“The meeting was an error in judgment that will not be repeated, and I am sorry for it.” Clinton consigliere and inveterate torturer of reason Mark Penn gets into trouble for playing both sides of a Colombian trade deal, is forced to apologize, and subsequently gets sacked by the nation in question. If only Sen. Clinton had followed Colombia’s example months ago, she might still have a shot at the presidency right now.
In related news, Al Giordano of Rural Votes explains why Colombian president Alvaro Uribe is rooting against Obama, and why that speaks strongly in the Illinois Senator’s favor. “The Uribe regime, after all, continues a chummy friendship with Bill Clinton, granting him the government’s ‘Colombia Is Passion’ Award last June. That, during the same 2007 spring when former vice president Al Gore cancelled his appearance at a Miami environmental conference because he did not want to share a podium with Uribe, the hemisphere’s poster boy for state-sponsored terrorism, narco-trafficking, and assassinations of opposition political, labor and social movement leaders.“
Huh- that assessment of Uribe seems rather harsh. Most of the Colombians I know think he’s done a good job, considering the circumstances. Giordano calling him the “supreme leader” of “the Colombian far right, its narco-politicians and paramilitary death squads” seems pretty absurd. Most of his support comes from his staunch anti-FARC policies, which have lead to a reduction in kidnappings and violence, thus spurring ecomonic improvements.
I’ll confess I don’t know much about the specifics in Colombia. True, the WP has nice things to say about Uribe’s record, but all the major human rights organizations seem to think he’s shady, enough that Gore, Pelosi, Leahy, et al are keeping their distance. And it’s not like we don’t have a long and sordid history of backing right-wing, rights-suppressing regimes in the region for the wrong reasons. (Plus this “Magic Laptop” business sounds Dubya-shady to me.)
But, again, I’m just going on what I’m reading here.
Yeah, he’s definitely anti-union, and certainly no choir boy, but he’s no Pinochet, either. I think the Colombian trade agreement story is interesting, and agree that Uribe’s anti-labor activities are troubling, but the incendiary tone of Giordano’s article really irked me. The allegations linking Uribe to narcotraficantes and paramilitary groups are a stretch, and painting him as a despot is unfair- he’s been elected twice. Colombia is a complicated and troubled country, but designating Uribe as “the bad guy” strikes me as a little bit misleading and naive. Most Colombians would argue that the FARC and the narcotraficantes are a much greater threat to their well-being.