Colombian leader faces tough sell to US Congress

Just six short months ago, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe would have had a relatively easy time convincing the US Congress to approve a free-trade agreement and to continue providing millions of dollars in military aid to the conflict-ridden country.

But that was before the outbreak of a widening scandal linking some of his closest allies to right-wing death squads. And it was before Democrats won control of the House and Senate.

Now Mr. Uribe will face skeptical Democrats in Congress as he embarks Wednesday on one of the most difficult trips to Washington of his six-year presidency.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D) of Vermont, chairman of the subcommittee overseeing foreign funds, recently froze $55 million in military aid to Colombia, and former vice president Al Gore shunned Uribe last month because of the scandal known here as "para-politics."

Yet despite the unease in Washington, Uribe's popularity at home, already high, has risen even as the allegations creep closer to him. The war-weary Colombian public – long aware of politicians' ties to paramilitaries – seems content with Uribe's success in lowering the violent crime rate and his no-nonsense approach to tackling the country's problems.

Uribe will be certain to point this out as US lawmakers decide whether Colombia's egregious human rights record and the scandal surrounding his administration trump fears of alienating a key US ally in a region increasingly hostile to US interests.

"The president has a big job in front of him when he gets here, [but] if he can launch a good clear explanation [of what's happening in Colombia] I think he can carry the day," says Riordan Roett, director of the Western Hemisphere program at Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies in Washington.

US visit a counteroffensive

This week's trip is a counteroffensive against a series of setbacks for Uribe's government on the international front.

Before addressing critics and skeptics, Uribe will start his visit with a breakfast with President Bush, who called the Colombian president a "personal friend" during a March visit to Bogotá.

Uribe is Bush's most loyal ally in South America, not only in the fight against drugs and terrorism, but also as a stalwart conservative in a region leaning increasingly to the left.

In later meetings, Uribe faces tougher audiences that include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) of California, Rep. Charles Rangel (D) of New York, and AFL-CIO president John Sweeny. From them Uribe can expect pointed questions about the growing scandal back home in which many of his close political allies are under investigation for working together with paramilitary groups that once held sway over huge areas of the country.

Growing 'para-politics' scandal

Eight pro-Uribe lawmakers are in jail on charges ranging from mere collusion with the paramilitaries to conspiracy to kidnap and murder. Dozens of others are being investigated.

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