Former Vice-President Al Gore withdrew from an environmental conference in Miami where he was scheduled to speak with Columbia President Alvaro Uribe. Uribe's government is suspected of aiding right-wing death squads. A lawmaker in Colombia alleged that Uribe let paramilitaries use his own property for meetings and killings while governor in a northern state in the mid-1990s.
According to the AP
"Gore's cancellation came after U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), a Vermont Democrat, froze $55 million in military aid over the scandal. As chairman of the subcommittee that oversees foreign assistance, Leahy is pushing for a tougher line on Colombia, which receives billions of dollars in U.S. aid.
Uribe acknowledged that allegations about his government could hurt chances his Andean country will clinch a free trade agreement with Washington.
But he said he hoped the United States would make "the right decision regarding Colombia."
Uribe was elected in 2002 and re-elected in a 2006 landslide after cutting crime as part of his U.S.-backed crackdown on the rebels.
More than 31,000 members of right-wing paramilitary groups have handed in their guns as part of a peace deal, while Colombia's biggest rebel army, known as the FARC, continues its 43-year-old fight against the government.
Thousands are killed in the conflict every year."
No comments:
Post a Comment