Policy on Latin America Not Driven By Ideology, Rice Says

By Nestor Ikeda Associated Press

MEDELLIN, Colombia — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sidestepped an opportunity to confront Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday as she promoted a free trade agreement with staunch U.S. ally Colombia.

Rice, in Colombia with nine Democratic lawmakers in a bid to revive the trade pact, dismissed suggestions that a costly lobbying campaign has anything to do with the Bush administration’s differences with Chavez, who upstaged her Friday with another verbal assault.

“There’s no ideological test for our friends,” Rice said when asked whether Washington is pushing the trade deal to counter Chavez’s regional influence. “We have many good friends who come from the left side of the political spectrum. What unites this hemisphere is a belief in democracy, security, economic prosperity and social justice.”

Moments after Rice boarded a plane to return to Washington, Chavez accused her and the Colombians of plotting “a military aggression” against neighboring, oil-rich Venezuela. He provided no evidence.

In her remarks at a news conference alongside President Alvaro Uribe, Rice did not say whether the White House would follow through on threats to force a vote on the trade deal, which was signed by both countries in 2006 but still needs U.S. ratification.

“The legislative agenda we’ll work on later,” she said. “The issue now for us is to make available all the arguments for the agreement. To make clear … that Colombia is doing the right things after many years of conflict.”

In a 24-hour visit to Colombia’s second-largest city, Medellin, Rice and the U.S. legislators met with union leaders who complained the Uribe government has not done enough to halt violence, including murder, that discourages labor organizing.

More than 700 trade unionists have been killed in Colombia since 2001, according to the government.

“There’s not a country in the world where the list of martyrs is as long as it is in Colombia,” said Carlos Gutierrez, head of the CUT labor umbrella organization, which represents Colombia’s 530,000 unionized workers.

The annual number of murdered unionists has fallen sharply since Uribe took office in 2002, but the 25 killed in 2007 was still more than in any other country in the world. Only a small fraction of the killings have been solved.

During her visit Rice acknowledged that Colombia is still wracked by violence stemming from over four decades of armed conflict, but said it deserves continued U.S. support as a staunch ally and caretaker in the war on drugs.

Earlier she said that failing to pass the trade deal would hurt the U.S. image in Latin America, many of whose leaders — cheered by Chavez — have grown weary of the pro-market reforms favored by Washington.

“It would be a very big sign … for the people of Colombia, not to mention the people of the region, that you do difficult things, you work hard, you bring your country back from the brink, and the United States doesn’t deliver.”

Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat and the influential chairman of the House subcommittee overseeing relations with Latin America, took an indirect stab at Chavez.

“(The United States and Colombia) share the same vision. And the vision is unlike the visions others may have,” Engel said.

Rice’s is the latest, highest-profile, visit in a coordinated campaign by Colombia and the White House to win over skeptical Democrats. Nearly 70 other U.S. congressmen have traveled to Colombia on similar fact-finding missions since last summer, led by high-ranking Bush administration officials like Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.

But there’s no indication a trade deal is imminent.

A Democratic congressional staffer who follows the issue closely but spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to comment publicly told The Associated Press that “no vote on Colombia is planned.”

U.S. labor unions, which are major contributors to the Democratic presidential campaigns, have also vowed to fight the charm offensive.

“If you want to help Colombia, there’s a lot better ways than sending Sec. Rice,” Jeff Vogt, global economic policy specialist for the AFL-CIO, told the AP. “The Democrats seem united over deep- rooted concerns about continuing violence and impunity in the country.”

Congress ratified a free trade pact with Peru last year, but Vogt noted that it did not get a majority of House Democrats’ votes.

The three front-runners for the Democratic presidential nomination have come out against eliminating trade barriers for Colombia. The majority Democratic leadership in Congress also opposes the deal.

(c) 2008 Deseret News (Salt Lake City). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.