Weekly Report - 15 January 2009 (ISSN 1741-7422)

President Uribe received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in Washington this week. Only 13 foreign leaders have received this, the highest civilian award in the US, in the last 60 years, and it has been presented to such luminaries as Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela. The fact that it symbolised the lack of bipartisan agreement on Colombia took some of the lustre off the medal for Uribe. The Democrats, who have opposed a free trade agreement with Colombia for two years out of concern for human rights, could toughen their stance seeing a Republican President, George W Bush, snubbing them. This would complicate Uribe's ties with the incoming Obama administration.