Last November, the Bush administration signed a free-trade agreement with Colombia that would give the Andean country access to American markets on favorable terms. In the months since, Colombian president Alvaro Uribe has conducted a high-priced lobbying campaign in Washington to persuade Congress to ratify the deal, officially known as the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement
Uribe already has President Bush on his side. On the other side, though, stands the American labor movement. It has stood firm, and it is gaining ground.
A little background: Colombia has a long tradition of labor activism. It was a 1928 strike against the United Fruit Company that inspired Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Until the mid 1980s, Colombian workers were among the most organized in Latin America.
Today, however, Colombia is the deadliest place on earth to be a trade-union member. More than 2,500 union activists have been murdered in the last 20 years — more than in all the rest of the world. Carlos Castaño, head of the right-wing paramilitary umbrella group United Self Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC — which acts in concert with the Colombian military — once said, “We kill trade unionists because they interfere with people working.”
The massive military aid that the United States has provided to Colombia — more than $4 billion over the last five years, a higher total than to any country outside of the Middle East and Afghanistan — means that Washington has effectively been underwriting Colombia’s goons and anti-labor assassins.
Scenarios like this one are common: According to the highly respected research organization U.S./Labor Education in the Americas Project, a day after flower workers in Medellin tried to organize last February, Colombian soldiers visited the work place and warned the workers that they would be declared military objectives if they did not cease their activities. They ceased, lest they end up like thousands of others — disappeared or dead.
Even by Colombia’s official count, the impunity rate is appalling: At least 98% of the murders are never solved. It’s no wonder, given the sympathies of the government. Uribe himself has accused the labor movement of having ties to the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, the murderous left-wing guerilla movement, and he has called a murdered union activist a “terrorist.”
According to a 2006 report by the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, this impunity for the killers is the largest single obstacle to workers’ rights in Colombia today. Although the recent arrests of more than a dozen Colombian lawmakers for colluding with the paramilitaries is a promising sign of the emerging independence of Colombia’s institutions of justice, it is also alarming confirmation that widespread governmental collusion is a reality.
Much of the American aid has gone to “Plan Colombia,” which was begun by the Clinton administration. It originally focused on the fumigation of drug crops and the strengthening of the military, but later expanded to include support for combating of insurgents, prosecution of drug moguls and demobilization of paramilitary death squads.
Uribe touts the success of the demobilization program; he did so in May before the American Jewish Committee, which bestowed upon him its “Light Unto The Nations” award. Labor and human rights activists say that the demobilization program is mostly a sham. Even those few kingpins who are serving prison sentences continue to mastermind crimes from behind bars because their jailers give them unrestricted access to cell phones.
But Bush is a big fan of Uribe, whom he calls his “personal friend.” Bush spent seven hours in Bogota in March, and praised Colombia’s progress in establishing the rule of law.
As for the rule of law that Bush enjoyed during his stopover in town, it took 21,000 police officers to protect the American delegation, the motorcade traveled at speeds of up to 60 miles an hour under heavy military guard, the route was lined with manned submachine guns visible on the streets and rooftops, a second motorcade served as a decoy and much of downtown was shut down for the day. Bogota was the only stop on Bush’s Latin American tour where the president did not spend the night.
Another of Colombia’s friends in seeking passage of a trade agreement — as well as a renewal of Plan Colombia, which was approved by the House two weeks ago — is former President Clinton, whom Uribe honored at a gala event with 500 guests dinner during his trip to New York in June. (Al Gore, it’s worth noting, pulled out of an environmental meeting in April rather than share a stage with Uribe.) Many big corporations, including that well-known friend of labor, Wal-Mart, are rooting for the trade deal.
But the American labor movement has been full tilt against it. In a letter sent to Congress on June 11, a broad coalition of American trade unions declared that Uribe’s newly minted promises to protect union members and prosecute killers is “too little, too late,” and that “he should be told to come back in a couple of years when we assess whether there has been real, concrete progress.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed amenable to taking the free trade agreement off of this year’s legislative agenda, but other congressional leaders, notably Rep. Charles Rangel — chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which handles trade legislation — were playing their hands close to the vest.
A significant victory came on Friday. The leadership of the House and Senate, including Pelosi and Rangel, announced that there will be no FTA until Colombia shows concrete and sustained results on the ground on impunity, violence against trade unionists, and dismantling paramilitaries. For now at least, American producers will not have to compete with Colombian producers whose workers often cannot exercise basic rights without risking their lives.
Yet such battles are rarely won decisively. Uribe has already criticized the Democrats for failing to “respect” his government. At least we, for the moment, can respect and applaud ours.
Kathleen Peratis, a trustee emerita of Human Rights Watch, is a partner in the New York law firm Outten & Golden.
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The United States has a bastion of support in Colombian citizens that recognize the freedoms and inherent spirit of our beloved country. They use It as a model for social and economic change, and as a proud American, so do I. I have done my share to defend the country in its time of scrutiny from a vigilant and demanding opposition around the globe. Most ardently so in Colombia; I have repeatedly convinced both inteligencia and cab drivers of the merits of the FTA, and did so in the knowledge that a successful Trade Agreement would be beneficial for both countries economically, and resoundingly so for the United States from a perspective of Foreign Policy. By highlighting the negative aspects of the Country, ignoring the positive energy, spirit and momentum the Ways and Means Committee has effectively driven a traitorous stake in the back of what could have been the most evident display of the success of a democratic free market economy, and a stoic ally in the face of an increasingly vocal, popular and dangerous anti-American rhetoric in the world - and of particular consequence in the region. I think that the situation as it unfolds in Colobmia in the form of resentment, confusion and an up-tick in US apathy could be a self inflicted coup de grace that will unravel the progress that the current Colombian Administration has achieved. Mr Uribe's government has created an economic environment that has brought the country to the cover of Business Week (for the right reasons) and it did so in a country that has been paralyzed by violence, corruption and fear for far too many decades. To say that I am ashamed by the House and Ways Committee's decision would be a far short of reality. I am incensed by the failure to look at the long term effects that US Trade relations would have on demanding internationally acceptable human rights treatment by established and burgeoning business. Have we forgotten the importance of economic pressures? Do we not see that an admittedly spotty human rights record is no reason to use the stick as opposed to the carrot to bring about change. How quickly we forget our own checkered past, where it took years of yellow journalism and public outcry to bring about change in business practices. With facility that we now have to convey information, Colombian companies would be keen to present their own social responsibility in the hopes of developing a market in the United States, if not on a matter of principle. Furthermore foreign investment bring foreign attitudes on social and labor rights. To criticize the heavy handed and potentially short-sighted leadership of our president while not recognizing the failure to put Human Right's Groups important yet inflammatory reporting into perspective is downright embarrassing, and shows a lack of backbone that I fear our representatives are showing ever more frequently. Our republic has been established to put intelligent and competent people into positions of leadership in the hopes that they will have the foresight to do what is correct, and not to be swayed by the fickle and and often myopic views of their constituency. After 36 years in office I will not tell you how to get re-elected, you know this better than most, but I will remind you that you have our confidence to do the right thing - even if you find it hard to justify given a potentially one-sided inflammatory perspective that the public encounters through 5 second sound bites and two line blog updates. The Colombian government and people are focused on change - we should laud their efforts, not use childish political tactics to avoid dialogue (what could Ms Pelosi have lost by meeting with the Colombian President?). Colombia's recent ability to chip away at years of corruption and government collusion is more than simply noteworthy. FARC violence and government inaction prompted extreme measures (and like became extreme to the point of horror). The violence has abated in an impressive manner, in general, and toward unionists. Colombia has a history of organized labor unions (which was brutally disrupted in the late 1980s and 1990s) - this organized front will come back. Our congress has committed a breach of trust - and the US would to well by showing the Colombian people that indeed really is a leader, knows economics, and invests in countries because that is good and sustainable economic and foreign policy - not just because Plan Colombia is supposed to help the US drug fiasco. Let us remember the success of the Marshall plan, and remember a time when the United States was the champion of the free world. It seems silly that ineptitude on both ends of our county's narrow political spectrum are keeping our brilliant country tarnished.
Ms. Peratis exhibits stunning ignorance about Colombia. It is true that labour representatives have been killed. So have employers, policemen, politicians, and thousands of other innocent peoples. Some have been killed by the right, some by the left and many more by those who have enriched themselves thanks to the inability of the United States to curb its appetite for drugs. The consumption of drugs in the USA has corrupted Colombia to the core. This would not happen if coffee prices were higher than those of cocaine and, irony of ironies, the goods and services produced in Colombia could enter the USA unimpeded. Requesting that Colombia practice labour practices denied in the USA (freedom of association in Wal-Mart, for example) is hypocrisy at its crassest. It is true that much has to be done to improve the lot of workers in Colombia, but the USA with its dismal respect for international labour standards is hardly the country to provide an example. Impeding commerce with a large economy, furthermore, only strengthens the hands of drug cartels disguised both as paramilitaries and guerillas by justifying a trade that hurts the US only slightly less than it is hurting Colombia. Finally, in blocking a trade agreement, the USA is denouncing a president that has strengthened the institutions that can foster human rights. The stupidity of the USA policy is only as magnificent as the ignorance exhibited by Ms. Peratis.
Dear Kathleen, you seem to have a very mediocre view of Colombia. It is surprising how you can gather the death of a foreign country as Colombia in a few figures. Colombia is not a deadly place for workers as you are saying. It's true that there are things that need to improve better, but you seem to be ignoring, as some Democrats (eg Pelosi, Rangel) that there had been improvements, considerable improvements, that not even Human Rights Watch has ignored. Recently, 11 honorable politicians that had been captive for about 6 years were shot dead by FARC terrorists, and the campaign for a humanitary accord for exchange of hostages for jailed terrorists had their survival as its core. But FARC, which in Europe and here in the US send their emissaries to convince they represent the interests of the left and social ideas, killed them. I don't see why a national and private vendetta of these Democrat representatives with President Bush for power has to take Colombia as the excuse for it. Colombia has progressed, there's a difference now between what that country used to be and what now is. You can't IGNORE reality, and the more you ignore it, the less the United States will be able to heal old cuts with Latin America. Human Rights things have to be discussed on the basis of Plan Colombia and now a FTA with Colombia. Democrats had a clear record of not supporting Human Rights and labor clauses in Trade Agreements, and I don't know since when they are interested in those; since Colombia appeared on scene, since Bush was reelected. The problem with Colombia has been that people had been quiet about their internal situation, while FARC-ELN-AUC terrorists had been sending to Washington and to Europe their liars to tell things that are not true: that Colombia is governed by a dictator, that the government sponsors the murder of trade unionists, that leftism in Colombia has been repressed, etc. That's bull[word deleted]. Colombia is perhaps, with Brazil now, the most solid democracy in Latin America, it's not like Ecuador where Presidents are frequently overthrown by the people, it's not Peru that was governed for a decade by a real dictator, it's not Chile that is still haunted by the Pinochet regime (which Democrats happily supported despite a clear human rights violation record), it's not Argentina with its many corruption problems and fragile democracy, it's not Venezuela with its tyrant now in power and a coup d'etat less than 5 years ago... Colombia is one of the most solid democracies in the world, since 1959 without interruption Presidents had been elected without threatens, and there's nothing to applaud there, Mrs Peratis, for our mistaken vision. Now, it is a terrible lack of disrespect to our ally, Colombia, that two congressmen think that they can dictate foreign policy to a sovereign government, and that they can do that even over President Bush, that sadly, is still our President. Colombia can't pay for Bush's mistakes. Colombia is not an ally of George Bush as an individual, Colombia is an ally of the American people. It happens that Mr Bush is our President, but Uribe will too retire one day and Colombia will still our friend. We are indebted with Colombia for one reason: speaking honestly about the United States, to more than 6 countries in South America that hates us. They are not loving us, Mrs Peratis, and I'm sure that even if we elect as our next president a Democrat, things will not improve much. For years, Democrats as Republicans had abandoned Latin America in their quest to protect always far away territories as Vietnam, Afghanistan and now, Irak. But what about Latin America? For us was great to keep the stability in the region (as we did) with a few dictators, and no one in Congress during those dark years stood up for Human Rights in countries that blatantly violeted them (Pinochet can be compared with Pol Pot, as the Argentinian dictators with Amin). Now, when we can start to get things right, we just laugh and shut the possibility of trade with a crucial friend, which is Colombia. Poverty won't be aliviated in Colombia as long as we, Americans, won't help them to finish their 50-year old struggle against terrorism. They need to end that war so that more money in the budget can be targeted to fields as poverty, education, health and housing. We need to understand that. We can't ask impossibles here. The actual government of Colombia has made great progresses, as an American I have researched those figures, and I know, if we support them further, much will be achieved. So, here, there's no laugh. The big laugh is for our enemies in South America, who will be able to laugh until they die doing it, for we, Americans, we'll be more isolated in our own hemisphere from the rest of it. Mr Peratis: we have got it wrong. Latin America hates us. There are more anti-yankee feelings there than anywhere in the world, because we have failed them. The applause, for now, is not for you or for me or for our Democratic-controlled Congress. The applause is for Colombians, that remain despite our indifference and domination, our loyal friends.
Under ATPDEA trade preferences, Colombia gets to trade tariff-free with the U.S. ATPDEA is a presidentially decreed trade privilege that is offered to all Andean states in exchange for assistance in fighting the war on drugs. A free trade pact, by contrast, allows American companies to trade tariff-free in exchange for Colombian companies having the same rights. So in effect, 'punishing' Colombia by witholding a free trade pact is doing so by the strange means of keeping U.S. companies out of Colombia's markets, because the ATPDEA trade privileges are already in place. American producers most certainly as I write this do have to compete with Colombian producers in Colombia, but Colombian producers do not have to compete with U.S. ones under the current ATPDEA arrangement. Free trade would end Colombia's one-way privileges and instead create a platform for permanent development and growth. For most people, a stable, prosperous Colombia is far better than an unstable, uncertain, drug-addled one. Dope dealers, as you well know, don't need free trade pacts.
Its nice to see a 'Jewish' Daily Forward article about a non-US country with, as is so frequent, no mention of the Jews of that country and what they think.
I'm not surprise you are an HRW, the ones how always praise the guerrilla.Do you know that less than 1% of peolple belive in the Human Rights Watch comments?Most of the people think you are guerrilla's best allies in the world.LIARS!!!