Clinton Aide Apologizes over Colombia Talks

[magbana]

Clinton aide apologizes over Colombia talks
Fri Apr 4, 2008 4:35pm EDT
By Ellen Wulfhorst

MEMPHIS, Tenn., April 4 (Reuters) - A top campaign aide to Sen. Hillary Clinton apologized on Friday for meeting with Colombia's U.S. ambassador to talk about a free-trade agreement the Democratic presidential candidate opposes.

Mark Penn, who in addition to working as Clinton's chief campaign strategist is a lobbyist in his capacity as chief executive officer of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, said his meeting with Ambassador Carolina Barco Isakson "was an error in judgment that will not be repeated."

"I am sorry for it," Penn said in a statement issued by the Clinton campaign. "The senator's well-known opposition to this trade deal is clear and was not discussed."

Burson-Marsteller has a contract with Colombia to promote approval by the U.S. Congress of a trade deal with the South American nation. The meeting was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which wrote that Penn's attendance was confirmed by two Colombian officials.

Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, opposes the deal and intends to vote against it, her campaign said.

"I am very concerned about the history of violence against trade unionists in Colombia," she said in November.

The Journal reported that a spokesman for Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Colombian officials had also held meetings with advisers to the campaigns of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and with Republican Sen. John McCain.

"It's the embassy's job to explain Colombia's reality," the spokesman was quoted as saying.

Trade issues have plagued both Democratic candidates in the race for the party's nomination, particularly in states such as Ohio that have suffered heavy losses in manufacturing jobs.

Critics have accused Clinton of flip-flopping on the North American Free Trade Agreement, which she says she opposes. The pact was approved during the administration of her husband President Bill Clinton, and critics say she did not strongly object to it initially.

A key Obama economic advisor discussed the candidate's policies with a member of the Canadian government who wrote a report suggesting Obama's comments on NAFTA were designed for a political audience and should not be taken too seriously.

That report was leaked to the media, and Clinton seized on it to try to demonstrate that Obama could not be trusted on foreign affairs, and that he said one thing in private and another in public. (Editing by Todd Eastham)


http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN04296471

http://snipurl.com/23ide

[Judi Lynn]

1. US warns no vote on Colombia trade deal a fiasco

US warns no vote on Colombia trade deal a fiasco
Fri Apr 4, 2008 4:40pm EDT

By Missy Ryan

WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) - A failure to approve a free trade deal with Colombia, one of the Bush administration's most urgent trade priorities, would be among the biggest U.S. blunders in the Americas in decades, a top official said.

Tom Shannon, the top U.S. official for Latin America, urged Democratic leaders in Congress to shelve political interests and embrace the bilateral deal, which would permanently slash trade barriers between the United States and one of its most stalwart allies in the region.

"Not approving the Colombia free trade agreement really would be one of the biggest strategic blunders the United States would have made in the Americas for decades," Shannon said on Friday in the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit.

The Bush administration has been struggling for months to convince the Democratic majority in Congress, increasingly skeptical of global trade, that President Alvaro Uribe has done enough to curb violence against union members in Colombia.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN04482953



Tom Shannon, State Department

[Judi Lynn]

2. Uribe’s Attack on Obama

Uribe’s Attack on Obama
The Far Right’s Spokesman in Latin America Is Worried About What Could Be Long Overdue Changes in US Policy


By Al Giordano
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
April 3, 2008

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe revealed his worry about the US presidential contest this week to the Bogotá daily El Tiempo: “I deplore that Senator Obama, aspiring to be president of the US, ignores Colombia’s efforts.”

By “efforts,” Uribe referred to his administration’s public relations campaign to improve Colombia’s deserved reputation as the hemisphere’s worst abuser of human rights, particularly as they apply to workers and unions. Senator Barack Obama, on Wednesday, had cited “the violence against unions in Colombia” as his primary reason for opposing a proposed US-Colombia “free trade” agreement.

That Uribe singled-out Obama is revealing: the Illinois senator’s rival for the Democratic nomination for president in the United States, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, also says she opposes the US-Colombia “free trade” pact. That clearly doesn’t worry Uribe: the Clinton organization has a long history of backing – politically and economically – the Colombian far right, its narco-politicians and paramilitary death squads, of whom Uribe is supreme leader. In 2000, then-US president Bill Clinton went on Colombian national TV to announce “Plan Colombia,” the multi-billion dollar US military intervention that keeps Uribe and his repressive regime in power to this day.

The Associated Press has now run with the story in English, a reaction to Obama’s statement yesterday before the AFL-CIO of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia:

”I will oppose the Colombia Free Trade Agreement if President Bush insists on sending it to Congress because the violence against unions in Colombia would make a mockery of the very labor protections that we have insisted be included in these kinds of agreements.”

http://www.narconews.com/Issue52/article3055.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. Forgetting the 'Fair' in 'Free Trade'

Forgetting the 'Fair' in 'Free Trade'
Yifat Susskind
MADRE
Fri., Apr. 4, 2008
The US-Colombia Unfair Trade Agreement: Just Say No!

With Congress back in session, the Bush Administration is pushing hard to pass another trade agreement based on the failed NAFTA model, this time with Colombia. The Administration is in a race against public opinion, which is quickly turning against the kind of neoliberal trade deals that have worsened poverty and inequality in every country where they have been implemented and led to a massive loss of jobs in the United States. The proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia promises more of the same. The deal will also strengthen Colombia's government, which is responsible for severe human rights violations.

With more and more people—in Latin America and in the US—becoming aware of the repercussions of unfair trade rules, MADRE has urged its members to take action and to let their Congressional representatives know that a vote for this trade agreement is a vote for:

1. Worsening Rural Poverty and Hunger

The FTA cuts tariffs on food imported from the US but benefits only the few Colombian farmers who export to the US. Moreover, the deal bars the Colombian government from subsidizing farmers, while large-scale US corn and rice growers enjoy billions in subsidies. These double standards guarantee that US agribusiness can undersell Colombian farmers, who will face bankruptcy as a result. Many of Colombia's small-holder farmers are women and Indigenous Peoples who are losing their livelihoods and being forced off their lands.

2. Fueling Armed Conflict and Drug Trafficking

The intertwined crises of poverty, landlessness and inequality are at the root of Colombia's 50-year armed conflict. The FTA will further concentrate wealth in the hands of a few while worsening poverty for millions of people. Many Colombian farmers, whose livelihoods will be destroyed by the FTA, will be compelled to cultivate coca (the raw material for producing cocaine) to earn a living.

Continuing a trend begun in the wake of 9-11, the US has cast the FTA as a matter of its "national security," and the Colombian government has followed suit by treating anyone opposed to the deal as a terrorist. Colombia's workers, Afro-Colombians and Indigenous Peoples have taken a clear position against the FTA. Their peaceful protests have been met with severe repression, including murder.

3. Repressing Labor Rights

Colombia is already the world's deadliest country for trade unionists, with more than 2,000 labor activists killed since 1991. The FTA does not require Colombia to meet international core labor standards; it merely calls on the government to abide by its own weak labor laws. Without enforceable labor protections, the trade deal will put more workers at risk. US workers' power to negotiate better wages will also be weakened by a deal that allows corporations operating in Colombia to keep labor costs down through sheer violence.

More:
http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/159452/1/