SEVERAL FORMER CLINTON administration officials–including Bruce Babbitt, Sandy Berger, Henry Cisneros, Richard Feinberg, Dan Glickman, Leon Panetta, Donna Shalala, and Ira Shapiro–have endorsed an open letter to Congressional Democrats urging them to ratify free trade agreements with Latin America.

“The United States is already virtually open to products from Colombia, Panama, and Peru through unilateral trade preference programs, but those economies do not give reciprocal benefits to the United States,” the letter reads. “Far from being ‘job killing,’ these trade agreements would open markets wider to U.S. goods and services and therefore support jobs in the United States.” In addition, the letter notes, trade expansion would help foster Latin American growth, bolster democracy, maintain strategic cooperation, and preserve U.S. regional influence in the face of a challenge from Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez.