Colombia sacks Mark Penn

The government of Colombia has terminated its contract with Mark Penn’s lobbying firm one day after the senior strategist to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said it was a mistake to meet with the government’s officials about a pending free trade agreement.

Colombia said Penn showed “a lack of respect for Colombians” that was “unacceptable” when he said the meeting earlier this week was “an error in judgment.” The remarks were made in a statement released by Colombia’s embassy.

{mosads}Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) have battled over trade in their fight for the Democratic nomination, and both have slipped because of meetings on trade their advisors have had with foreign government officials.

Penn met with Colombia’s ambassador in his capacity as head of the lobbying firm Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, which has conducted public relations and communications services for Colombia for the approval of a trade agreement with the U.S.

The meeting was quickly criticized by the Change to Win union coalition, which called on Clinton to remove Penn from her campaign. Change to Win has endorsed Obama for president.

According to the most recent records filed with the Department of Justice, Penn’s firm earned more than $122,000 from Colombia’s government between May 1 and Oct. 31 of last year. The records show the firm signed a contract in March 2007 with Colombia worth $300,000.

Obama was criticized ahead of Ohio’s primary after reports that one of his economic advisors met with Canadian officials and suggested his rhetoric against the North American Free Trade Agreement would be stronger than any actions he’d take as president. Clinton’s campaign criticized Obama over the reports, and some observers believe the episode helped her earn a convincing victory in Ohio.

The two candidates are now battling ahead of the April 22 primary in Pennsylvania, another state where trade could be a key issue.

Both Clinton and Obama are on record as opposing the Colombia trade deal, which is one of President Bush’s top legislative priorities this year. Bush is expected to send legislation implementing the deal to Congress as early as Monday in an effort to force it to take a vote on the deal.

Both Democratic presidential candidates have criticized Colombia for not doing enough to protect labor organizers from violence. Unions have highlighted murders of labor organizers in Colombia in calling for the deal to be rejected.

Presumptive GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) supports the deal.

Colombia in its statement said it would continue its efforts to show the improvements in the country’s “economy, social and security indicators” to different sectors in the U.S.

This story was updated at 1:22 p.m.