Global General

Hard-liner lawmaker named as Colombia's new defense chief

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-29 11:23

BOGOTA - President-elect Juan Manuel Santos on Wednesday appointed Rodrigo Rivera, a former congressman known as a hard-liner on security issues, as the new defense minister.

Rivera's major task will be leading the country's decades-old fight against guerrilla forces when he takes office next week, when Santos, a former defense minister himself, succeeds outgoing President Alvaro Uribe.

"The idea is to continue and consolidate the security policies that were so brilliantly applied over the last eight years," Rivera, 47, told reporters.

Backed by Washington, Uribe has been fiercely cracking down on guerrilla forces since he came to power in 2002.

But the war on guerrillas often spill over into neighboring countries, straining Colombia's ties with such countries as Ecuador and Venezuela.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recently severed diplomatic ties with Bogota after Uribe accused Caracas of harboring Colombian rebels in its territory.

Santos has pledged continuous crackdown on the armed rebels, who are often involved in drug-dealing. He also expressed intentions to improve relations with Caracas.

The president-elect, to be inaugurated on August 7, is filling key posts of the incoming cabinet, including the appointment of former senator and presidential candidate German Vargas Lleras as his interior and justice minister.