Lake. I would say al shabaab they have prochb gruesome in the ability to cause mass casualty attacks. We saw similar things from al shabaab in uganda in 2010 but they failed to translate that into a program where they could participate nay Coalition Government or even govern their own territory particularly well. Rose we conclude with Dexter Filkins without has a story about an iranian general called the most powerful op rattive in the middle east. What made you want to do the piece. His name kept coming up everywhere. And i didnt know who it was. And so i was if beirut and hi dinner with a politician there. And he was expressing frustration with hezbollah, an armed group, also political party. And he said hezbollah doesnt decide, Gassim Suleimani decides. And i thought whos that. And then and then earlier this year when i was report a piece on syria somebody in the pentagon said to me this is the guy whoses running the war in syria. Hes got a command post in damascus. Hes got, you know, hezbollah at his disposal. Rose the president of colombia, looking at al shabaab and Dexter Filkins when we continue. Funding for charlie rose was provided by the following. From our studios in new york city, this is charlie captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose the president of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos calderon is here. He was elected in 2010 with 69 of the vote. He occupied an important positions in his governments cabinet before assuming the presidency. He served as colombias minister of Foreign Trade as well as minister of finance and minister of defense. Santos has waged a Successful Campaign against the rego regon most potent ebb rebel army now greatly diminished in strength. The government is holding peace conference with the rebels. At home he faces challenges. Colombia has seen a series of riots as farmers protest his governments agriculture policies. The riots have escalated into one of the Largest National strikes in the countrys history this week he will address the United NationsGeneral Assembly in new york. Im pleased to have him here at this table for the first time. Welcome. Thank you. Im very pleased to be here with you. Rose tell me what you are going say to the General Assembly when you address them . What is it you want them to know about you and about your country and about this time in history. Were going to mention three points. First, the Peace Process that with the fark. We want the International Community to support it. And we want the International Community to allow a country like colombia after 50 years of conflict to decide on how to make peace. Dont put any obstacles in the way. Dont put any conditions. Simply allow us to negotiate our peace. Second, we have been proposing a new approach to the problem of drug trafficking. We have stimulated a discussion at the oes. Theres a study that has been made. And we think that the world should evaluate if this war on drugs that was launched from the United Nations 50 years ago has worked or not. In my view, and i say this come approximating from the country that has probably made the biggest sacrifice in the war on drugs, the war has not been won. And so we need to evaluate if there are better ways to fight this drug trafficking. And third, we promoted the discussion in the environmental summit of rio plus 20 on sustainable government goals. And we want to stimulate the United Nations to address this issue because the world has a tremendous challenge with Climate Change and the environment and what is going to replace the millennium goals, we hope that a sustainable goals would be the replacement. Rose define how you see column colombias relationship to latin america. Well, we are in a way, a third way, i am a third way man. Rose yes, you have argued that. And what does that mean . That means that we are not neither at the extreme left or extreme right. We are the center. We play a role of trying to unite a continent which has a lot of differences. And we also play a role. Rose and diverse governments. Absolutely. And we also play a role of like a bridge with the United States. We are proud to say we are a good ally of the United States. Friends with the United States and we try to promote the rest of the region also has good relations. Rose a quick note about your background. Your family is fascinating. They owned a great newspaper. And you described other kinds of media properties. Then you sold it but you were the editor of the newspaper. Right. Rose is journalism a good training for government . Yes, i think it is a good training for government. Especially good training to understand when youre on the other side how the journalists behalf. When are you in government, you hate journalists because of how they treat you. But if you have been there, you can understand them better. Rose you understand journalists because youve been a journalist. You were the editor of the paper. Absolutely. Rose at the same time as president you can understand the role of journalism. Rose it may not be exactly as all of us here see it. Will w the role of journalism, its very important for any government. Rose right. And i say its like a cold shower every day. The criticism, its stimulating and it forces you to be more in connection with reality. Rose you were friends with hugo chavez. Well, yes. I had a good relation with him. Rose was it casual though or would he and you both have defined it as a friendship . We were very acid enemies. And i wrote about him the worst things. And he said the worst things about me. When i was elected i decide listen, hes the head of state of the venezuelaans and im the head of state of the colombians, we have 2,200 kilometers of live border, very important border. We cant continue insulting each other. So i called him. I said lets get together. And we sat down like you and i are sitting down. And i said to him, listen, you and i have our completely opposite in many ways. But lets agree to disagree. Lets respect our differences. Because we have a responsibility with our own people. And i think we would serve those People Better if we stop fighting and we try to work on what we can Work Together. Rose find areas of Common Ground rather than areas of conflict. And he said yes. Rose he did. And since the 10th of august of 2010, until he died, we worked very well together. Even though he knew that i was not a marxist or bolivarrian revolutionary and i knew he was to the going to become a liberal democrat. But we worked together very well. And i think to the benefit of both countries. Rose if you could change one thing about the relationship of the United States, what would it be . Rose or two, if you would like. More attention from the u. S. Towards latin america. Rose towards all of latin america. Yes. I say that the future of the u. S. Is more south of rio grande than any other area in the world. We are. Rose north and south, wouldnt you say, canada and the United States, canada and latin america. But you have a very good relation with canada. Very. Rose largest trading partner. And with the with latin america, in a way, latin america has been neglected by the u. S. For many, many years. Rose and so if they paid attention what would you want them to know. Im talking about the leaders in washington, both the presidency and the congress . The potential that you find in latin america for the u. S. Is enormous and vicea versa. And we can Work Together more closely on joint ventures, developing the potentials that we have and how we can Work Together, like i say one is the strategic importance of the u. S. In afghanistan. Right. There is a strategic importance in. Rose you would make the argument that you have more strategic more reasons for strategic relationship with colombia than with afghanistan. Oh, by far, by far. Rose where is looking at the different governments for several years now we looked at brazil. As an emerging nation, so the socalled countries that were emerging and had Economic Growth rates vary up to 6 to 7 percent. They have come down to 1 or 2 now. Where is the economic success in latin America Today . I would say that its in the socalled pacific alliance. Poor countries. Mexico, chili, peru and colombia. These are the best performing countries in the whole of latin america. Rose and why is that . We have made an alliance. But this is not the reason why we are performing well. Because its newly created alliance. We share the same way of visiting development, free market or maybe third way, a third way approach. We think that the economy should be stimulated through the market until the until its needed, until its necessary. That type of combination is something that is working for us, working for mexico, working for peru, working for chili. And we think we have put in place a longterm development plan, the four countries which is better than other alternatives. Rose tell me because i what is was there recently. Whats going on in cuba as you see it . Well, cuba is a country that i think its evolving towards some new model for the economy. More realistic approach to economics. They are aware that this is a step that they have to take. But they are very cautious and they take it slowly. But they are evolving. Rose to what though, in your judgement. I would say a vietnam type of scheme. Rose the vietnam economy is doing very well. Very well. Rose but thats asia. Thats asia, yes. Rose now is your longterm dream that somehow latin america can, like china and asia, have the same kind of Economic Growth that has been experienced there, so much so that the president of the United States says were going to pivot from the middle east towards asia . Latin america, for example, these countries, colombia, i will give you, has a rate of growth in the last three years average almost 5 . Rose 6 or 7. Mexico also chili is the best performer of all. Peru is doing extremely well, 6, 7 . So we are getting into a high growth level, these four countries. Brazil is doing quite well even though in the last year its come down. And latin america has a young population. Many, many people are going out of poverty. There are potential consumers. And so i think the potential for latin america is enormous. Asia, you are seeing that in many countries theyre sort of reaching a platteau. Rose platteauing. So we hope that the future will give us the opportunity of going even at a faster rate. Rose you have said you think the 21st century belongs to south america. Absolutely. I think i said that this is the next decade and this decade belongs to latin america and i think we are seeing that in many ways it is. Rose there is also been this, that has developed over the last year because of edward snowden, some reports that the nsa was spying on brazil, for example. The president of brazil cancelled a trip to washington. What do you make of this . Well, i imagine that she did not get the necessary explanations. And she cancelled. Its unfortunate. Rose do you think there is spy on colombia . The situation with colombia is different because we Work Together, intelligence. Stephen . Rose you share intelligence with america. Very much. And to the benefit of both countries. And the plan colombia which has helped us tremendously is probably the most successful bipartisan Foreign Policy initiative that the u. S. Has launched in many, many years. And we are proud to be partners there. And so in that respect, we are not worried because we did the intelligence sharing together. Rose your predecessors back in government. My predecessor wants to be elected senator. Rose wants to be a senator. He saying he has not been all together complimentary. No, he hasnt, no. Rose whats that about . Well, i really dont understand why he is so, such a critic because the main areas where he was working ive been working on the same areas, and improved them tremendously. Security, theres nobody who has hit the terrorism and hit the park as hard as ive done. The investors confidence, what he says its his second most important policy, well, the investment in colombia has gone up in the last three years more than any era of our history. And he invested not only Foreign Investment but local investment and the third is social cohesion. What he calls social cohesion. In our case, social end yate indicators we have been the country that has decreased poverty more than any other country in latin america with the exception of peru. We have been the country who have decreased inequality more than any other country with the exception of ecuador. We have been the country that created more jobs than any country in latin america. So this is a personal grudge that maybe for reasons which are really marginal that i named people, the cabinet. Or that made piece with chavez, or that im speaking with the farq. Rose thats what i am hearing. But he wanted to speak to the farq for the last eight years. They didnt want to speak to him. But he, he sought them. He asked them to go to the table. Why is he now criticizing me for doing what he wanted to do . Thats something i dont understand. Rose the other question is why are they speaking to you when they wouldnt speak to him . Because theyre speaking to me because they believe that im not going to betray, if we reach an agreement. They didnt believe in him. Thats the reason why they say. Rose why should they stop now after being at it for so long . Because theyre weak. Because theyre losing more and more people every day. Because they have no way out. Because they know that if they continue, the leaders will end up in a grave or in jail. Rose is bet ancourt coming back to colombia . I dont think so in the fear near future. I have spoken to her a couple of times and i dont think that she is going to come back in the near future. Rose shes in france and other places, i guess. Thats it and we i is was minister of defense when we it was a very fraught and audacious intelligent move that we liberated three americans, and 11 people. Rose and so people know that, she wrote a book and she was on this program at the time. And ive seen her several times. So what made it so successful that you were able to rescue her . Because it was a rescue without one drop of blood being spilled. Not one shot being fired. It was purely intelligence operation. Of something that people thought was absolutely impossible to do. And i remember somebody saying it was the most fantastic military intelligence operation in recent history. And i think it was. Rose but if you had failed, you would have been in trouble. I would have been sit wouldnt be sitting here right now. Rose no, we would have invited you. But it was that that was the risk. If you failed it would end your political career. Absolutely. I had no doubt whatsoever. Rose and did it, the fact that you succeeded, did it enhance your political career. Yes, did did. Yes. Because not only that, we started because of different moves on the intelligence we started hitting the high targets and we were very successful in the military aspect. And that has, of course, helped me in my political career. Rose whats the economic base of colombias future . Today we are quite strong economically. Our growth is, as i said, almost 5 . And our variables are in good conditions. I would say that we need to divert more towards technology, towards manufacturing and less qualities, oil, minerals. Rose less natural resources. Yes. Rose a because of a limited supply or and more innovation, increased productivity. All the Asian Countries have grown at high rates and at least half of their growth has been explained by higher productivity. Rose so thats a very interesting idea. I mean you need your own silicon valley. Exactly. Rose how do dow that . In the case of colombia we have 1,200 municipalities. We are connecting every single municipality with fibreoptic and broadband. And we are distributing 2 Million Computers and tablets. We are building more than 5,000 what we call Digital Centers in order to give, especially the poor people, access to technology. The same access to internet and information that somebody, a rich person in new york or in paris or in tokyo. Rose access to the same information. And this i think will have a tremendous impact, positive impact in our productivity and our development. Rose and in the education of your citizens. Absolutely. Rose that would be a transformational kind of thing. You can imagine, people, i had an experience with a person who. Rose at m. I. T. Media lab at m. I. T. We did an experiment. We sent a very remote town, very small town that didnt even have a satellite or television. And we gave a small computer to each kid and sent some teachers there. I had to build a military antenna. And he and i went about two months later. And it was amazing scenario. The kids took over the town. And the parents were behind the kids, asking the kids temp me this, teach me that. It was a great experience. And thats where i got the idea of connecting the whole of the country with broadband. Rose its an interesting story. In my home town, a small town in north carolina, you know, they have a Community Centre and they have computers and you can come in and use after work. The kids bring the parents. Thats exactly what happened in this town. They took over the town. Rose the power of technology. And the power of access to information. Access to information. And this stimulates the whole mind and the whole society. Rose yeah. So if you come back to this table a year from now. Yes. Rose how do we measure your