President Bush Visits Colombia

By Steven Dudley, The Miami Herald

Mar. 11–BOGOTA — Colombia, a grateful recipient of $700 million a year in U.S. aid to fight drugs and guerrillas since 2000, rolled out a red carpet and a military honor guard for a brief but important visit by President Bush.

Bush was in the middle of his five-nation Latin American tour designed to counter the growing influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and improve the president’s image in a region that feels forgotten since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Yet, ironically, Bush could not bring good news even here, Washington’s tightest Latin American ally, with a bilateral free trade pact stalled in the Democratic controlled Congress, U.S. aid set to diminish slightly next year and President Alvaro Uribe suffering through a major scandal over government links to notoriously brutal right-wing paramilitaries.

The U.S. aid has helped Colombia launch and sustain an offensive against drug traffickers, leftist guerrillas and the paramilitaries that has brought a measure of security, a 65 percent approval rating for Uribe and much economic progress to a country where only a few years ago many Bogota residents feared driving into the countryside on weekends.

Yet even here Bush was hardly welcome, with some protesters throwing rocks at police, who fired back with tear gas as Bush’s motorcade passed nearby. Thirty-five people were reportedly arrested and one policeman injured.

“He wants us all to get on our knees for him,” said one of the protesters, Luz Marina Carrillos, a 45-year old accountant.

Thousands of troops and police blanketed the city, sharpshooters took to the roofs and helicopters dotted the sky to ensure that Bush’s six-hour stop would not be targeted by leftist guerrillas. In 2002, rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, fired homemade mortars at Uribe’s presidential inauguration killing 23 people.

Bush and Uribe discussed the free trade agreement, the three U.S. defense contractors who have been held captive for four years by the FARC, and Plan Colombia II, a $43 billion six-year plan to fight drugs and guerrillas.

They also talked about the scandal that has linked several members of Uribe’s government in recent weeks to the notoriously murderous paramilitaries. His foreign minister was forced to resign after her brother and father were linked to the scandal.

“I appreciate the president’s determination to bring human rights violators to justice,” Bush said in a news conference following the meeting.

“There’s no political favorites when it comes to justice,” Bush added. “That if someone’s guilty they will pay a penalty.”

The paramilitaries have been held responsible for the majority of assassinations of union leaders, which have made Colombia the most dangerous place in the world to be a labor activist and imperiled the U.S.-Colombian free trade agreement.

“The world should know that this government has taken the decision to open the door for justice,” Uribe said during the press conference, noting that has jailed several of the the top paramilitary leaders and negotiated the surrender of some 30,000 fighters.

The Bush tour, which will continue with stops in Guatemala and Mexico over the next few days, has been more symbolic than substantive as it tries to offer a counterbalance to the growing influence of Chavez in the region.

Chavez has spent billions of dollars from his burgeoning oil revenue on social programs at home and abroad, and politicians sympathetic to Chavez have won presidential campaigns in Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador.

The Venezuelan President has been touring the region, in tandem with Bush, taunting the U.S. president every chance he gets.

“The Empire is striking back,” he said on Sunday to Bolivians gathered in the city of El Alto. “Why? Because he realizes that Latin America is making strong, serious strides.”

Bush has refused to mention Chavez by name but has had to deal with questions about him throughout the trip.

In Brazil, Bush signed an accord to push for more biofuels with Chavez ally, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, but the two also openly sparred on tariff issues. In Uruguay, President Tabare Vazquez, challenged Bush to open the United States up for beef and textile imports.

Uribe also has to contend with Chavez, his neighbor and principal trading partner after the United States. But Bush showed his appreciation for taking his side as well.

“I’m proud to call you a personal friend and a strategic partner of the U.S.,” Bush told Uribe.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Miami Herald

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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