Monday 17 November 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
U.S.-Colombia Ties
Turning To Human Rights
By David Adams, Times
Latin America
Correspondent
Few foreign leaders were
banking more heavily on
Republican continuity in
the White House. After
all, his country has
received some
$5.5-billion in U.S. aid
over the last eight
years to help fight a
tough war with drug
traffickers and illegal
armed groups on both the
left and the right.
The icing on the cake
was supposed to be a
U.S.-Colombia free trade
agreement. President
Bush pushed hard for it,
but Democrats in
Congress, including Sen.
Barack Obama, blocked
it.
Now comes
President-elect Obama,
armed with a new foreign
policy agenda that
includes giving human
rights higher priority
in international
negotiations. One can
almost hear the plates
smashing in the Casa de
Narino, Colombia's
presidential palace.
Uribe and Obama make for
an odd couple, and how
they deal with each
other will be a
revealing test for both
men. Obama is known for
his calm under pressure.
Uribe, like Sen. John
McCain, is an inspiring
leader but with a
reputation for
hot-headedness.
In a last-ditch — some
say futile and
ill-advised — effort to
save his free trade
deal, Bush used his
White House meeting with
Obama last Monday to
advocate for its
passage.
But his timing could not
have been worse. The
Uribe government faces
its worst human rights
scandal in decades. This
month, 25 military
officers, including
three generals, were
fired over allegations
involving the execution
of innocent civilians to
fraudulently inflate the
body count of dead
insurgents. The army
chief also quietly
resigned on Nov. 4.
To be sure, Uribe has
moved quickly to deal
with this outrage,
promising a thorough
investigation and
appropriate punishment.
But that is never easy
in wartime, especially
in a country where the
security forces have so
often gotten away with
murder.
Let's be clear, free
trade with Colombia
makes a lot of sense,
especially for Florida.
Greater trade with our
hemispheric neighbors
generally brings
commercial benefits. And
Colombia is without
question an important
long-term strategic
ally.
But something else must
also be made clear.
Republicans cannot
continue to look at free
trade simply in business
terms.
Uribe has indeed turned
the war around since
taking office in 2002,
reducing violence and
kidnapping, demobilizing
30,000 right-wing
paramilitaries and
pushing the left-wing
FARC guerrillas back
into the jungle. But
Colombia remains a glass
half full.
The cocaine industry
continues to exert its
corrupting influence.
Colombia's justice
system remains weak and
lacking in transparency.
Decades-old massacres
and other killings have
gone unpunished.
High on Democrats' list
of concerns are abuses
against Colombian labor
organizers. Last year I
visited a major coal
mine in northern
Colombia that was the
scene of several murders
of union leaders.
Though current union
bosses are being
afforded protection by
government security
agents, threats and
intimidation persist.
Senior Colombian
officials I interviewed
downplayed the violence,
sometimes even
ridiculing reported
incidents as no more
than crimes of passion.
U.S. policy can help
Colombia rethink its
attitude toward unions
by demanding that these
crimes are taken more
seriously.
U.S. aid programs are
already strengthening
Colombia's justice
system, in recognition
of the men and women who
risk their lives
investigating and
prosecuting cases.
Colombia's military is
also now blessed with a
rising new generation of
professional soldiers,
schooled in human
rights.
Most observers expect a
free trade deal will
pass Congress next year.
Obama has surrounded
himself with a foreign
policy team of
centrists, not
moralists. He has
himself repeatedly said
he supports free trade
and foreign aid for
"Plan Colombia,"
recognizing that the
drug war is a shared
responsibility.
"It's not going to be
overdone. Obama is not a
single-issue guy," said
Michael Shifter, with
the Inter-American
Dialogue in Washington.
"He looks at all the
issues, and human rights
is up there." |
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