Reply #40: Bush warns collapse of trade deal with Colombia could cripple U.S. influence in South America [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Bush warns collapse of trade deal with Colombia could cripple U.S. influence in South America
By Ben Feller
ASSOCIATED PRESS

2:44 p.m. March 12, 2008

WASHINGTON – President Bush warned Congress on Wednesday that failing to approve a trade deal with Colombia would fuel the anti-American regime of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and cast the United States as untrustworthy and impotent across South America.

The intensity of Bush's rhetoric reflected the importance of the deal to him – and the fact that he's fast running out of time to get it done. Democrats have objected that Colombia's government has not done enough to halt violence, protect labor activists and demobilize paramilitary organizations.

“If Congress were to reject the agreement with Colombia, we would validate antagonists in Latin America, who would say that America cannot be trusted to stand by its friends,” Bush said in a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

“We would cripple our influence in the region, and make other nations less likely to cooperate with us in the future,” the president said. “We would betray one of our closest friends in our own backyard.”




Read more: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20080312-1444-bush-trade.html

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Snapshots of _Bush's triumphal tour of Latin America last year: