Word: colombia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Bush originally conceived the summit during the 1988 presidential campaign as a forum for reading the riot act to Latin leaders about their failure to curb the tidal wave of cocaine that continues to flood the U.S. But that was before Colombia embarked on its brave and costly offensive against the narcotraficantes and the U.S. launched its military strike against Panamanian strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega, stoking long-standing regional resentments of gringo imperialist intervention...
...angered by the Panama invasion was Peru's lame-duck President Alan Garcia Perez that he recalled his Ambassador to Washington and vowed not to attend the summit "as long as North American troops are illegally in Panama." After an appeal from Colombia's President Virgilio Barco Vargas, Garcia had a change of heart, and he now plans to be on hand in Cartagena. But tensions were further inflamed when in the heady days after Noriega's fall, the Pentagon clumsily leaked word of its plan to station an aircraft-carrier task force in international waters off Colombia's Caribbean...
Bush will reaffirm U.S. commitments to a consensual approach to fighting the drug lords. He will applaud Colombia's six-month-old crackdown against the drug barons. He will offer reassurances that except for the soldiers stationed at the U.S. Southern Command in Panama, there will be no American troops left in the region after the U.S. completes the withdrawal of its invasion force from Panama, perhaps by the end of this month. Bush hopes that once those assurances are given, Barco will agree to the deployment of the antismuggling naval task force and the installation of a U.S.-built...
...three countries will be seeking greater financial assistance from the U.S. Colombia will request trade preference for its $200 million annual export of cut flowers and a revival of the international coffee pact that lapsed last July, costing the country some $400 million. Also on the Latin leaders' wish list...
...summit is set against the backdrop of a continuing hemispheric drug scourge that shows little sign of abating. Colombia's effort to rein in the drug lords has scored some successes. Barco told TIME, "The leadership of the drug cartels has received a major blow. A number of members of the cartels have been extradited to the U.S. to face trial. Their leaders are hiding and on the run." In the past twelve months, troops have confiscated more than 1 million gal. of precursor chemicals used in cocaine refinement and 32 tons of cocaine and coca paste, compared with...