Colombia's Horrific Labor Abuses Are Among a Long List of Reasons to Oppose the Colombia FTA

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia's Horrific Labor Abuses Are Among a Long List of Reasons to Oppose the Colombia FTA

1. Spring 2008: Uribe government ties to right-wing paramilitaries and union murders exposed

• In 2008, Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world in which to be a trade unionist. The number of unionists murdered in Colombia in the first quarter of 2008 is nearly double that of the first quarter of 2007, with 17 killed. During the presidency of Álvaro Uribe alone (August 7, 2002 – present), 434 unionists have been murdered – one fourth of these were highly visible union leaders. Indeed, in every year, more unionists are murdered in Colombia than in the rest of the world combined. According to Colombia's National Labor School, the leading source on the topic, over 2,571 trade unionists have been killed since 1986.
  
  
• government has not been a neutral or benevolent actor in Colombia's human rights nightmare. Uribe was referred to in a 1991 U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report as a drug trafficker and a "close personal friend" of drug baron Pablo Escobar. More recently, this spring, the controversial Colombian president has been under federal investigation in Colombia for accusations of helping right-wing paramilitaries plan a 1997 massacre of 15 people. And Uribe's former intelligence chief, Jorge Noguera, is under investigation for handing over lists to paramilitaries of union leaders and other left-wing figures who were singled out for assassination.
  
  
• In April, Colombian prosecutors ordered the arrest of Mario Uribe, the president's cousin and closest political ally, who presided over the Colombian Senate and is accused of ties to paramilitary groups. Mario Uribe then sought political asylum in the Costa Rican embassy in Bogotá, which denied his request as "inadmissible." The Colombian Supreme Court has identified paramilitary ties to 65 current and former members of the Colombian Congress. Thirty-two lawmakers have been detained so far, with 26 of these from Uribe's governing coalition. Thirty-three additional legislators are under investigation, including 29 from Uribe's coalition. These include Nancy Gutierrez, a leader in Uribe's political party who serves in a position equivalent to that of House Speaker. To relate this to the U.S. context, it would be as if the president, Senate majority leader, and House speaker were all simultaneously convicted or under investigation for ties to terrorist groups.
  
  
• The Uribe administration often claims to have "demobilized" right-wing paramilitaries. But Colombian officials have documented a shift of former paramilitaries into new gangs with different names, whose ranks number up to 5,000 people. These groups continue to murder civilians and engage in drug trafficking. For instance, on March 6, 2008 human rights groups held a peaceful rally in Bogota against paramilitary violence. In the lead-up to the march, Uribe's principal advisor (and Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar's cousin) José Obdulio Gaviria responded by repeatedly and publicly labeling these protestors as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) supporters, including in a national radio broadcast. On March 11, a paramilitary gang called the Black Eagles sent out death threats that named 28 of the human rights defenders collectively denounced by Gaviria. Four trade unionists associated with the march were assassinated, as were many other civil society leaders, and many others have been threatened, beaten and harassed.
  
  
• Human rights groups have also documented an increasing trend of extrajudicial killings of civilians by the Colombian military, who then plant FARC paraphernalia on the victims' bodies to pass them off as guerrillas. According to the Los Angeles Times, "A macabre facet of a general increase in ‘extrajudicial killings' by the military, ‘false positives' are a result of intense pressure to show progress in Colombia's U.S.-funded war against leftist insurgents… The killings have increased in recent years amid an emphasis on rebel death tolls as the leading indicator of military success, the human rights groups say. Even Colombian officials acknowledge that soldiers and their commanders have been given cash and promotions for upping their units' body countsMore:
  http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7585&secID=1152&catID=126
  

[prolifedemq]

1. Bullshit

Uribe is the most Liberal leader Colombia has seen in 20 years. Not to mention these abuses have gone down in amount in recent years, while there are still abuses the level of improvement on part of the Colombian goverment is unparalleled. The Right Wing links are pure bullshit, nothing of substance has ever come out on Uribe and he's removed everyone with dirty links from his cabinet.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Sorry you had to leave. Truly. What a loss. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

3. Canadian opposition slams Colombia free trade deal 09 Jun 2008 21:08:30 GMT

Canadian opposition slams Colombia free trade deal 09 Jun 2008 21:08:30 GMT
Source: Reuters
By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA, June 9 (Reuters) - Canadian opposition legislators on Monday strongly criticized Ottawa for agreeing to the terms of a free trade deal with Colombia, suggesting it had only done so because the move would help U.S. President George W. Bush.

The Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper unexpectedly announced on Saturday that it had reached a deal with Colombia and worked out agreements on human rights and environmental issues, both areas of concern to critics.

The news came as a surprise to a Canadian parliamentary committee that recently visited Bogota and was in the process of writing a report on whether an agreement should be signed.

"The Prime Minister has made no secret of his support for George W. Bush on Colombia -- they've been quoting each other for months," said Navdeep Bains, the international trade spokesman for the official opposition Liberals.

"What I never expected was for the government to subvert the work of Parliament."

In Washington, Democrats have delayed a vote in the House of Representatives on a U.S. free trade deal with Colombia on the grounds that Bogota has not done enough to stop murders of trade unionists.

More:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09411356.htm