President Alvaro Uribe says that he is not angry with Speaker Pelosi for stabbing Colombia in the back and lying about his administration.
Speaker Pelosi and democrats made unprecedented moves to block a free trade agreement with Colombia.
Alvaro Uribe is a big, big man.
The Wall Street Journal reported, via American Freedom:
Documents stored on computers captured in the Reyes raid revealed a close working relationship between Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and the FARC. But so far Colombia has received almost no moral or diplomatic support from the democracies around the region. I ask why, but he dodges the question.
He will only say that in the past Colombia had not “strongly” requested that its neighbors not harbor guerrillas, which suggests to me that the problem predates the Uribe government. He says that his administration is the first to make such a request. The only country that has ever given the Colombian democracy “practical solidarity,” he notes, is the U.S., “which put in place Plan Colombia.”
That effort has provided important U.S. aid to the Colombian military, and no one understands its effects better than the FARC propagandists who’ve spent years trying to pin allegations of corruption and human-rights violations on Mr. Uribe in the hopes that the funding will be discontinued. The president doesn’t bring this up. But he does remind me that, three times since last fall, the rebels have accused his government of deceit and three times, when the truth was revealed, they were caught in their own lies. “Colombia has proven its transparency,” he says.
In Washington, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly claimed that Mr. Uribe’s government bears some responsibility for the murders of Colombian labor leaders. On these grounds she has blocked a vote on the U.S.-Colombian Free Trade Agreement, which is crucial for the country to continue attracting investment. The fact that the murder rate among union leaders has dropped sharply during the Uribe administration is an inconvenient truth for Mrs. Pelosi.
I ask if he is frustrated with the U.S. relationship. “I cannot get frustrated,” he says softly, “because we have to work as hard as we can every day. We have received a lot of support from the U.S. – from the government, from Congress, from the media and from many sectors of public opinion.” He is keenly aware of the November elections. “It is very important to remember in this moment that Colombia has always had a bipartisan approach to our U.S. relationship” and he says that when it comes to correcting the country’s mistakes, the FTA will be helpful. But Colombia also wants “the recognition of what we have achieved. I hope that any day the FTA will be approved.”
By the way…
** THE US MEDIA continues to ignore the story that Rep. McGovern (D-Mass) was secretly working with FARC terrorists to undermine the Colombian Government.
Unreal.
