Latin-American counterparts are interested in gaining his successor’s trust rather than his. Even more being that they feel Santos and Holguín represent a return of the usual Colombian diplomacy of dialogue rather than confrontation.

If the governments in the region did not support Colombia back in April 2008 when Uribe’s administration attacked a FARC camp in Ecuador and revealed e-mails and documents that compromised Hugo Chavez as guerrilla-friendly, they won’t do so now. They’re used to ignoring Colombian complaints after hearing them. Same happens with the scuffle between the two leaders. They prefer a façade diplomacy rather than theatrical arguing.

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Presidential candidate from the U Party Juan Manuel Santos privately told everyone with enough conviction that he might win in the first round of the elections. Nobody believed him. Many thought that he was just exaggerating as a campaign strategy. However, Santos said it for a reason. In the latest internal poll of his campaign he obtained 44 percent against 28 of his main rival, Antanas Mockus.

And Santos almost wins. The result was 46 percent Santos, 21 percent Mockus. In a country where everyone expected a draw, the margin of the victory make the results looked more like a final victory than a triumph in the first round. But what lies behind this surprising result?

First, it is the first time in Colombia’s political history that a presidential candidate with a huge machinery faces another that doesn’t have one. Santos and Mockus proved to be great candidates, with talent, skills and speech. But only one might win.

While almost all the political movements backed Santos, Mockus had barely the support of five senators from the Green Party. And the Sunday’s result showed that the machinery is still important in presidential elections.

Second, because Santos was in tune with the national reality and scored some points for defending the legacy of president Álvaro Uribe. Although the Farc wasn’t a campaign issue, the tranquility that has produced the democratic security -or the fear of losing it- was his best strategy. This also explains why the poorest regions of the country voted for him. The best picture of this electoral phenomenon occurred in Bogotá, where Santos obtained an advantage of 15 points over Mockus, who was supposed to win there.

Third, because Santos had the power on his favor. Uribe’s government, the majority in Congress, much of the entrepreneurs, the labor unions and, above all, the money. History has shown that funding is crucial in campaigns and the support that Santos had doesn’t have precedents.

A fourth reason is that Santos was a good candidate. He has a profile of statesman rather than a emotional connection with the people. Gustavo Petro (Polo Party), Germán Vargas Lleras (Cambio Radical) and Rafael Pardo (Liberal Party) were good candidates and they showed it during the TV debates. But Santos resisted every kind of attacks and showed security.

Finally, Juan Manuel Santos, who likes the player of poker image, made a real bet against all expectations. One month earlier he changed his strategy and hired the controversial campaign adviser J.J. Rendón. Though many believed it would be a suicide, he won.

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The governing party’s candidate for the Colombian presidency, Juan Manuel Santos, got more than twice as many votes in Sunday’s election as his Green Party rival, Antanas Mockus, but he did not manage to eke out a 50-percent-plus-1 majority and so the pair will face off in a runoff.

With 91.80 of the precincts reporting in, Santos garnered 46.57 percent of the votes to Mockus’ 21.55 percent, according to election authorities.

In third place is Radical Change candidate German Vargas Lleras, with 10.24 percent, followed by Gustavo Petro of the leftist Alternative Democratic Pole, or PDA, with 9.22 percent, conservative Noemi Sanin with 6.05 percent and Liberal Party candidate Rafael Pardo, with 4.26 percent.

Of the country’s 32 provinces, Santos won a plurality in all except the southern jungle region of Putumayo, the only one in which Mockus was able to capture a majority.

Since none of the candidates won an absolute majority in the vote on Sunday, the two top vote-getters will face off in a second round scheduled for June 20.

The results are considered to be practically definitive, given the high number of precincts reporting in, but they vary widely from the voter surveys taken in the weeks prior to the election, which showed a dead heat between Santos and Mockus.

One of the two men will become the successor to President Alvaro Uribe, who after eight years in power will leave the presidency in August, after the Constitutional Court ruled that he could run for a second reelection.

No major incidents were reported on election day in Colombia’s cities, but at least two soldiers and a guerrilla were killed in fighting in rural areas, where rebels also tried to block highways.

Several other incidents, including roadblocks and the burning of vehicles, were also reported.

Colombians voted Sunday for a new president, and former Bogota Mayor Mockus and ruling Partido de la U candidate Santos, who have been running neck-and-neck for weeks in the polls, have all along been expected to garner the most votes.

It was widely acknowledged, however, that neither of the frontrunners were likely to receive an absolute majority, thereby entering a June 20 runoff.

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Colombian and Venezuelan Presidents Uribe and Chavez

Dominican President Leonel Fernandez has agreed to mediate a dispute between the governments of Venezuela and Colombia stemming from the latter’s basing deal with the United States, the office of the president said Wednesday.

Fernandez said he accepted a request made by Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe at a private meeting held during the 19th Ibero-American Summit, which concluded Tuesday in Estoril, Portugal.

The Dominican president announced his decision in France, where he is on an official visit.

Fernandez said the Dominican Republic, “due to its geographical position and its friendship with its neighbors, has been a mediator in regional conflicts on other occasions.”

“We maintain very close ties of friendship with (Communist) Cuba, (socialist) Venezuela, but also with (conservative governments in) Colombia, Panama, in other words, with all the countries in the region, which has allowed us to play a mediatory role in solving political and diplomatic disputes that have come up in the region at different times,” Fernandez said.

Speaking to some 25 members of the French lower house’s foreign relations committee, Fernandez referred to a diplomatic spat last year involving Colombia, Venezuela and leftist-led Ecuador.

That dispute stemmed from a March 2008 Colombian bombing raid on a clandestine camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrilla group in Ecuadorian territory, an attack that killed 25 people, including rebel second-in-command Raul Reyes.

Read more here.

Venezuelan soldiers on Thursday blew up two makeshift foot bridges that stretched across the border to Colombia in the latest incident to stoke a diplomatic dispute between the Andean neighbors.

Colombia’s government criticized the destruction of the bridges as an aggression and a violation of international law, which it would denounce at the United Nations and the Organization of American States in Washington.

The long-simmering Andes spat has been mostly limited to diplomatic barbs in the past. But the current crisis is raising the risk of more violence along the volatile frontier where rebels, drug gangs and and smugglers operate.

General Eusebio Aguero, Venezuela’s army commander in the Tachira border region, ordered his soldiers to destroy the bridges using explosives. He said the crossings were unauthorized and used for illegal activities.

“They are two foot bridges that paramilitary fighters used, where gasoline and drug precursors were smuggled, subversive groups entered,” he told reporters, adding that several other bridges would be destroyed. “They are not considered in any international treaty.”

Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva said troops from the Venezuelan army arrived in trucks and dynamited the bridges that cross into Colombia’s Norte de Santander department.

The Colombian Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “This is a unilateral act and an aggression against the civilian population and the frontier communities.”

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, a “mobster” and said there was no possibility of dialogue with the “treasonous” government in Bogota, says the Latin American Herald Tribune.

“I have nothing to say to the mobster Uribe, because I know that he’s seeking contact. He will have to ask it of the king of Spain or friendly governments, but there’s nothing to talk about with that traitorous government,” Chavez said on Saturday.

“Uribe isn’t a politician. He comes from the world of paramilitarism, drug trafficking, business and shady deals, and he’s capable of anything. He’s a very dangerous man because he has no moral or ethical principles,” the Venezuelan leader said during an event to symbolically award medals the so-called “five Cuban heroes” jailed for spying in the United States.

The insults directed at Uribe were made in the context of Chavez’s references to the recently-signed bilateral accord by which the United States will be able to use several Colombian military bases.

“Starting now if anyone wants to speak with the Colombian government, he’ll have to speak with Washington, which is where the power is,” Chavez said.

Chavez’s comments follow is equally incendiary warning to all Venezuelans that war with neighbor Colombia was at hand.

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The Colombian government will take Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s war threats to the OAS and the UN, says Colombian journal El Espectador.

A press release issued yesterday by the Casa de Nariño – the Colombian President’s House- stated clearly that Colombia, despite Venezuela’s accusations, has no intentions to go to war.

The press release read yesterday by the Colombian government spokesperson stated that “Colombia will not undertake any war gesture against the international community, and far less against neighboring countries. The sole interest that motivates our actions is the will to overcome drug trafficking and terrorism, which have strongly affected Colombians’ lives for several years now.”

The press release continues: “Colombia remains open to frank dialogue with due respect to diplomacy and international law. The Colombian government will take the Venezuelan government’s war threats to the Organization of American States –OAS- and the United Nations Security Council.”

The press release issued yesterday by the Colombian government came a few hours after Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez urged, during his Sunday emission Aló Presidente, the Venezuelan Army and the people in general to get ready for war with Colombia and the United States of America. Venezuela sees the military agreement signed between Colombia and the US as a direct threat to Venezuela’s national security and the socialist revolution.

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On October 12, Juan Pablo Escobar, the son of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, who now goes by the name of Sebastián Marroquín, presented a documentary that could also be understood as a subtle way of making amends in his father’s name, a man considered to be Colombia’s most feared criminal of all times. In the documentary, Marroquín asks the sons of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán and the country’s former minister of justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, both murdered by his father in the 1980’s, for forgiveness.

According to those who have seen the movie, the documentary is far from being a defense of Escobar. The title alone, My Father’s Sins, is a telling clue. Last week, vía CNN, many saw a preview of a very symbolic scene. Sitting in a park bench in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Juan Pablo (Sebastian) and the son of Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, senator Rodrigo Lara Restrepo, appear to be having a conversation. To understand the power of this image, we must rewind 25 years, when minister Lara Bonilla, in agony after being shot by Escobar’s hit men, reached his house and was greeted by his eight-year-old son. He immediately helped his father into a car and went with him to the hospital, where he later passed away.

Read more here.

The Colombian Attorney General’s Office said Monday that it re-opened an investigation into Vice President Francisco “Paco” Santos for alleged ties to murderous right-wing militias, reports the Latin American Herald Tribune.

Acting Attorney General Guillermo Mendoza Diago told Bogota radio stations that prosecutor Fernando Pareja exercised his prerogative to overturn an earlier decision to shelve the probe.

Pareja decided that he needed to see more evidence before making a decision on the merits of the accusations and ordered the investigation resumed “so the doubts are completely dispelled,” Mendoza said.

Santos – a former journalist whose family runs Colombia’s largest newspaper, El Tiempo – said in a statement issued by his office that he respected the prosecutor’s decision and was prepared “to cooperate in all the investigations.”

At the same time, he demanded “a quick and effective investigation” that is not subject to political exploitation by “those who have more interest in discrediting the government than in the right of the victims and the country to the truth.”

“It hurts and surprises me that those who know my career and principles can believe that I could have been behind the formation of a paramilitary bloc in any part of the country,” Santos said.

The AG office took a second look at the allegations against Santos at the request of the independent Commission of Colombian Jurists.

Read our exclusive coverage of the Colombian ‘Falsos Positivos’ scandal written by journalist Simone Bruno.