Labor killings in Colombia become issue in U.S. trade deal

[flashl]

Source: IHT

BOGOTÁ: Lucy Gómez still shudders when speaking of the killing of her brother, Leonidas, a union leader and bank employee who was beaten and stabbed here last month. His death was part of a recent surge in killings of union members in Colombia, with 17 already this year.

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Now these killings are emerging as a pressing issue in Washington as Democrats and Republicans battle over a trade deal with Colombia, the Bush administration's top ally in Latin America. The Colombian government is already struggling to recover from the latest salvo in the fight, a vote by U.S. House Democrats on Thursday to snub President George W. Bush and indefinitely delay voting on the deal.

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Some of the killings linger over commercial ties with the United States, Colombia's largest trading partner. Paramilitaries, for instance, killed three union leaders in 2001 who were employed by Drummond, an Alabama coal producer with operations in northern Colombia. A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, cleared Drummond last year of claims that it was responsible for the killings.

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For union leaders like Rafael Boada who are living with threats, the focus on violence is welcomed as part of the debate over the trade pact. Boada, a bank employee in Bucaramanga in northeastern Colombia, escaped with his life on March 7 after two gunmen on a motorcycle shot at him, their bullets lodging in the windshield of his car.

IHT

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/13/america/bogota.php?page=2

[Peanut Butter]

1. And they MUST be

If any trade agreement pretends to be a fair trade agreement