mentioned as present in the last paragraph--joined the Bolivarian trade group, ALBA, saying he could get no help from the U.S., the World Bank and other U.S.-dominated entities. He didn't seem to care if this harmed trade with the U.S. (CAFTA), which apparently isn't doing much good for Honduras' ravaged economy and he said something to the effect that he is turning into a leftist (joining the Bolivarian revolution).
Jimmy Carter is one of the great peacemakers of our era, and his Carter Center has done great work in South America on transparent elections. I'm glad he's involved, because I think that yet another corporate resource war is the Bushite intention in South America, and they have the resources to wage it even after they leave office (if they do)--the $6 BILLION of our tax dollars they've larded on the Colombian military with its closely tied rightwing paramilitary death squads, the billions in no-product contracts in Iraq (billions missing), and god knows what other billions they've have stashed away. They've set up for a 'Gulf on Tonkin'-type incident in the Caribbean off Venezuela's oil coast, and have been pouring our money into stoking (Colombia) and instigating (Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela) civil war in the countries that have oil (or, in the case of Bolivia, gas and oil). The Bushites know no other way, except brute force. They are murderous beasts, and so are the Corpos they represent (Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Halliburton, Bechtel, Occidental Petroleum, Chiquita, Monsanto, Blackwater, Dyncorp, et al). The Colombia "free trade" deal is ideal for them. "Free trade," to them, means "free fire zone against union organizers." Literally.
The article does not quote Carter, which makes me wonder what he really said. I can't imagine that he would approve of the situation in Colombia, as is. It would be VERY out of character. So he is likely working on their justice system and other democratic institutions, and would likely require truly significant improvement before he would ever tout anything to the U.S. Congress. In fact, it's out of character for Carter to do that--tout a bill to Congress. He more typically works as part of a commission, representing a range of views, and making broad policy recommendations, not pushing a particular bill. But he does sometimes go where no other U.S. leader dares to go--for instance, right into the midst of the Israel/Palestine conflict. I can't imagine him, though, urging a specific trade bill on the Likkud--especially one as controversial as the Colombian "free trade" bill (basically anathema to U.S. labor Democrats, because of the widespread murder of union organizers in Colombia). He might say "improving trade is a good idea, and here are some proposals from knowledgeable groups." But the specifics of a trade bill? Well, it would be untypical.
I don't trust the article, and I suspect that it could be Uribe-friendly media repeating Uribe wishful thinking--rather like how our Corpo media keeps saying that things are "improving" in Iraq. I would like to know exactly what Carter said.
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Well, guess what? Carter
didn't say anything. This is all Uribe! Just found this...
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A Huffington Post article, quoting the Carter Center (the quote with underlines, below):
"Colombian President Uribe Misleads Press About Carter's Intentions - Jimmy Carter NOT In Favor of FTAPosted August 27, 2008
"Though it has received scant press here, the Colombian media recently and enthusiastically reported that Jimmy Carter, after allegedly 'resolving his anxieties' about the labor situation in Colombia, would champion Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's bid for the Colombian Free Trade Agreement (FTA) - an agreement which Democrats have forcefully opposed and which Barack Obama himself is against. This news followed Carter's recent sit-down visit with President Uribe in Georgia and was based on President Uribe's representations thereafter that Carter would assist him in urging Congressional Democrats to pass the FTA.
"Surprised by this information, I contacted the Carter Center and received the following reply by e-mail:
"'PC (President Carter) has not yet adopted a public position. Uribe met with him during his recent visit to Atlanta. The media made its own interpretation. The Carter Center information office issued a clarification but it has not have the same impact.'
"Indeed, it was not the fault of the media for getting this information wrong. Rather, it was the fault of President Uribe who misled the press on this issue, just as his administration attempted to mislead the U.S. Congress in the spring of 2007 in another failed attempt to obtain passage of the FTA. At that time, a delegation of the Colombian government falsely claimed to Congress that the former director of the DAS (the Colombia's FBI) was innocent of the charge of passing a list of unionists to the paramilitaries to kill. In fact, as Gerardo Reyes of the Miami Herald later reported, Colombia's own office of the Fiscalia (Prosecutor) had concluded months prior to this false claim that the DAS director had in fact passed this hit list to the paramilitaries.
"It would be quite surprising indeed if President Carter, who is known as the 'human rights president' and who has certainly committed his post-presidential years to the promotion of human rights, would in fact align himself with such unworthy causes as President Uribe and the Colombia FTA. In fact, this would mark a dramatic reversal from the Carter Center's position on this issue up till now.
"As one spokesman for the Americas Program of the Carter Center, Associate Director Marcelo Varela-Erasheva, explained at a panel discussion which he and I jointly chaired at Emory Law School this past February, the FTA will only aggravate the horrendous humanitarian crisis in that country."(MORE)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/colombian-president-uribe_b_121871.html 
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