Reid, Berkley taking trips

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid will return to Latin America on a weeklong trip that begins Sunday and will include meetings with the presidents of four nations, his office announced.

Reid, the Senate majority leader from Nevada, will lead a seven-senator group to Guatemala, Colombia, Paraguay and Mexico.

They also will travel to the "tri-border" of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina that is said to be a lawless base for terrorist groups.

Meanwhile Wednesday, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., confirmed she will embark on her first trip to Iraq over Christmas.

Berkley, who had been the only Nevada lawmaker not to visit Iraq, said she will be part of a group led by Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

The group will leave on Dec. 22 and return to the United States on Dec. 28. Details are being withheld for security reasons, her spokesman said.

"I am confident that we will hear a very frank assessment on the future Iraq and the effects of U.S. efforts in the region," Berkley said. "For me, this was the right trip to make, at the right time and with the right delegation."

Berkley had sought to travel with Skelton, an influential committee chairman.

Reid's travel marks the second time in a year he will have gone to South America. A spokesman said the senators will discuss "trade, counter-narcotics and national security."

"This is an area that has been largely ignored by the Bush administration that is heavily bogged down in Iraq," spokesman Jon Summers said.

The senators will meet with presidents Felipe Calderon of Mexico, Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, Nicanor Duarte of Paraguay and Oscar Berger of Guatemala, Reid's office said.

In Guatemala, the senators also will meet with Rafael Espada, who was elected vice president earlier this month and will be sworn into office Jan. 14. President-elect Alvaro Colom will be out of the country, Summers said.

At the tri-border area, the visitors will review the outcome of stepped-up information sharing and law enforcement among Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, Summers said. The area has been described as a haven for terrorist sympathizers with ties to the Middle East, criminal money laundering of cocaine revenues, counterfeiting, and arms and drug smuggling.

While there, the delegation also will spend about 21/2 hours at Iguazu Falls. The scenic waterfall is nearly twice as tall as Niagara Falls, and was featured in the James Bond movie "Moonraker," and in "The Mission" starring Robert DeNiro.

Reid will be accompanied by his wife, Landra, and several aides. Other senators on the trip will be Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

Further details of the trip were not made public, with Summers citing security as a reason.

At the end of last year, Reid led a six-senator delegation to Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru that departed on Dec. 27, the day after Gerald Ford died.

Reid, who had been selected Senate leader a month earlier, was criticized by some Republicans and conservatives for not cutting the trip short and missing a Jan. 2 Washington memorial for the former president. When Reid did return the next day, he attended a service in Grand Rapids, Mich., before Ford was interred at his presidential museum.