MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia in Unasur will discuss “all issues”, not only the US agreement

Foreign Affairs minister Jaime Bermudez called for “respectful relations”

Colombia will participate in the coming Union of South American Nations, Unasur, summit “to discuss all issues” and not only the US/Colombia agreement on military bases, anticipated Jaime Bermúdez, Colombian Foreign Affairs minister.

“We’re going to the Bariloche (Argentine Patagonia) meeting to talks about all issues, not only about the US accord”, underlined Bermudez in an interview with Chile’s main daily El Mercurio.

The August 28th summit in Bariloche was convened to debate the accord between Colombia and the US which would allow the deployment of US forces in seven Colombian bases with the purpose of combating drug trafficking and terrorism.

The agreement triggered concern in the region, and Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner invited regional leaders to an extraordinary summit in Bariloche following on the failure of the August 10 Ecuador meeting to address the issue.

Colombia president Alvaro Uribe had previously visited all South American leaders (with the exception of Ecuador and Venezuela) to give details of the agreement and was not present at Quito, Ecuador’s capital.

At the meeting Venezuelan Hugo Chavez spoke of “winds of war”, because of US forces in Colombian bases, and Brazil’s Lula da Silva left earlier seeing the summit was leading nowhere.

Bermudez who this Monday will be visiting Chile said that the agreement was geared to defeat drugs trafficking and terrorism, adding that “many times the international community is quick to express solidarity with those killed, but real cooperation in this major combat is scarce, while the US in this has been most generous”.

“Colombia believes and expects more respectful regional relations, leaving aside ideological sensitivities; there are no reasons to believe Colombia can become the springboard for the US in the region”, said Bermudez.

Regarding relations with the government of Venezuelan president Chavez, Bermudez said “we act with firmness in the defence of our national interests and with prudence so as not to fall into provocations”.

When asked about President Uribe’s re-re-election bid Bermudez said it was not his job “to analyze Colombian domestic policy”, but pointed out that situations “are not comparable”, in reference to Venezuela’s and Ecuador’s re-election constitutional amendments.

Finally he said that the FARC rebel group, originally Marxist oriented but since funded by the cocaine lords have been “seriously diminished” and currently “hold no point or area of Colombia” although they have sporadic control of certain jungle areas.

At one time FARC had an army of 19.000 and controlled 20% of Colombian territory.

But, said Bermudez “we can’t stop this battle because they have allied with the drug lords and have become the country’s main cartel”.

“With Chile we have a good relation and we share fundamental values such as democracy, freedoms and transparency”, pointed out Bermudez who valued “Chile’s respect” for Colombia regarding the agreement with Washington.