Mar. 13, Feature - An issue that hasn't received much attention on the campaign trail - Latin America. Beyond Cuba's transition from Fidel to Raul Castro, the region is rarely mentioned. Even the crisis between Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela two weeks ago was nearly ignored by the candidates. Even though the three countries were on the brink of diplomatic war and threats of a military war after Colombia crossed over their Southeast border into Ecuador to bomb members of the Colombian resistance, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Something Colombia President Alvaro Uribe has apologized for.

The United States was one of the few countries to stand behind Columbia's cross border attack, supporting its chief ally in Latin America, President Alvaro Uribe. Every Latin American nation decried Colombia's move.

But last Friday, the Council of Foreign Relations held a conference call with foreign policy advisers from each of the three Presidential campaigns who were asked about their candidates' stance.

Republican John McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann, former adviser to Secretary of Defense and Adviser to Presidential Candidate Bob Dole outlines McCain's position, which is the same as President Bush's.

"Senator McCain is forthright about speaking in behalf of one of our strongest allies in the hemisphere, president Uribe, he has clearly put up with cross border sanctuaries for far to long with FARC and in the name of hot pursuit going after FARC which is a terrorist organization…. Uribe was absolutely right in doing what he did. If the governor of Ecuador couldn't control his own border and to allow terrorists operate at will in Colombia, certainly Uribe was with in his rights."

Democratic Senator Barack Obama's foreign policy adviser Dr. Susan Rice, who is former undersecretary of African Affairs under the Clinton Administration says Obama has a similar stance as McCain.

"I'm puzzled by Randy's statement. Obama issued a statement in which he was very clear that Colombia has a right to defend itself and that was an act of self defense. So I don't see a major difference on that. He's also gone on in a subsequent statement to express real concern about Venezuela's build up on the border and threatening posture that proposes so the entire region is of real concern. So the United States is not doing much good by it's long standing policy of demonizing Chavez, here is a case where the actions of the Venezuelan government do need a sharp check."

And Senator Clinton's informal adviser, Maya Rudman, echoes the previous two remarks.

"On the specifics on this, Senator Clinton and Senator Obama is very similar positions. With respect to Venezuela and Chavez that among the major concerns there are the US dependency on foreign oil and the need to develop a much stronger strategic energy plan overall."

Colombia receives more than a billion dollars in US aid, primarily in weapons and for drug eradication. Robert Naiman, is Senior Policy Analyst at Just Foreign Policy. He says the candidates statements on the Colombian Ecuador crisis don't represent a change in US policy from from the Bush Administration.

"The Colombian action in Ecuador was a clear cut violation in international law. There was not right in international law to engage in a military operation in the territory of a county in which you're not at war," except in hot pursuit.

"Failing to recognize this is a violation of Ecuador sovereignty, this is very troubling. This puts the three characters along with US policy in an isolated position in Latin America.

As for broader Latin America policy, Naiman says differences to exist.

"We can say there are some distinctions between the candidates. The policy of the Bush Adminstration which Senator McCain has embraced has been for 100 percent military escalation. Both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama have stressed the need to engage more in diplomacy both called for diplomacy in the wake of this incident."