In the increasingly competitive arena of Latin American democracy, electoral landslides are growing rarer. But the crushing victory on June 20 of Juan Manuel Santos, who bested former Bogotá mayor Antanas Mockus by more than two to one in the runoff race for the Colombian presidency, is one for the pundits’ seismographs. Santos, a former defense minister, took 69 percent of the ballots to his Green Party rival’s 27.5 percent, sweeping voters from the glistening capital to the Andes to the Caribbean coast. With 9 million votes, he eclipsed outgoing President Álvaro Uribe, who set a record in 2006, winning 7.3 million ballots.

In the run-up to the elections, Colombians were said to be ready for change. They wanted to preserve the peace and prosperity of the Uribe government, but they pined for something more. Polls showed voters valued the achievements of Uribe’s eight-year presidency—a time when kidnappings fell 80 percent, the FARC insurgents were pushed back to the jungle, foreign investment soared, and per capita income more than doubled to $5,700. But the pundits also reported discontent. Weighing against Uribe’s bright legacy were a string of scandals, from a rash of illegal wiretaps against government opponents to an attempt by security forces to dress up dead peasants in guerilla uniforms (to burnish the government’s war against the FARC). Uribe was faulted for being too loyal to the United States, a relationship that brought plenty of aid but little else. (The proposed binational trade pact with Washington is stuck in the U.S. Congress, hamstrung by protectionist lobbies.) “Colombians are tired of conflict-prone politics,” said Michael Shifter of the InterAmerican Dialogue, who watches Colombia closely. “There’s fatigue and the desire for a fresh face.”

Source: http://www.newsweek-interactive.com/2010/06/21/in-colombia-more-of-the-blessed-same.html