Glover Park Meets Bogota

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To defend Colombia's "scandal-tainted government before a skeptical [U.S.] Congress," and to "revive an important trade deal and maintain a strong military aid package," the administration of President Alvaro Uribe has hired a Democratic Party-associated U.S. lobbying firm, for $40,000 a month. The Glover Park Group firm's "founders include former Clinton White House spokesman Joe Lockhart." Neither the firm nor the Colombian government would comment on the contract. Uribe met with President Bush and "more than a dozen Democrats" on May 2. Congressional Democrats are "refusing to ratify" a U.S.-Colombia free trade deal, due to labor and human rights concerns. Uribe "has been dogged by accusations that close political allies backed and benefited from the murderous right-wing militias" in Colombia. "Eight pro-government lawmakers have already been arrested." Last month, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt.) "froze $55 million in aid to Colombia's military over concerns about its human rights record."