[NYTr] Bush Now Wants Colombia "Free" Trade Deal to "Contain" Venez

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AFP via Google - Dec 7, 2007
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gSzlP8YVQzkso-H7mySuze4RkTFA

Bush Wields Colombia Trade Deal to Halt Venezuela

Agence France Press

WASHINGTON (AFP) ? US President George W. Bush's contention that a Free
Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia is key to halting the influence of
Venezuela's leftist president in Latin America has convinced few in the
US Congress.

Opposition Democrats that control Congress have refused to ratify the
agreement -- which Washington and Bogota signed in December 2006 -- in
part concerned over ties between President Alvaro Uribe's government
and a right-wing paramilitary group involved in human rights violations
and drug trafficking on the US list of terrorist organizations.

To help get the agreement approved, Bush is now presenting the FTA as
the main US policy tool to halt the influence of Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez, a firebrand leftist who famously described Bush as "the
devil" at the United Nations.

"The US-Colombia FTA is clearly the administration's top priority with
regard to Latin America currently, now that the Peru FTA has been
approved," said Nelson Cunningham, a former adviser on Latin America to
ex-president Bill Clinton.

The US-Peru FTA, negotiated over several years, cleared the US Congress
on Tuesday and awaits the president's signature for enactment.

On that same day Bush firmly warned the US Congress of the importance
of approving a FTA with Colombia.

"I am going to repeat to you," Bush told reporters. "If the Congress
does not pass the free trade agreement (with) Colombia it will be a
destabilizing moment."

He said by implementing the agreement, the United States "can make a
difference in South America, in terms of Venezuela and influence."

Not approving the agreement "would be an insult to a friend," Bush said.

Democrats however were unswayed by Bush's browbeating. "The concerns
among Democrats regarding Colombia's record on labor union killings are
strong and deep," said Cunningham. "At this point, passage (of the FTA)
is far from assured."

Bush's tough talk is mere rhetoric, said Daniel Restrepo at the Center
for American Progress think-tank.

Bush "is currently doing less than nothing to improve relations with
the Democratic leadership in Congress," said Restrepo, "and if he does
not get closer to the opposition (Democrats), it's impossible to think
that the agreement has many possibilities of being approved in the
coming year."

By presenting the FTA as a way to foil Chavez, Bush overlooks US trade
ties with Venezuela -- which supplies about 11 percent of US oil
imports.

"So to say that the United States will put the brakes on Chavez with an
FTA (with Colombia) hardly makes sense," said Restrepo. "It's just
rhetoric. Today, the free-trade link that is nearly the most important
for the United States in Latin America is the purchase of petroleum
from Venezuela."

Democratic leaders in the US Congress have accused the Bush
administration of focusing its Latin America regional policy
exclusively on free trade, while ignoring the area's growing economic
disparity.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently described the
administration's "narrow approach" in Latin America as being "harmful
in many ways."

"We have left a vacuum of diplomacy and engagement in many areas, which
has allowed unconstructive forces space to expand influence," Reid
said, a reference to Chavez's growing influence.

Another Democrat, Senator Bob Menendez, asked for more US funds for
economic and social development in the region.

"We should worry less about what Chavez is doing and more about what we
are doing," Menendez said.