Colombia fires PR firm with Clinton link

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Colombia's government announced Saturday it had broken its contract with a top strategist of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who has opposed the pending US-Colombia free trade pact.

Bogota said it was terminating its contract with public relations giant Burston-Marsteller, which it hired in 2007 to promote the free trade pact but whose chief executive, Mark Penn, is an advisor to Clinton on her campaign to win her party's White House nomination.

The action came after Penn said he had made "an error in judgement" in meeting with Colombian ambassador to the United States Carolina Barco on March 31, and said he would not make the same mistake again.

"The Colombian government considers this a lack of respect to Colombians,...