Speaking at a press conference with his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, President George W. Bush announced on Sunday that he would urge Congress to pass the US-Colombia free trade agreement and continue financing Plan Colombia.

During a face-to-face meeting, both leaders pledged to keep fighting drug trafficking, outlined their belief in the peace process between the government and paramilitaries from the Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, while also discussing the bilateral trade relationship.

The Plan Colombia which Bush promised to keep supporting is an anti-drug and counter-guerrilla initiative dating back to 2000, which has seen Colombia receive US$3.5 billion in US government support, primarily targeting its military.

Hundreds of protestors protested against Bush's visit outside Casa Narino, Colombia's seat of government in its capital, Bogota. Police and military forces cordoned off Bolivar Place, in central Bogota, relegating the crowds to adjacent streets.

"The complaints are directed against (Colombia's president) Alvaro Uribe, for accepting the visit of a man who represents the most reactionary sectors of US society and who is pursing an absurd and bloody war in Iraq," Jorge Robledo, leader of the protests told media.

Robledo, hailing from the left-wing Alternative Democratic Pole party, slammed Bush for spreading poverty by making trade agreements that were skewed to benefit only the United States.

Arriving from Uruguayan capital Montevideo, for a short trip to Colombia, Bush was met at the airport by Colombia's Foreign Minister, Fernando Araujo, as major security measures were put in place.

Colombia's proximity to Venezuela thrusts the Bush-Chavez rivalry into the limelight. Chavez is currently on his own tour of the continent, consistently attacking Bush, and labeling him a hypocrite and an imperialist.

For his part, Bush avoided referring to Chavez by name during his visits to Brazil and Uruguay, where his overtures to free market-oriented leftist leaders aim to halt Chavez's momentum in fostering a regional socialist revolution.

Bush's message has been a softly-spoken approach of poverty alleviation and of promoting democracy in a region where its effects in closing the poverty have so far been negligible. 

Judging by the street protests, Bush's transformation has so far convinced few of his detractors. His motorcade passed demonstrators wielding banners that read "Bush murderer" and "Bush genocide" on Saturday night in Montevideo.

Bush will leave Bogota later for Guatemala, the penultimate stop in a Latin American tour that began on March 7 in Brazil, and will encapsulate Uruguay and Mexico.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily via agencies March 12, 2007)