Colombia : "A model for the region"

Presser from the US Dept. of Defense today :

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates offered high praise to Colombia today as an "exporter of security" that, by sharing lessons learned in its crackdown against a leftist insurgency and drug-trafficking cartels, provides a model for the region.

Gates commended Colombia for sharing its knowledge and skills in ounterinsurgency, law enforcement and anti-kidnapping training. “We believe these efforts are enhancing stability in the Americas,” he said.

Yes it's quite the model. The UN's Rapporteur on Indigenous People is urgently calling for a report on Colombia from the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, due to the increasing number of murders of indigenous people by paramilitary groups attached to the government. Colombia's population of internally displaced persons (3 million as of 2008) is second only to that of Sudan.
On the up side, in 2009 only 45 trade unionists were killed.

Gates also acknowledged Colombia’s role as an exporter of security beyond its immediate neighborhood, noting its plans to send troops to Afghanistan to support operations there.
“The United States is committed to provide the support necessary to help expedite this deployment,” he said

The US operates seven of Colombia's military bases, so that shouldn't be much of a problem.

The U.S.-Colombian Defense Cooperation Agreement formalized the military-to-military relationship between the two countries to better address narcotics production and trafficking, terrorism, illicit smuggling and humanitarian and natural disasters.
Gates called the agreements “an important step forward” and said he hopes people come to realize they are focused only on promoting bilateral security relationships, not in providing a venue for the United States to interfere in other countries’ matters.

Venezuela immediately announced plans to purchase five billion dollars worth of Russian weapons.

The secretary said his talks here also extended to the importance of a getting a free trade agreement ratified, noting that he talked with National Security Advisor James L. Jones Jr. before his trip here about renewing that effort.

Because reopening any discussion of a free trade agreement naturally originates with the Defense Dept and the National Security Advisor.

“Colombia’s hard-won freedom from violence can be sustained only through economic prosperity,” he wrote.

The kind of economic prosperity that includes flooding the Colombian market with subsidized US agribix products. Remind me, how did that work out for Mexico?

Gates said a trade promotion agreement would establish a commitment to open markets that would increase this essential growth and investment in Colombia.
“To achieve lasting peace and stability, Colombia must have more foreign investment and free trade,” Gates wrote.

Well I guess we have our marching orders then.
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Harper and Uribe shake hands on Colombia free trade deal

The handshake that represents Harper helping Uribe to wage war on his own people.

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The handshake that would allow Colombia "to pay a token monetary amount into a ‘cooperation fund’ when a Colombian trade unionist is murdered".

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The handshake that would "destroy the livelihoods of many small Colombian farmers by flooding the market with subsidized agricultural imports", thereby paving the way for large agro-businesses in Colombia to buy up the land of destitute farmers for the production of biodiesel, palm oil and beef for export.

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The handshake that supports the use of paramilitary organizations who have forced 4 million people off their land for the benefit of Canadian transnational mining and natural gas companies.
Some of these companies have even supplied the necessary military equipment.

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The handshake that ignores involvement of Uribe's top aides in the killing of more than 800 union workers, teachers and journalists over the past six years.
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In July 2007, Harper was in Colombia subbing for Bush.
There, with President Uribe at his side, he explained his position :

"When we see a country like Colombia that has decided to address its social, political and economic problems in an integrated way, that wants to embrace democracy and human rights, then we say, 'We're in,' he said."

"We are not going to say fix all your social, political and human rights problems and only then will we engage in trade relations with you. That's a ridiculous position," Harper said.

G&M, last night : [nice to see the Cons still adhering to late friday news dumps!]

"A Canada-Colombia free-trade agreement was announced Friday shortly after Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Peru.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said the deal “builds greater trust among investors.”
The agreement lifts tariffs on 98 per cent of Canada's exports to Colombia, including wheat, barley, lentils, peas, beef, paper products and machinery and equipment.

In their free-trade deal, Canada and Colombia agreed their laws must adhere to principles set out by the International Labour Organization. If Canada or Colombia violates the labour organization's principles, they will have to pay into a fund aimed at strengthening workers' rights."

This last is known as the "kill a trade unionist, pay a fine" clause.
Not even Bush could get this one past Congress.

Canadian parliament will have their chance to reject it sometime in January.

Saturday Update : Colombia has signed a bilateral investment treaty with China, granting most favored nation status to each other's companies.
Cross-posted at Creekside

The Three Amigos shovel some PR for Uribe

in advance of news of his cousin's arrest for alleged ties to death squads.

Seems my question on Tuesday night at Creekside as to why each of the three amigos mounted such a stirring and seemingly completely off-topic defence of Colombia's President Uribe in their "Joint Press Availability" was answered in the following day's news :

WaPo : Cousin of Colombian President Arrested in Death Squad Probe

"Authorities on Tuesday arrested former senator Mario Uribe, a cousin and close ally of President Alvaro Uribe, for alleged ties to death squads in a widening inquiry that has implicated nearly a quarter of Colombia's Congress.
The arrest of the former senator, who built a formidable political movement that helped his cousin win the presidency in 2002, comes during an institutional crisis that has tarnished a country closely allied with the United States."

AFP : Colombia's Uribe under probe over 1997 massacre

"Colombian President Alvaro Uribe denied Wednesday charges he helped plan a 1997 massacre by right-wing paramilitaries, while confirming that his role was being examined in an official investigation."

At their Summit presser, Bush, echoed by Harper, proclaimed :

"we got no better friend in South America than President Uribe."

So The Three Amigos presumably already knew about the coming arrest and thought they'd shovel a little PR manure for the Uribe government and their pending free trade agreements with Colombia before the rest of us got wind of the arrests.

Linda Carlsen of the Americas Program, Center for International Policy, also writing before news of the Uribe arrests broke, dissects "the prominence of this issue in the official statements" here:

"Again the summit is being used to advance the failing Bush administration domestic agenda. Considering again that the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement is not an issue in Mexico, the geopolitical strategy of building alliances among rightwing governments in the hemisphere to confront the growing number of leftwing governments becomes clear. This ideological taking sides has no place in a trilateral summit dedicated to North American integration issues and panders to the Bush agenda."

Her whole article is an excellent read :

Dissecting the North American Summit Joint Statement: Bush's Last Stand

Cross-posted at Creekside

Canada steps into the void...

Canada steps into the void of "Mr Harper's new neighbourhood", the country with the worst human rights record in the western hemisphere.

Reuters : Canada steps into the void left by U.S.-Columbia rift

"Canada started trade talks with Colombia on Monday and pledged full support for President Alvaro Uribe, who has seen his key bilateral relationship with the United States bog down in a scandal over human rights.

In a thinly veiled slap at U.S. congressional Democrats who oppose a trade deal with Colombia due to rights concerns, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper used a trip to Bogota to present himself as a steadier ally.

"We are not going to say fix all your social, political and human rights problems and only then will we engage in trade relations with you. That's a ridiculous position," Harper said in a media conference with Uribe at his side."

This "ridiculous position" is in sharp contrast to Harper's earlier celebrated stand on "not trading human rights for the almighty dollar".
But that was about China. Uribe, however, is a rightwing Conservative.

"Uribe's international standing has been damaged by a scandal in which some of his closest political allies are in jail awaiting trial for helping paramilitary death squads.

But Harper, in the first state visit by a Canadian leader to Colombia, backed Uribe's efforts at ending the country's decades-old guerrilla war and fostering economic growth.

"When we see a country like Colombia that has decided to address its social, political and economic problems in an integrated way, that wants to embrace democracy and human rights, then we say, 'We're in,' he said."

Globe&Mail : "It's an exploratory trip to what might be called "Mister Harper's new neighbourhood."

"We're doing it because we believe it's our neighbourhood," a senior Canadian official said yesterday, echoing Mr. Harper's statement last month at the G8."

Michael Shifter, policy vice-president at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank, who recently visited Ottawa :

"What Canada can offer is that it's close to the United States but is not the United States," he said. "The United States has so much baggage in Latin America, but Canada escapes that. This is a hemisphere where there is a lot of mistrust and a lot of disarray, and the U.S. is very handicapped to do anything about it."

But that's ok, because Harper has proved himself more than willing to carry that baggage for them :

Reuters : "Colombia has received billions of dollars in U.S. aid to crack down on the cocaine trade.
Democrats in control of the U.S. Congress are toughening conditions on that aid and oppose a trade pact due in part to the fact that the Andean country leads the world in labor murders.
Uribe's former state security chief is accused of providing a death list of trade union leaders to paramilitary hit men."

72 union leaders assassinated so far in fact.
But hey, let's not get "ridiculous" here - "We're in!". Yeah Canada!

Reuters : Harper's visit comes as many Colombians feel betrayed by the United States for not backing the trade pact.
"This gives Canada an opportunity to come in and assure Colombia that it is a loyal ally," said Michael Shifter of Washington-based think-tank Inter-American Dialogue." [You again!]

Yes, that's us - a loyal ally and US baggage carrier, stepping into the void ...