Peru & Colombia Attack U.S. Congress, Demand Immediate Passage of Free Trade Pacts

Yesterday, I noted a report about how Colombian President Alvaro Uribe - the same Alvaro Uribe who has been connected by investigative reports to right-wing paramilitary gangs that execute union organizers - is publicly attacking the U.S. Congress for its desire to reform American trade policy. Now, hot off the wire, we get this from Bloomberg:

“Peruvian President Alan Garcia sought to turn the tables on congressional Democrats, saying the U.S. Congress must approve the pending trade agreement with his country before requiring further action by Peru…Democrats say Peru and Panama, which negotiated free-trade agreements with the Bush administration, must first strengthen their labor and environmental laws before Congress will vote on those accords.”

I’m not sure what’s more incredible in all of this: A developing nation’s president demanding the U.S. Congress do whatever he says while he’s under investigation for his ties to murderers, or a president from a country that has, ahem, not had a stellar record on democracy nonetheless attacking the U.S. Congress for having the nerve to exercise its democratic role of oversight.

Here are the key questions: Is Congress going to have the guts to stand up to this kind of foreign bullying? Or is it going to bend to demands from these countries? Will Nancy Pelosi and congressional Democrats take orders from foreign leaders? Or will they do their job and represent their constituents?

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posted 7/10/2007 by David Sirota