US President George W. Bush was to host Colombia's leader at his Texas ranch yesterday for a visit he hopes will bolster Alvaro Uribe as his country fights rebels and drug lords.
The meeting is also a chance for Bush to push for better trade relations with the Latin American ally.
For Uribe, the trek to Texas comes at a critical moment in Colombia where rebels, funded by narcotics trade, kidnapping and extortion, have been struggling topple the government and establish a Marxist-style state.
Outlawed right-wing paramilitary forces also have been battling the rebels. The 40-year-old conflict kills more than 3,000 people every year, mostly civilians, with allegations that human rights abuses are being committed on all sides.
Uribe is meeting with Bush after recently signing the "justice and peace" law, which aims to dismantle paramilitary forces that also are heavily involved in drug trafficking and reintegrate them into the legal side of Colombian society. Critics say the new law goes too easy on criminals.
If official visits are evidence of the closeness of US-Colombia relations, then it's clear the two nations are fast friends. Bush visited Colombia in November 2004, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Bogota in April, the department's third-ranking official was in Colombia last week and now Uribe's visit.
Uribe is hoping the US will continue sending money to help train and equip Colombian police and armed forces to fight guerillas and paramilitary groups.
Their meeting comes just a day after the State Department announced that Colombia's government and armed forces have met human rights standards needed to qualify for full funding of US assistance programs. Colombia has received more than US$3 billion in US aid during the past five years as part of an effort to wipe out cocaine and heroin production and crush the long-running leftist insurgency.
Congress imposed conditions on US assistance to push Colombia to curb human rights abuses. Failing to meet the standards would have meant a cut of about US$70 million, according to a State Department estimate.
Amnesty International USA quickly challenged the certification made by Rice.
"This decision is a major blow to the promotion of human rights in Colombia and is based on only the narrowest reading of the law and the thinnest of evidence," said William Schulz, executive director of the group.
The State Department insists that Colombia is making progress on the human rights front, although a spokesman, Tom Casey, acknowledged that "more needs to be done."
On Wednesday, Uribe visited Houston and sought to assure foreign investors at a conference there that his country is stable and brimming with economic opportunity despite the ongoing civil war.
He told investors from the US, Canada and Puerto Rico that his country has made great strides in battling internal strife.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including