Uribe asks Minister of Defense to stay

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe has said he supports Minister of Defense, Juan Manuel Santos, and has asked him to stay and continue his “successful work of restoring safety in Colombia”, after a series of polemic statements regarding the March 1, 2008 attack on a FARC camp in the Ecuadorian border and which were criticized by the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela. Santos ignored the President’s orders to avoid speaking about the Colombian neighboring countries.

Uribe’s support came after he held a meeting with Santos and Foreign Minister Jaime Bermúdez to discuss the situation.