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 WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush warned Congress on Wednesday that failing to approve a trade deal with Colombia would fuel the anti-American regime of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and cast the United States as untrustworthy and impotent across South America.
The intensity of Bush's rhetoric reflected the importance of the deal to him — and the fact that he's fast running out of time to get it done. Democrats have objected that Colombia's government has not done enough to halt violence, protect labor activists and demobilize paramilitary organizations.
"If Congress were to reject the agreement with Colombia, we would validate antagonists in Latin America, who would say that America cannot be trusted to stand by its friends," Bush said in a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
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