In a bid to boost support in Congress for the troubled U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is visiting Colombia with a group of American legislators. The United States also wants to express "support for one of our strongest allies" in the region, Rice told reporters during her flight to Medellín from Davos, Switzerland where she attended the opening of the World Economic Forum. On Friday, Rice was scheduled to meet in Medellin with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as well as with a group of demobilized Colombian right-wing paramilitary fighters. According to local radio comments by Medellín Mayor Alonso Salazar, Rice requested the meeting in the once-notorious drug trafficking center as part of efforts by the Bush administration to convince the Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress to pass the U.S.-Colombian free trade agreement. Democrats have largely opposed the treaty, accusing Uribe's government of tolerating crimes and human rights abuses by right-wing paramilitary groups. Before her visit, Human Rights Watch director Jose Miguel Vivanco called on Rice to use the free-trade pact "as leverage to press Colombia's government to effectively confront impunity and break the paramilitaries' power." Rice said she would raise the issue in her meeting, but also stressed that Uribe had made some "progress."
Journal of Commerce
