His Brand is Crisis:Carville, Colombia and BP

[Judi Lynn]

May 31, 2010

His Brand is Crisis
Carville, Colombia and BP
By NIKOLAS KOZLOFF

Some people are just nostalgic and seemingly can’t get enough of the go-go Clinton years. Ever since 1992, the year his paymaster vanquished George H.W. Bush, high level marketer James Carville has backed political candidates in Latin America identifying with Bill Clinton’s militaristic and free market approach to the region.

A political guru, frequent CNN pundit and a personality who was featured in the well known documentary The War Room, Carville moves in powerful circles in the U.S. What’s less commonly known, however, is that Carville is also a virtual kingmaker in Latin America --- indeed, his professional contacts have ranged from Mexico’s Ernesto Zedillo to Brazil’s Fernando Enrique Cardoso to many others.

His latest stint is the troubled Andean nation of Colombia, which is fast approaching its presidential election. There, according to Colombian magazine Semana, Carville has offered his consulting services to Juan Manuel Santos, a former Minister of Defense and member of the governing Social Party of National Unity or Party of the U. Santos, who is trailing in recent polls against Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus, hopes that a bit of Carville’s previous luster will rub off on him.

He needs all the help he can get: as I pointed out in a recent article, Santos has been sullied by judicial investigations into allegations by human rights groups that the armed forces killed hundreds of civilians who were passed off as rebels downed in combat operations. The scandal took place under Santos' watch while the latter served as Minister of Defense. Though the future presidential candidate was quick to demote top officials, an investigation is still ongoing.

In a sense, it’s not too surprising that Carville would back Santos, a militarist who has favored the U.S. free trade agenda. As president, Carville’s paymaster Bill Clinton supported the Colombian elite to the hilt by supporting Plan Colombia and a $1.3 billion aid package to the Andean nation which waived human rights conditions. Later, once out of office Bill backed the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement and met with President Álvaro Uribe personally in Bogotá. Wife Hillary, who Carville advised during the presidential campaign of 2008, did not support the free trade deal. However, her strategist Mark Penn was employed by the Colombian government to push for the initiative .

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/kozloff05312010.html