Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos phoned his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama to personally congratulate him over the death of the world’s most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden, newspaper El Espectador reported Monday.
Santos spoke with Obama at approximately 1:00PM on Monday. During the dialogue, the Colombian president congratulated Obama for the “triumph over terrorism” and the struggle that the U.S. is waging against al-Qaeda, while also taking the opportunity to discuss the pending free trade agreement (FTA).
Earlier on Monday, Santos wrote on Colombia’s presidential website that “this is an important and decisive blow to terrorism.”
The U.S. president, for his part, has announced that “today is a good day for America” and “the world is a safer place” after the assassination of the al-Qaeda leader.
In September 2010, President Santos compared the Colombian response to the death of FARC leader “Mono Jojoy” to killing Osama Bin Laden.
“It’s as if I came here and told New Yorkers that Osama Bin Laden had been struck down,” he said about the rebel leader’s death during a foreign relations meeting in New York.