In reality, the most unsettling thing for Mr Bush may be the embarrassment of visiting a close political ally when Bogota is embroiled in a series of political scandals.

The current problems for Colombia’s President, Alvaro Uribe, began with the surrender last year of Salvatore Mancuso, the former leader of notorious right-wing paramilitary group, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC).

The paramilitaries initially sprang up as a defence against the left-wing guerrilla movement Farc and were funded by landowners and the wealthy business elite. However, the AUC and its offshoots quickly took over large areas of the drugs trade themselves and were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

Mr Uribe brokered a peace deal with the paramilitaries during his first term that guaranteed leaders of the AUC would face no more than eight years in jail. This includes Mr Mancuso, who admitted more than 300 murders.

But problems began to deepen when Mr Mancuso produced a copy of the so-called “Ralito Agreement” signed by leaders of the AUC, 11 members of the Colombian Congress, two provincial governors and five city mayors. As a result, in mid-February the coun-try’s Supreme Court ordered the arrest of six congressmen, including Alvaro Araújo, brother of the Foreign Minister, over alleged links to the AUC. Shortly afterwards, the Foreign Minister, Maria Consuelo Araújo resigned, fuelling suspicions that AUC links reached the highest levels.

Kevin Turner, a Colombia expert at Nottingham University, said: “If a connection is made between the US government’s support and the paramilitary organisations or their political representatives, then the US could be perceived to be indirectly supporting a terrorist organisation.”