Obama meets with Colombian President Santos

Sep 24, 2010, 23:07 GMT

New York - US President Barack Obama and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos met Friday in their first face-to-face meeting in New York.

'Yesterday was a big day for the people of Colombia and those who are seeking peace in the region,' Obama said. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly.

On Thursday, Colombian authorities announced the death in an airstrike a day earlier of Luis Suarez, better known as Mono Jojoy, the top military commander of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Obama commended Colombian security forces for their 'outstanding work.'

'The people of Colombia have been plagued by this terrorist insurgency for a very long time, and as a consequence of the success of Colombian security forces, I think we now have the chance to see continued stability in Colombia and in the region,' he said, as he congratulated Santos.

Colombia has been for decades one of the United States' main allies in Latin America.

'We value in Colombia very much our very special relations with the United States,' Santos said.

And he expressed ambitious plans for the future.

'Now that the security problem is more or less solved, we can now turn to a more progressive agenda. Social development, the prosperity of our people, climate change, the environment - those are the type of issues that we can now include in our agenda,' he said.

Later Santos addressed the General Assembly, telling delegates 'with absolute conviction, that the time has come for Latin America.'

'We Latin Americans assumed the management of our economies with responsibility, and as a result we were one of the least affected regions by the global economic crisis,' he said.

Santos underlined Colombia's efforts against leftist rebels and against drug traffickers, and he also spoke against the legalization of drugs beyond its borders.

'How can someone tell to a person living in rural areas of my country that he or she will be prosecuted and punished for growing crops for drug production, while in other places of the world this activity becomes legal?'

Santos focused not just on Colombia, but also called attention o to the drama of Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas even before it was ravaged by a devastating quake in January.

'I was in Haiti a couple of months ago and I must say, before this assembly of the nations of the world, and with a saddened heart, that their unbearable reality surpasses the worst nightmare,' Santos said.

'Haitians are still fighting and surviving, with dignity and courage, but without the necessary attention we must give to their situation, which cannot wait.'