[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11604-11605]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         PRESIDENT ALVARO URIBE

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I would like to speak for a moment

[[Page 11605]]

today about a recent Washington Post editorial and President Alvaro 
Uribe of Colombia.
  I noted with interest the Washington Post Sunday editorial concerning 
criticism President Uribe has received lately. I believe the Washington 
Post made some good points and asked the right questions. Like, why do 
some Americans heap criticism on a man who is one of our few allies in 
a region dominated by the likes of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro and who 
has dedicated himself to ending the violence in his country and 
bringing justice to Columbia?
  I agree with the Washington Post, that perhaps we should be more 
discerning in who we criticize and treat those who would be friends to 
the United Sates with a little more deference.
  Additionally, I ask unanimous consent that an editorial concerning 
President Uribe from the Washington Post be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Washington Post, May 6, 2007]

    Assault on an Ally: Why are Democrats so ``Deeply Troubled'' by 
                        Colombia's Alvaro Uribe?

       Colombian President Alvaro Uribe may be the most popular 
     democratic leader in the world. Last week, as he visited 
     Washington, a poll showed his approval rating at 80.4 
     percent--extraordinary for a politician who has been in 
     office nearly five years. Colombians can easily explain this: 
     Since his first election in 2002, Mr. Uribe has rescued their 
     country from near-failed-state status, doubling the size of 
     the army and extending the government's control to large 
     areas that for decades were ruled by guerrillas and drug 
     traffickers. The murder rate has dropped by nearly half and 
     kidnappings by 75 percent. For the first time thugs guilty of 
     massacres and other human rights crimes are being brought to 
     justice, and the political system is being purged of their 
     allies. With more secure conditions for investment, the free-
     market economy is booming.
       In a region where populist demagogues are on the offensive, 
     Mr. Uribe stands out as a defender of liberal democracy, not 
     to mention a staunch ally of the United States. So it was 
     remarkable to see the treatment that the Colombian president 
     received in Washington. After a meeting with the Democratic 
     congressional leadership, Mr. Uribe was publicly scolded by 
     House Majority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose 
     statement made no mention of the ``friendship'' she recently 
     offered Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Human Rights Watch, 
     which has joined the Democratic campaign against Mr. Uribe, 
     claimed that ``today Colombia presents the worst human rights 
     and humanitarian crisis in the Western hemisphere''--never 
     mind Venezuela or Cuba or Haiti. Former vice president Al 
     Gore, who has advocated direct U.S. negotiations with the 
     regimes of Kim Jong II and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, recently 
     canceled a meeting with Mr. Uribe because, Mr. Gore said, he 
     found the Colombian's record ``deeply troubling.''
       What could explain this backlash? Democrats claim to be 
     concerned--far more so than Colombians, apparently--with 
     ``revelations'' that the influence of right-wing paramilitary 
     groups extended deep into the military and Congress. In fact 
     this has been well-known for years; what's new is that 
     investigations by Colombia's Supreme Court and attorney 
     general have resulted in the jailing and prosecution of 
     politicians and security officials. Many of those implicated 
     come from Mr. Uribe's Conservative Party, and his former 
     intelligence chief is under investigation. But the president 
     himself has not been charged with wrongdoing. On the 
     contrary: His initiative to demobilize 30,000 right-wing 
     paramilitary fighters last year paved the way for the current 
     investigations, which he and his government have supported 
     and funded.
       In fact, most of those who attack Mr. Uribe for the 
     ``parapolitics'' affair have opposed him all along, and for 
     very different reasons. Some, like Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-
     Vt.), reflexively resist U.S. military aid to Latin America. 
     Colombia has received more than $5 billion in economic and 
     military aid from the Clinton and Bush administrations to 
     fight drug traffickers and the guerrillas, and it hopes to 
     receive $3.9 billion more in the next six years. Some, like 
     Rep. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.), are eager to torpedo 
     Colombia's pending free-trade agreement with the United 
     States. Now that the Bush administration has conceded almost 
     everything that House Democrats asked for in order to pass 
     pending trade deals, protectionist hard-liners have sized on 
     the supposed human rights ``crisis'' as a pretext to 
     blackball Colombia.
       Perhaps Mr. Uribe is being punished by Democrats, too, 
     because he has remained an ally of George W. Bush even as his 
     neighbor, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, portrays the U.S. 
     president as ``the devil.'' Whatever the reasons, the 
     Democratic campaign is badly misguided. If the Democrats 
     succeed in wounding Mr. Uribe or thwarting his attempt to 
     consolidate a democracy that builds its economy through free 
     trade, the United States may have to live without any Latin 
     American allies.

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