Pubdate: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 Source: Inter Press Service POLITICS-COLOMBIA: PASTRANA'S TRIUMPH BOOSTS TIES WITH U.S. BOGOTA, IPS - The triumph of Andres Pastrana in yesterday's elections will help ease Colombia's tense relations with the United States, which took a sharp downward turn during the four-year term of Ernesto Samper, political analysts say. The United States took an apparently neutral stance towards the elections, the second round of which was won yesterday by the conservative Pastrana over the governing Liberal Party's candidate Horacio Serpa. But "it is clear that Washington has more confidence in the president-elect," Luis Valencia, an analyst with the private University de Los Andes, told IPS today. In Valencia's view, the United States "knows the Pastrana government will be politically weaker" than a Serpa administration would have been, but the Liberal candidate's ties with Samper diminished his credibility. The 44-year-old Pastrana, who comes from a long line of politicians, including his father, former president Misael Pastrana (1970-74), was voted into office as the candidate for the Great Alliance for Change, led by the traditional Conservative Party. The last Conservative president was Belisario Betancur, voted into office in 1982 with 2.79 million votes, compared to the more than six million votes (just over 50 percent) taken by Pastrana yesterday -- the largest number of votes ever garnered by a presidential candidate in Colombian history. His rival, Serpa, who had won the first round of voting on May 31, took around 5.58 million, or 46 percent. Colombia has a population of 35 million people. Pastrana represented a broad alliance of political forces, and had the outspoken support of Nobel Peace Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He will take office August 7, and will have to govern with a parliament dominated by the Liberal Party, which holds 66 seats in the Senate and 97 in the Chamber of Deputies, against the Conservative Party's 33 and 59. An element which observers say played heavily in the winning candidate's favor was last week's publication of a photo showing one of his advisers with the leaders of FARC, the largest guerrilla group active in Colombia. Although it did not pronounce its support for any candidate, FARC criticized Serpa "for not having done anything in favor of peace" when he served as interior minister under President Samper. The president-elect announced that he would immediately make contact with FARC to seek a peace accord to put an end to Colombia's decades-old armed conflict. "Our first responsibility is to implement a peace policy," said the candidate, who promised to answer the call "of 10 million Colombians who voted last year in the Citizen Mandate for Peace," organized by some 30 nongovernmental organizations. The former mayor of Bogota said he planned to meet directly with the heads of the guerrilla and paramilitary groups active in Colombia, and to seek international cooperation in the peace process. With unemployment at an all-time high of 14.5 percent of the economically active population, Pastrana's campaign platform included promises to cut taxes to foster the generation of employment -- one million jobs over the next four years. He also announced reforms of the education system, with free breakfasts and lunches for low-income students. A candidate of "neoliberal leanings" according to analysts, the president-elect is in favor of privatizing public enterprises, promised to boost production, gain the trust of investors, and to keep the annual inflation rate below 10 percent. He also announced stiffer sentences for drug traffickers, and said he was in favor of extradition with retroactive effect, as demanded by the U.S. government. Pastrana was defeated in 1994 by President Samper, who he accused shortly afterwards of accepting campaign contributions from drug cartels. Although Samper was finally absolved by the Chamber of Deputies, those in charge of his campaign finances were convicted of having accepted money from the Cali cartel. Hernando Gomez, an analyst with the daily "El Tiempo", the most widely read newspaper in Colombia, said Pastrana's triumph would help improve the country's international image, and bring a new and positive outlook for investors and symbolic reprieval from the Samper administration. Alfredo Rangel, a former national security adviser to Samper, said Pastrana would have "a smoother relationship with the United States" than what Serpa could have achieved. As interior minister, Serpa clashed several times with Washington, which he accused of meddling in internal Colombian affairs with its questioning of the legitimacy of the Samper administration. For two years in a row, Washington "decertified" Colombia as an ally in the war on drugs, and cancelled Samper's entry visa to the United States. The magazine "Time" said Washington's anti-drug czar Barry McCaffrey told several leaders of Colombia's Liberal Party that relations between the two countries would not improve if Serpa won the elections. But a week before the second round of elections yesterday, analysts in Washington and New York told the magazine "Cambio 16" that "the United States has interests, not friends," and that its Colombia policy would not be influenced by the outcome of the elections. Washington wants Colombia to eradicate coca crops, extradite drug traffickers and expropriate their property. The Clinton administration also warned that Colombia's human rights record had hit a critical point during Samper's term. Serpa did not directly refer during the campaign to relations with the United States, although he said he would base his international policy on "the principle of mutual respect." Pastrana, meanwhile, promised to heal relations with the United States by "rescuing presidential dignity," and strengthening Colombia's foreign policy. The Department of International Relations of the private Javeriana University released a document which said Colombia's new foreign policy must be based on legitimacy and maneuvering room for the new president, who is being called on to give an international dimension to Colombia's drug trafficking and human rights problems as well as to resolve the armed conflict. - --- Checked-by: Melodi Cornett