CARTAGENA, Colombia (AFP) — US Republican presidential candidate John McCain lauded Bogota's fight against drug trafficking and endorsed the festering effort at a US-Colombia free trade pact during his first stop in a campaign swing through Colombia and Mexico.
"First I want to congratulate you, on your success on Plan Colombia to first reduce and then eliminate the flow of drugs from your country to mine," Senator McCain said Tuesday after a more than 90 minute meeting with Colombia President Alvaro Uribe in the coastal city of Cartagena.
Colombia authorized the extradition of 26 of its citizens to the United States where they are accused of trafficking drugs, the presidency said in a statement.
Four women are among those to be sent to the United States, the government said Tuesday, while one person is also to be extradited to Peru under similar circumstances.
Since August 2002, when President Alvaro Uribe took power, the government in Bogota has extradited more than 500 Colombians, the majority of them to the United States and primarily for drug trafficking and money laundering offences.
McCain also complemented Uribe on his government's fight against the the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has held scores if not hundreds of people hostage for years.
"Certainly it's my view that significant progress has been made against the FARC in the presidency of President Uribe," said McCain.
McCain, in a tough battle against Democrat Barack Obama to win the White House in the November 4 election, arrived in Colombia Tuesday afternoon, hoping to use the trip to score points over Obama in the arenas of trade and foreign policy.
He was accompanied by his wife Cindy McCain, independent Senator Joseph Lieberman and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
The Arizona senator's itinerary seemed designed to appeal to Hispanic television stations in the United States, serving the Latino voting bloc which is a growing force in key western battleground states.
"With this visit, McCain is recognizing Colombia as a top US ally," campaign spokesman Hessy Fernandez told reporters earlier.
McCain will meet officials and local business leaders on Wednesday, before traveling on to Mexico City for talks on Thursday with President Felipe Calderon.
After his talks with Uribe McCain also gave his backing to the US-Colombia free trade pact agreed by Uribe and US President George W. Bush but now stalled in the US Congress, where opponents cite Colombian government violence against trade unions.
"I just know that free trade is an important issue not just for Colombia but for the world and the US economy," McCain said.
Despite McCain's close support for Uribe, the Colombian government staked out an even-handed position on the US election ahead of his arrival.
"We have worked well with Democrats, well with Republicans, and expect to continue doing it," Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo told RCN network radio on Tuesday.
"Of course the doors will be open for candidate Barack Obama if he wants to visit us."
McCain's trip is the latest in a flurry of foreign forays by the presidential rivals, designed to burnish leadership credentials on the world stage, and to flesh out dueling foreign policy visions.
McCain traveled to the Middle East and Europe after clinching the Republican nomination earlier this year, and has just returned from Canada.
Obama is expected to visit Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Britain, France, Germany, Israel and Jordan in coming weeks.
On Monday, McCain savaged Obama over his opposition to the US-Colombia free trade agreement, and accused him of being unwilling to recognize the magnitude of the Uribe government's duel with FARC, the long-running leftist rebel movement.
"He doesn't support the Colombian free trade agreement. I think it would have very serious consequences if we rebuked our closest ally," McCain said.
"FARC is a long way from defeated, but the progress that has been made is remarkable. Senator Obama doesn't want to reward them, Senator Obama believes that Plan Colombia is wrong."
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