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Andean Group - December 2008 (ISSN 1741-4466)
Obama and Colombia
Colombia's Casa de Nariño is unlikely to have celebrated the victory
of Senator Barack Obama in the US presidential elections on 4 November.
President Alvaro Uribe, who has been President George W Bush's closest political
ally in the region, had openly expressed his support for the Republican
candidate Senator John McCain. Not only was Bush an enthusiastic sponsor of the
US-backed counter insurgency and anti-narcotics initiative, “Plan Colombia", but
he also continues to push hard for congressional approval of a US-Colombia Free
Trade Agreement (FTA). The support of President-elect Obama will be less
forthcoming. Obama opposes an FTA unless Colombia improves its human rights
record and while he supports Plan Colombia in principle, he is facing compelling
calls to downscale - or at the very least restructure - US involvement in
Colombia.
- A bittersweet victory for Chávez
- Election schedule settled
- Debt: back to the brink again
- Relations with Brazil cloud
- ECONOMIC OVERVIEW
- Pando massacre revisited
- Opposition crisis deepens
- ECONOMIC OVERVIEW
- Chávez pushes for third term
- ECONOMIC OVERVIEW
- Sendero resurgence troubles García
- ECONOMIC OVERVIEW
- Alba mulls alternative response to crisis
- Uribe's re-election chances knocked
- Obama and Colombia
- ECONOMIC OVERVIEW