CLICK FOR VIDEO - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe promotes a free trade agreement between his country and the U.S. at a rally in Atlanta. CLICK HERE FOR PART 2

While in Atlanta for the Americas Competitiveness Forum, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said members of both parties in the U.S. Congress should come together and approve a free trade agreement with his country.

With Carlos Gutierrez, the Republican administration’s secretary of commerce, and U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, a Democrat from New York, looking on during a rally for the local Colombian community held at the North Druid Hills High School gymnasium, Mr. Uribe called for a bipartisan coalition to approve the FTA.

“We cannot understand why the United States doesn’t want to approve a free trade agreement with Colombia,” he told the several hundred supporters who came to the high school on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 17. “We have had a long bilateral tradition of excellent, excellent relations.”

Mr. Uribe added that the FTA would reassure foreign investors in Colombia as well as boost productivity at home with the result of improving competitiveness.

He also referred to the Plan Colombia of the Clinton administration that awarded Colombia $1.3 billion in aid to help restore order and improve the country’s economy, a measure that was passed in a spirit of bipartisanship that he would like to see revived.

The Colombia FTA has been stalled in Congress since it was introduced in April.  Many Democrats are opposed to the pact because of the violence experienced by union organizers in that country. In his remarks, Mr. Uribe said that the violence against organizers has been reduced greatly and the murder rate for organizers is less than that of the general population.

He was one of three Latin American heads of state attending the conference, which attracted 1,000 or so attendees including some 50 cabinet level officials from throughout the Western Hemisphere, to discuss best practices in economic development and job creation.

El Salvador’s Antonio Saca and Alvaro Colon Caballeros of Guatemala also participated in the forum, but did not attend the Colombian rally.

Mr. Uribe warmly praised the Colombian mayors who accompanied him to Atlanta from Colombia for their courage, citing the many mayors who have been killed by drug traffickers at home.

Mr. Gutierrez, a confirmed free trader who has been promoting actively FTAs with Colombia, Panama and Korea, praised him for his leadership.

A former CEO and chairman of Kellogg Co., Mr. Gutierrez added in his introduction of Mr. Uribe that the Colombian president had conducted “one of the most remarkable turnarounds of any company or any country” that he had ever witnessed.

He underscored the importance of the FTA with Colombia, saying that “there was too much at stake” for it not to be passed.

He specifically cited the importance of trade between the U.S. and Colombia, the national security of both countries and political stability in the Western Hemisphere as reasons for supporting the agreement.

Mr. Gutierrez also pleaded that the Democrats allow the vote, which, he said, would pass if given a chance.  In addition, he praised Mr. Meeks for supporting the FTA in the face of opposition from his party’s leadership.

Mr. Meeks said that he has visited Colombia often and witnessed its economic progress and improved political stability under Mr. Uribe, adding that he opposed his party on this issue because “it was the right thing to do.”

He went so far as to credit the words of Martin Luther King Jr. with giving him the courage to go against his party’s leadership.

Mr. Meeks also described the economic improvements that he had witnessed on his trips to Colombia and recounted positive conversations he had had with Colombians on the streets of its capital, Bogota, as well as in the countryside.

Camilo de Bedout Herrera, Colombia’s consul general based in Atlanta; Rafael Maldonado, president of the Colombian American Chamber of Commerce in Atlanta and Thomas Strauss, network director of the U.S. Export Assistance Center, attended the rally.