FTA

It has been reported that Colombia President Alvaro Uribe will be in Washington DC on September 9th to do a tour of Congress and meet with the media to make his case for the Colombia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA). This will then be followed by a visit in New York for a meeting of the United nations later in the month.

According to Colombia Reports, this will be a last ditch effort by the Colombian President to secure Congressional support for the deal. However, this comes on the tail of yet another trade unionist killing in Colombia in recent days.

Labor leaders in both the U.S. and Colombia continue to resist efforts to secure the bi-lateral trade deal between the countries, believing that a completed deal will open up the flood gates of paramilitary killings of labor officials and workers attempting to seek collective bargaining rights in the workplace in the Latin American country. In addition, critics of the proposed trade deal point to the failure of the Uribe administration to bring paramilitary leaders and soldiers to justice for the decades long killing sprees.

On a related note, Dan Kovalik, writing for the Huffington Post noted what the Colombian press has been reporting that the Uribe administration has falsely claimed that former President Jimmy Carter has endorsed the FTA.

“PC [President Carter] has not yet adopted a public position. Uribe met with him during his recent visit to Atlanta. The media made its own interpretation. The Carter Center information office issued a clarification but it has not have [sic.] the same impact.”

This suggests that the Uribe administration’s apparently despirate attempts to gain passage of the FTA are unbound.   

Popularity: 12% [?]

It’s August here in Washington during a presidential election year. Not much is getting accomplished. Zip, nada.

However, quivering in the empty halls of Congress is the Colombia-U.S. Free trade Agreement, full of hope for passage, its anxious parents in Bogota and Washington twisting arms like an angry mom at a kids soccer game. “Let him play coach. Let him play!” But Johnny, or perhaps we should call him Juanito, has been a very bad boy. Like the kid who plays too rough on the field, tripping other players, going out of bounds and denying any foul, Colombia wants to play but certainly doesn’t deserve the opportunity. [click to continue...]

Popularity: 11% [?]

Business as Usual for Trade Unionists in the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

The Inter Press Service published an article on July 22nd that describes in some grizzly detail the slaying of Guillermo Rivera, a trade unionist in Colombia who turned up missing some weeks ago. Constanza Vieira writes that witnesses to Rivera’s disappearance noted that he was abducted by state security forces. His body revealed that he had been tortured prior to dying. So far this year, 28 trade unionists have been killed, mostly by the government and its related paramilitary forces. Unfortunately, these facts go largely unnoticed in the U.S. press as the faltering debate continues about the proposed Fair Trade Agreement between the two countries is bandied about by the pro-free trade forces in both countries.

While free trade agreements can be a positive step in economic development, the situation in Colombia demonstrates the need for such agreements to address labor rights concerns as a condition for implement of such agreements.

As was noted in the IPS article, most extrajudicial killings in Colombia go uninvestigated. Virtually none of the killings result in the perpetrators being brought to justice. Implementation of the Colombia FTA will validate the injustice. 

Popularity: 6% [?]