Uribe to face tough audience in U.S.

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — After five years in office, President Alvaro Uribe is beset by charges that his close associates have been cozy with murderous paramilitaries and that his government has illicitly wiretapped its citizens and failed to protect the safety of labor organizers. Moreover, Colombian cocaine production is as robust as ever after billions of dollars in American aid spent to curb it.

When Republicans were in control of the U.S. Congress, Uribe, a U.S.-educated ally of President Bush, managed to convince the leadership that despite ongoing problems, he was still fighting against drugs and terrorism as best as could be expected.

Now as Uribe arrives in Washington today on one of his frequent trips to lobby Congress, the tables have turned. At this pivotal point in binational relations, he faces a Democratic majority far more prone to blame him for a slew of human rights abuses, the alarming alleged paramilitary connections to his government and the failure to slow cocaine production.

The latest setback occurred Monday, when the White House released a survey showing that despite massive spraying of defoliants to wipe out coca crops, farming of the base material for cocaine in Colombia grew 9% in acreage in 2006, the third straight year of increases. The growth came despite a 24% jump in spraying, prompting critics to call for a new approach to the Plan Colombia anti-drug and terrorism aid package, which costs the U.S. $700 million a year.

Interviewed in his office this week in the ornate Spanish Colonial presidential palace prior to his departure, Uribe displayed the stubborn streak that has proved a political asset at home, where he enjoys a 70% approval rating, and until recent months in the halls of the U.S. Congress.

Uribe downplayed the White House survey and waved off suggestions that the anti-coca spraying program was a failure. He said the statistics released this week showing coca cultivation rising for the third consecutive year left him "confused."

Uribe said a separate survey of coca cultivation directed by the United Nations will show an 8% drop in acres planted with coca bushes. Those results are to be released next week, he said.

Besides, he has "many reasons" to believe illicit drug production has declined in Colombia, he said. "We have dismantled paramilitaries, weakened the guerrillas and reduced the narco-economy."

Disarmament cited