Republican or Democrat in the White House: Business as Usual regarding Colombia. No hope or change in the horizon

It doesn’t come as a surprise that yesterday, when the Organization of American States held an emergency session to deal with Andean crisis, the United States was the only country that spoke out in support of Colombia’s strike. Every other country in the Hemisphere condemned Colombia’s military strike in Ecuadorian territory as a breach of sovereignty. The US not only defended Colombia’s action, even though it clearly violates international law, but it attempted to further political gain using the crisis as an excuse to urge Congress to grant swiftly approval of the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. The NAFTA style trade agreement is currently being held, primarily because of Colombia’s outrageous human rights record, particularly towards unions.

However, if you were thinking that things would be different after January 20th, 2009 you might be up for a disappointment. If elected president, Senator McCain is likely to keep Bush’s policy of military aid, consistent with his “100 years in Iraq” militaristic approach to foreign policy. He’s also big fan of trade and has come out in favor of the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. Unfortunately, Obama and Clinton do not offer much hope or change: asked about the current Andean crisis, both candidates pretty much followed Bush’s script. Neither Obama or Clinton asserted the importance of defending State’s territories against foreign military incursions. Clinton went further to use the opportunity to feed into the animosity against Hugo Chavez.