DEMOCRATS SEEK CHANGE ON LATIN AMERICA COURSE

Trade Agreements Likely to Undergo Significant Revisions

Bogota, Colombia -- For the past six years, Democrats have accused
President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress of pursuing
counterproductive policies in Latin America or of ignoring the region
altogether.

Now, following their victories in midterm elections giving them
control of the House and Senate, many Democratic lawmakers are
promising to seek subtle policy changes for the region on everything
from immigration and trade to U.S. military aid.

"We will be in a position to try to raise the profile of these
issues," said Tim Rieser, an aide to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.,
poised to take the chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee's
foreign operations panel. "Congress doesn't drive the ship, but it
has a big role in how far it goes and in which direction."

The first sign of a changed U.S. relationship was expected this week
when, after years of bare-knuckle negotiations, American and
Colombian officials gather in Washington to sign a trade agreement.
But congressional passage of the agreement, as well as a similar deal
with Peru, now seems in doubt because Democrats are generally more
skeptical of trade pacts than Republicans.

The most recent trade deal approved by Congress, the Central American
Free Trade Agreement, passed by just one vote last year in the
Republican-controlled House. In the Nov. 7 election, 34 House and
Senate seats switched hands from supporters of the current model of
international trade deals to critics, according to a study by the
Washington-based organization Global Trade Watch.

Some Democrats want to rewrite both the Colombia and Peru agreements
to include, among other things, more environmental regulations and
stronger guarantees for union organizers.

For now, it's unclear whether these issues can be resolved through
side agreements or whether the trade deals will have to be
renegotiated, which could take years.

"This doesn't mean they're dead on arrival. But they certainly will
be delayed," said Chris Sabatini, an official of the Council of the
Americas, a New York-based business organization.

As for Mexico, many Democrats reject the hard-line position of some
Republicans on immigration -- including proposals to fence parts of
the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Building a wall is not the symbol that the U.S. should have in its
relations with Mexico and there will certainly be a different tone
with the Democrats," said John Walsh of the Washington Office on
Latin America think tank.

But John Bailey, a Mexico expert at Georgetown University, said the
congressional power shift "will do little in the next biennium to
rescue the U.S.-Mexico relationship from the inertia of the past five years."

Bailey said the elections sent a mixed message on immigration, with
voters ambivalent about proposals that would make legal immigration
easier and with several conservative Democrats, who are immigration
hard-liners, elected in key races.

Farther south, Colombia stands as the largest recipient of U.S. aid
outside of Israel and Egypt, but many Democrats are pushing for
changes in how the money is spent.

Under the administration's "Plan Colombia" policy, the United States
since 2000 has spent nearly $5 billion in mostly military aid to
fight the country's narcotics traffickers and Marxist guerrillas.
Although security has improved in many areas of the country, the
rebels remain a threat while tons of Colombian cocaine and heroin
continue to reach the United States.

"Six years and $4.7 billion later, the drug-control results are
meager at best," Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., a member of the House
Democratic leadership in the outgoing Congress, told a congressional
hearing last June.

Many Democrats want to reduce military spending and use the money to
boost programs to fight poverty, relocate people displaced by
Colombia's 42-year civil war and encourage farmers of coca, the raw
material for cocaine, to plant legal crops.

"Democrats don't plan to walk away from Colombia. We just want to
make sure that our investment is smart," Rep. James McGovern,
D-Mass., a member of the powerful House Rules Committee, said.

Elsewhere in the region, analysts say the Democrats will likely urge
the Bush administration to foster cordial relations with leftist
leaders who have recently been elected, including Evo Morales in
Bolivia and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.

The goal, they say, is to prevent these governments from getting too
cozy with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who is running for
re-election on Dec. 3 and who stands as Washington's fiercest
opponent in the region. Democrats have been almost as critical of the
leftist Chavez -- who has called Bush "the devil" -- as the Republicans.

"It's hard to believe that there will be much interest among
Democrats in extending an olive branch to Chavez," said John Walsh of
the Washington Office on Latin America.

He noted that incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco,
once called the Venezuelan leader a "thug."