Spotlight
Thursday, 24 April
Alvaro Uribe
Today’s New York Times features an interview with an optimistic, possibly evasive, Alvaro Uribe. The Columbian president is currently embroiled in several scandals, one involving a cousin recently linked to a terrorist group. But the democratically elected, free trade-supporting Uribe is one of the few U.S. allies left in Chavez-dominated South America, and Congress has been battling over the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. What’s the chatter about the Colombia-U.S./Uribe-Bush romance?
“Alvaro Uribe is likely to be one of the very few people in this world who will be sad to see the back of George W. Bush,” declares a red pepper piece relating the history of animosity between Chavez-friendly Ecuador and U.S. ally Colombia.
In editorial subtly titled Nancy [Hearts Hugo,] The Weekly Standard’s Matthew Continetti criticizes Nancy Pelosi and the entire “Democratic Congress” for blocking the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. The objections of Pelosi, et al, to CFTA—a key in the war against drugs and terrorism in Colombia --are weak and politically motivated, Continetti says, and bolsters U.S. critics such as Hugo Chavez.
In the Wall Street Journal editorial, former Secretary of State James Baker pleads for an end to partisan bickering and for CFTA’s passage. He says that without CFTA, Colombia, a democratic, if troubled, nation, will be besieged by countries that may support terrorism, Chavez and anti-U.S. measures.
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