COLOMBIA: Uribe asks US Congress to judge his deeds

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said on Monday (April 30) he would ask U.S. Democrats to judge him on his record on the eve of a difficult visit to defend a U.S. trade accord and new aid to fight rebels and drug smuggling. "We have had a permanent dialog with Democrats and Republicans. We have always understood that the relationship that Colombia has to look for with the United States government in the United States should be a bipartisan relationship towards Colombia," Uribe said in an interview at Narino presidential palace a day before traveling to Washington. "The reality is that Colombia today no longer has paramilitarism. The important things here are the actions against the words." Snubbed this month by ex-Vice President Al Gore and under fire from critics over charges his allies colluded with outlawed paramilitaries, Uribe this week holds his first talks with Democrats since they took over Congress this year. Uribe is backed by the White House, but the Democrat-led Congress has started taking a tougher line, wary over the paramilitary scandal, labor union killings and even more skeptical about trade deals signed by the Bush administration a year before U.S. presidential elections. But Uribe said he could hold his head high. "What have we omitted in the fight against the traffic of narcotics? What have we omitted in the fight against the terrorism? Nothing!" he said. "We may need to improve our strategies, we are sensitive to that, receptive, we are open; but we have to recognize that we have exercised strong will, and that is why we can look the Colombian people and the citizens of the world in the eyes, here, in the United States and everywhere else." At the stake in talks with Democrats will be the White House's proposed extension of around $600 million a year in U.S. military and counter-narcotics aid -- the largest outside the Middle East -- and the free trade pact signed with the U.S. government in November. Uribe will meet with the Democratic party leadership, including House speaker Nancy Pelosi and the AFL-CIO labor federation seeking to dispel questions over ties to militia warlords accused of atrocities during Colombia's conflict. Uribe has led a U.S.-backed campaign to dramatically reduce violence by pushing back Marxist guerrillas and disarming 31,000 illegal paramilitaries who once fought the rebels over the spoils of the world's top cocaine trade. But rights groups say paramilitary leaders jailed in a peace deal have kept criminal networks alive and charge Uribe has failed to tackle threats to labor leaders and collusion between his allies and paramilitaries. Analysts said Democrats are likely to approve a military and anti-drug aid package, but will demand more of that money is spent on social programs and seek guarantees Uribe is tackling militia violence.

ITN Source | May 1, 2007

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