THE WASHINGTON POST
U.S.-Colombia base pact on the rocks
In the hemispheric fight against drugs and terrorism, the best thing Barack Obama and Colombia's newly inaugurated president, Juan Manuel Santos, can do next is back out of a year-old military agreement between their two countries.
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This might raise some knee-jerk hawkish reactions. But killing the agreement would help Colombia win sorely needed cooperation from its neighbors, especially Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez. Leftist FARC guerrillas use Venezuela as a haven and, with other Colombian criminals, run drugs and arms through there, Ecuador and Brazil.
The military pact, which governs U.S. use of seven Colombian bases, is seen by Chávez -- whether rationally or not -- as a threat. He almost went to war over it last year, and it also has cost Colombia support in the rest of the region. All this damages our interests against drugs and terrorism.
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