MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia visiting McCain was informed of rescue operation

Sen. McCain with his wife and Pte. Uribe

In a bid to boost his foreign policy credentials United States Republican presidential candidate John McCain began in Colombia a three-day visit to Latin America, highlighting his support for free trade and progress against narcotics and terrorism

However an hour after McCain left Colombia for Mexico came a dramatic example of some of the very issues he was there to trumpet: the rescue of 15 hostages held by the rebel FARC faction, including Colombian French Ingrid Betancourt and three US contractors. But amazingly, McCain left the country knowing the rescue was taking place. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe notified McCain and his traveling companions, Senator Joe Lieberman and Senator Lindsay Graham, in advance that a rescue attempt would be made on Wednesday. But the delegation of US senators was not aware the mission was a success until their aircraft was en route from Cartagena to Mexico City. "Last night, President Uribe and the defense minister did brief us that the operation was going to take place today" McCain told reporters traveling with the campaign. McCain said it was pure coincidence that he happened to be there on the day of the rescue, and that these types of operations take months to plan and had nothing to do with his visit. Earlier in the day McCain said he was committed to making sure US workers who have lost jobs to foreign competition find new employment, but stressed that a protectionist attitude would only hurt the US. "I would like to see a hemispheric free trade agreement" McCain said. "I would like to see our continued assistance to countries like Colombia" and he added that "history shows that isolationism and protectionism has very unpleasant consequences".