CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA — While Sen. McCain slammed his Democratic rival repeatedly as a flip-flopper on trade policy aboard his flight from Indiana to Colombia, upon landing in Cartagena for the start of his 3-day Latin American swing McCain stayed true to his pledge to leave all politics at home — or at least on the plane.

“The only discussion I had concerning the presidential campaign was that I believe that that any partisanship ends at the waters’ edge. I do not speak about the presidential campaign,” McCain said at a press conference alongside President Alvaro Uribe after meeting with the Colombian leader Tuesday night. “I only discuss the issues of trade, of drugs, of better relations, of the situation with the FARC, a long list of issues - none of them having to do with the presidential campaign.”

But that answer came only hours after McCain held a nearly hour-long, in-flight session with reporters aboard his new campaign plane during the flight abroad where he hit Obama over and over on trade, including the Democrat’s opposition to  the Colombian Free Trade Agreement.

“I don’t switch my position depending on what audience or what time it is in the electoral calendar. I think Americans want a leader they can trust and have confidence in and I believe that they will more and more see where Senator Obama has switched his positions on fundamental issues-not really cosmetic issues but fundamental issues,” McCain told reporters, noting that Obama has softened his rhetoric on free trade agreements months after blasting them during the primaries

“Now he has switched, I mean remarkably, from saying that he would unilaterally renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement in the strongest possible terms in Ohio - he went to North Carolina and said well, I’m for free trade. And also said that…he doesn’t believe in unilateralism,” McCain said.

McCain’s strongest rebuke came after he was asked if his openness to more free trade agreements could be a political liability this fall–especially in Midwest swing states suffering manufacturing job losses. He compared his trade stance to his support for the surge in Iraq, noting that he is willing to take on causes that seem unpopular at the time.

“I didn’t think that my position on Iraq may not have resonated with certain people. I have to do what I believe is right for this country. I’m a student of history,” McCain said, as two of his allies, Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman nodded as they sat on the floor alongside media and staff in a very packed compartment of the campaign plane. “But I also want to add very quickly that I understand the pain people are going trough. I understand the challenges. That is why I have come forward with a strong, viable education and retraining program for displaced workers. And so, to just be for free trade which is somehow it’s portrayed is one thing. But the fact is, I want free trade but I want be able to help displaced workers be helped right now. And we have a concrete, specific plan to do that.”

For his part, McCain continued his advocacy for the trade agreement on the ground at the Cartagena press conference, and while he avoided addressing Obama, he did call on the Democratic Congress to put the trade bill to a vote.

“I believe that the benefits of our trade have been very significant,” McCain said. “I just know that free trade is an important issue, not only for Colombia but I believe for the economy of the world and as you know, for the United States economy…I would urge that to start with that a vote be allowed in the United States House of Representatives.”

RIVERSIDE, CA — Sen. McCain announced Tuesday that he is headed south of the border next week, his second international trip in nearly 10 days, as he continues to tout his foreign policy experience.

“I want to go to Colombia as it is a vital ally in our struggle against the scourge of drugs, a great amount of cocaine that comes into the United States of America as we know comes from Colombia. Colombia is succeeding and they are succeeding in combating the FARC,” McCain told reporters in Riverside, adding that he also wants to reiterate his support for Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. “I want to thank him. I want to know how we can work more closely together. I want to assure him that I believe in free trade between our two countries, that I believe our two nations can work together and fight back this scourge of drugs that has so much afflicted their country and ours. And so I will be telling him that.”

The trip will also serve as a contrast with Obama, who has never visited Latin America and who opposes the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. McCain supports the agreement, which is currently held up in Congress.

McCain’s three-day trip to Colombia and Mexico in the wake of last week’s Canada visit, during a campaign which has seen him go abroad more than a dozen times.

According to the campaign he has visited the following countries during his time as a candidate:

• Iraq (four times)
• Kuwait (four times)
• France (twice)
• Germany (twice)
• Switzerland
• Pakistan
• Jordan
• Israel
• UK
• Canada
  

Fox News has confirmed that Senator John McCain will visit Colombia in July. He will be meeting with Colombian president Alvaro Uribe during his visit to the South American country. Colombia’s largest daily, El Tiempo, first reported McCain’s trip today, and pointed to three Colombian cities where the Republican likely nominee may visit: Bogota, Medellin and Cartagena.

This will be the 3rd time McCain has visited Colombia , but this trip is a quick one, according to El Tiempo, it will only last one day.

This will be McCain’s 2nd voyage abroad this year as the likely GOP nominee. In March, in an effort to show case one of his perceived strengths, foreign policy, McCain visited Iraq, other parts of the Middle East,and Europe. The trip to South America seems to be a maneuver in the same vein: to further contrast himself, and his extensive foreign policy record against, what the McCain campaign considers, an Obama weakness.

A day after the Wall Street Journal reported that senior Clinton strategist Mark Penn had met with the Colombian government to discuss how to pass a free trade deal with the US that Senator Clinton herself opposes, the Columbian Embassy says the country has terminated it’s contract with Penn’s firm Burson Marsteller because of Penn’s “lack of respect.”

The campaign aide’s PR company inked a $300 million deal with the Colombians to help shepherd the free trade agreement through the legislative process. But after Penn’s meeting became public, Clinton was reportedly livid.

Sources within Hillary Clinton’s campaign told Major Garrett that staff “outrage” was at a boiling point over the Monday meeting. Clinton herself was unaware of the sit-down until it was revealed in the press, and expressed her displeasure directly to her top strategist. Other Clinton officials were furious that Penn, already unpopular within the campaign, would divert attention from Clinton’s campaign to curry favor with the Colombian government on behalf of a free trade deal.

Penn was forced to apologize privately and publicly, releasing a statement saying “the meeting was an error in judgment that will not be repeated and I am sorry for it. The senator’s well known opposition to this trade deal is clear and was not discussed.”

Today, the Colombian government released a statement saying it was ending its arrangement with Burson Marsteller precisely because of that apology — saying it demonstrated “a lack of respect to Columbians.” Specifically, the government said that calling a meeting with it’s ambassador an error in judgment was “unacceptable.”