Santos scraps Uribe’s community council meetings

The incoming Santos administration intends to end the weekly community council meetings of the Uribe era, which attempted to gauge the needs of different regions of the country, and instead will use technology to ensure participatory democracy is maintained, reports El Espectador.

“We will work within a transparent box, facing the country, and be committed to accountability,” Santos said.

In the first meeting with his new cabinet Santos appointed Janeth Giha as the deputy minister of defense and announced the creation of a new “high council of good government.”

“Good governance is a guiding principal of our management,” Santos said.

The head of the new good government council will be Maria Lorena Gutierrez, who is an industrial engineer specializing in finance and has a PhD from Tulane University in the U.S.

The announcements come after two days of meetings in Anapoima, Cuninamarca between Santos and his cabinet, in which consensus of principles and transparency topped the agenda.

Santos will be inaugurated as president of Colombia on 7 August.

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