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Obama's election poses problems for Colombia's leader: analysts
BOGOTA
Petroleumworld.com, November 06, 2008The triumph of Barack Obama in the US presidential election could cause problems for Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whose country is increasingly under scrutiny for human rights abuses, analysts said.
Wednesday, Uribe -- who had been open in his support for Obama's defeated conservative rival John McCain -- congratulated the new US president-elect.
As the main US ally in South America, he said he hoped his country would "continue to work with and to seek the support of the United States government in its policy of fighting narcotrafficking, terrorism and reinforcing democratic institutions."
Specialists, though, said priorities for Colombia such as the adoption of a free trade agreement with the United States and the continued US financing of the Colombian military its fight against rebels and cocaine were jeopardized.
Alvaro is president of a country of 42 million people that has the United States as its main trading partner, and which is the main beneficiary of US aid in the region -- having received five billion dollars since 2000.
Daniel Garcia Pena, director of a foundation called "Ideas for Peace" which lobbies for an end to Colombia's internal conflict against Marxist rebels, said Obama's win spelled trouble for Alvaro.
"John McCain isn't the only big loser in the election. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is too, for having espoused the ideological and warlike program of George W. Bush -- a stance that Americans have rejected," he told AFP.
Juan Fernando Losono, an expert in Bogota-Washington relations, said in El Espectador newspaper that Obama's Democrats, more sensitive to human rights issues and alert to the US economic crisis, could make moves to reduce the aid to Colombia's military.That speculation was reinforced by a growing scandal in which soldiers were suspected of carrying out extrajudicial executions of young civilian men to falsely inflate their number of rebel "kills."
Uribe last week was forced to sack two dozen military officials, including three generals, as the affair grew following the discovery of 19 bodies in late September.
Nearly 1,300 Colombians have been murdered for political reasons since Uribe took office in 2002 -- mostly by Colombian soldiers and police, according to a report by the International Observation Mission, a group representing around 100 non-governmental human rights organizations.
"The subject of human rights is a sensitive one, and unfortunately the facts are not very positive for Uribe's government," a former foreign minister Rodrigo Pardo, said.
Colombia's ambition to seal a free trade agreement advocated by Bush could also fall foul of US unions who gave Obama backing, analysts said.In principle, Obama has been favorable of Colombia's anti-drug efforts and operations against FARC guerrillas. He hailed a controversial Colombian incursion in March into Ecuador to kill the FARC's number two commander at the time.
At least one political expert, however, opined that little would change in the fundamental policy the United States had crafted regarding South America.
"There are bilateral issues Obama will treat with a different perspective but essentially little will change," said Diana Rojas, a political analyst.
"To keep treating Colombia as an ally in the region is an advantage that he won't give up, even if he won't put the accent on a bellicose policy," she said.
Story by Cesar Sabogal from AFP
AFP 05 2258 GMT 11 08Copyright© 2008 respective author or news agency. All rights reserved.
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