Have a Coke and a "What" ? ? ? ?

The Lady Alison posted a few days back about Coca Cola bottlers in Columbia and a documentary on same.

As luck would have it, my friend PC and her Solidarity Notes Choir had a live performance on the same topic at the Granville SkyTrain Station on Sunday. Enjoy, and think about that the next time you enjoy a beverage from an "Owe-lympic" sponsor:

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 ...