McCain evokes war on drugs

US Republican presidential hopeful John McCain waded into drug policy Wednesday, on the second day of a Latin America tour meant to burnish his foreign policy and national security credentials.

McCain wrapped up an overnight stay in Colombia, the world's top producer of cocaine, and was to travel to Mexico, the main route for illegal drugs flowing into the voracious US market, later in the day.

"Drug cartels have basically taken control of some towns on the Mexican border," McCain told ABC News Wednesday, speaking from Colombian seaside resort of Cartagena.

"There is clearly a continued threat of drugs pouring into the United States of America, which can harm us and our young people very badly."

The Arizona senator praised progress Colombia has made against drugs and the leftist insurgent FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, after a lengthy meeting late Tuesday with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

"Certainly it's my view that significant progress has been made against the FARC in the presidency of President Uribe," McCain said of the rebel group, whose hostages include three US nationals seized in 2003 during anti-drug operations in the region.

McCain, in a tough battle against Democrat Barack Obama to win the White House in the November 4 election, is hoping to use the Latin America 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.

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.

On Monday, McCain savaged Obama over his opposition to the pact 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.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) meanwhile launched a new attack against McCain, accusing him of appeasing big business at the expense of US workers.

"We are seeing nothing but a continuation of the economic policies that have failed working people, not just the working people in Colombia but working people in this country," said DNC vice-chair Linda Chavez-Thompson.

"Senator McCain is going to follow George Bush's failed economic policies, we can't afford that," she said on a conference call with reporters.

Mark Levinson, chief economist of the Unite Here trade union, said McCain should worry more about the plight of US workers than new trade pacts.

"It is clear that whatever he is doing, it is not in the interests of US workers," he said.

"The situation with the Colombia trade agreement is a particular outrage.

"There are more trade unionists killed in Colombia than the rest of the world combined.

"While John McCain is in Colombia, Senator Obama is in Ohio, ground zero of the affect of these bad trade deals in the US economy.

"We think this just highlights the stark difference between these two candidates."

McCain was to leave for Mexico City later Wednesday for talks on Thursday with President Felipe Calderon, the recipient of fresh US aid for its fight against drugs.

The US Senate last week approved a 1.6-billion-dollar, three-year package of anti-drug assistance to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean known as the "Merida Initiative."

An underworld war between rival drug gangs and police has escalated into open bloody conflict in Mexico in recent weeks, with more than 1,500 people killed this year, some 500 of them in the northern border city of