|
|
Change Your Life! |
Madeleine Albright’s whirlwind Latin tour |
|||
|
News
|
||||
August 20, 2000
BUENOS AIRES (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright traversed Latin America this week, championing democracy and seeking support for a U.S. drug-fighting effort in Colombia that has prompted regional concern. On Friday, Albright wound down a five-day, five-nation visit to the region. While she talked of trade and maturing democracies throughout the whirlwind tour, at each stop she expounded on what she sees as the immediate threat to democracy in the region: the increasing troubles in Colombia. Her trip comes ahead of a scheduled one-day visit to Colombia by President Bill Clinton on Aug. 30, where he is expected to discuss the dlrs 1.3-billion U.S. aid package to strengthen Colombia's fight against drugs, known as Plan Colombia. In a region where U.S. involvement, whether military or political, is often viewed as meddling and intrusive, some in Latin America express less than full support for the plan. Following a meeting with Albright in Brazil on Tuesday, the country's foreign minister, Luiz Felipe Lampreia, said Brazil, the region's economic giant, was worried about possible spillover effects from Colombia. "Brazil has made it very clear that it does not want to get unilaterally involved in Plan Colombia," said David Fleischer, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia. U.S. and Brazilian officials later downplayed the apparent disagreement, and in Santiago on Thursday, Albright said Brazil was supportive. During stops in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador, Albright made clear she was seeking political support - not financial backing or military assistance for the plan. And she received just that from the countries farthest removed from Colombia's 36-year civil war between the government and leftist rebels. |
