POLITICS-US:
U.S. Diplomacy Sidelined
by Loyalty to Uribe
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, (IPS)
- Washington's strong
backing for President
Alvaro Uribe has all but
removed it from playing
any significant
diplomatic role in
defusing the crisis
sparked by Saturday's
attack by Colombia on
anti-government
guerrillas on Ecuador's
territory, according to
analysts here.
The incident, which
resulted in the death of
at many as 22 members of
the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC),
including a top
commander, Raul Reyes,
provoked Quito to break
relations with Bogota
and Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez to deploy
troops and tanks to the
Colombian border in
support of his
Ecuadorean ally.
President George W. Bush
also used the incident
to press his case for
Congressional approval
of a long-pending free
trade agreement (FTA)
with Colombia, which his
administration has
increasingly depicted as
a bulwark against
radical regimes in the
region led by Chavez.
"My message to the
United States Congress
is that this trade
agreement is more than a
matter of smart
economics," he told
reporters after speaking
by telephone to Uribe
Tuesday morning.
"It is a matter of
national security. If we
fail to approve this
agreement, we will let
down our close ally, we
will damage our
credibility in the
region, and we will
embolden the demagogues
in our hemisphere," he
declared.
Bush's statement
provoked some dismay
among analysts here and
in the region not only
because of its awkward
juxtaposition of trade
with questions of war
and peace, but also
because of its
unqualified support for
Uribe at a moment of
fast-rising tensions.
"The more we can keep
this within the Latin
American sphere, the
better the chance of a
solution and avoiding a
polarisation in the
region," said Brazilian
Foreign minister Celso
Amorim, a key mediator
in the crisis, when he
was asked to comment on
Bush's remarks.
Adam Isaacson, a
Columbia specialist at
the Centre for
International Policy
(CIP) here, called
Bush's statement "kind
of cynical".
"According to Bush, the
incident is not why we
have to lead a
diplomatic offensive to
calm the situation or to
increase aid to the
region," he said. "It's
why the Democrats have
to pass the FTA." He
added that Democrats may
now be even less likely
to approve the measure
than they were before.
Apart from Bush's plea
for passage of the FTA,
however, the official
U.S. reaction to the
crisis has been
relatively restrained,
as Washington's
diplomats acquiesced in
mediation efforts led by
Amorim and the
secretary-general of the
Organisation of American
States (OAS), Jose
Miguel Insulza.
Those efforts resulted
in the OAS's approval
Wednesday of a
resolution to mount an
official investigation
of the incident and
convene a foreign
ministers' meeting to
review its results.
During the sometimes
acrimonious debate that
preceded the
resolution's approval,
the U.S. was the only
country that backed
Colombia. The Uribe
government admitted and
apologised for its
forces' intrusion into
Ecuadorean territory,
which took place after
Colombian aircraft
dropped bombs on the
rebel encampment.
Colombian officials
later told reporters
that U.S.-provided
spying equipment and
intelligence assistance
had helped them track
Reyes and guide them to
the site, although
officials here declined
to comment on those
reports.
U.S. diplomats "know
they have very little
credibility as a broker
in this situation," said
Michael Shifter, an
Andes expert at the
Inter-American Dialogue,
a prominent think tank
here.
"The U.S. is completely
aligned with Colombia,
and it's pretty widely
believed that it helped
with intelligence and
provided technical
support to help pinpoint
the target, although I
don't think there is any
evidence that (the raid
itself) was a U.S.
decision."
For most of the past
decade, Colombia has
been by far the biggest
recipient of U.S.
military and
intelligence assistance
in the Americas. Bogota
has received an average
of some 600 million
dollars a year in
military, intelligence,
and security aid from
Washington for the past
several years to help it
combat drug trafficking
and the FARC insurgency,
which has lasted more
than four decades.
As part of its
counter-drug efforts in
the Andean region,
Washington has also
leased Ecuador's Manta
Air Base from which its
planes conduct
surveillance flights
over the area.
To Washington's dismay,
Ecuadorean President
Rafael Correa, whose
populist politics have
brought him into a loose
alliance with Chavez,
the Bush
administration's bete
noire, has pledged to
end the lease when it
expires next year.
"If the U.S. did provide
real-time intelligence
for the Colombian raid
-- which is very
possible -- then Correa
is going to be even more
sensitive about meddling
on its territory by the
U.S. and Colombia," said
Isaacson. "This will be
another nail in Manta's
coffin."
Indeed, the incident and
the diplomatic aftermath
appeared to underline
Washington's loss of
influence in the region.
In addition to Amorim's
rather blunt reaction to
Bush's statement, some
analysts argued that his
staunch support for
Uribe could well prove
counter-productive.
"Does the U.S. help
Colombia by issuing a
statement of support?"
asked Roger Atwood, an
Andean specialist at the
Washington Office on
Latin America (WOLA).
"This administration's
standing is so tattered
in Latin America, that
I'm not sure it does.
People in Latin America
just don't listen to
Bush anymore."
Washington's diminished
influence also offers
Uribe himself an
important lesson,
according to Shifter,
who noted that Brazil
was the one regional
power whose legitimacy
as an honest broker was
accepted by all three of
the most-affected
countries -- Colombia,
Ecuador and Venezuela.
"Colombia needs to
diversify its
diplomacy," said
Shifter. "Uribe is in a
real bind because he's
just been looking to the
United States for
support and digging in,
when he really needs to
have a much broader set
of relationships in the
region."
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