By ending the double standard on human rights and democracy that marked US policy toward Colombia under President Bush, Obama could go a long way toward restoring US credibility in Latin America.
In the midst of the economic crisis, the Bush administration has decided to spend its final days in office pushing for a trade agreement with Colombia that few Americans even know about.
SIR – The decision by the United States Congress to delay consideration of the free-trade agreement (FTA) with Colombia is not, as you suggest, because the Democrats have something “against Colombia”. Last year Congress approved hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for Colombia, and such assistance will probably continue. The debate over the FTA revolves around a separate question: whether free trade should trump human-rights concerns, or whether it should be premised on respect for human rights, especially the rights of workers producing the goods to be traded.
Jeffrey Simpson blames protectionism for opposition to U.S. and Canadian free trade agreements (FTAs) with Colombia. This ignores the real reason that groups concerned with workers' rights oppose the Colombian FTAs at this time: widespread anti-union violence, impunity, and the influence of paramilitary death squads.
Congress is right to delay consideration of the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA). What’s at stake here is a fundamental principle: that free trade should be premised on respect for human rights, especially the rights of the workers producing the goods to be traded.
RE "THE promise of a Colombia trade pact" (Op-ed, April 11): Edward Schumacher-Matos misrepresents the work of Human Rights Watch on killings of trade unionists in Colombia when he says we "imply" that all such murders are because of labor organizing.
If death squads with ties to the U.S. government were targeting Post reporters for assassination, I doubt that The Post would dismiss the problem by arguing that the murder rate for journalists was less than the rate for the District as a whole. Yet that is exactly what The Post did in dismissing the killings of trade union activists by paramilitaries in Colombia on the basis that trade unionists are still less likely to be killed than the average citizen ["The Sin of Speaking Truth," editorial, April 8]. Congress is right to delay approval of a free-trade agreement with Colombia until Mr. Uribe takes on the violent right as he did the violent left.
In the remote Nariño region of southwestern Colombia, one mother amongst many mourned her loss. "The paramilitaries said my son was a guerrilla," she told me last month. "They tortured him, tied him up ... and then shot him three times in the head in front of everybody."
For years, the Bush administration in the United States has stood by the government of President Álvaro Uribe in Colombia unconditionally, turning a blind eye to Colombia’s serious human rights problems. The Blair government in the UK, for the most part, quietly followed suit, providing substantial assistance to Colombia’s military with no strings attached. It’s time to rethink that policy.
By ending the double standard on human rights and democracy that marked US policy toward Colombia under President Bush, Obama could go a long way toward restoring US credibility in Latin America.
In the midst of the economic crisis, the Bush administration has decided to spend its final days in office pushing for a trade agreement with Colombia that few Americans even know about.
SIR – The decision by the United States Congress to delay consideration of the free-trade agreement (FTA) with Colombia is not, as you suggest, because the Democrats have something “against Colombia”. Last year Congress approved hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for Colombia, and such assistance will probably continue. The debate over the FTA revolves around a separate question: whether free trade should trump human-rights concerns, or whether it should be premised on respect for human rights, especially the rights of workers producing the goods to be traded.
It is not yet time for Congress to ratify the United States-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
Jeffrey Simpson blames protectionism for opposition to U.S. and Canadian free trade agreements (FTAs) with Colombia. This ignores the real reason that groups concerned with workers' rights oppose the Colombian FTAs at this time: widespread anti-union violence, impunity, and the influence of paramilitary death squads.
Congress is right to delay consideration of the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA). What’s at stake here is a fundamental principle: that free trade should be premised on respect for human rights, especially the rights of the workers producing the goods to be traded.
RE "THE promise of a Colombia trade pact" (Op-ed, April 11): Edward Schumacher-Matos misrepresents the work of Human Rights Watch on killings of trade unionists in Colombia when he says we "imply" that all such murders are because of labor organizing.
If death squads with ties to the U.S. government were targeting Post reporters for assassination, I doubt that The Post would dismiss the problem by arguing that the murder rate for journalists was less than the rate for the District as a whole. Yet that is exactly what The Post did in dismissing the killings of trade union activists by paramilitaries in Colombia on the basis that trade unionists are still less likely to be killed than the average citizen ["The Sin of Speaking Truth," editorial, April 8]. Congress is right to delay approval of a free-trade agreement with Colombia until Mr. Uribe takes on the violent right as he did the violent left.
In the remote Nariño region of southwestern Colombia, one mother amongst many mourned her loss. "The paramilitaries said my son was a guerrilla," she told me last month. "They tortured him, tied him up ... and then shot him three times in the head in front of everybody."
For years, the Bush administration in the United States has stood by the government of President Álvaro Uribe in Colombia unconditionally, turning a blind eye to Colombia’s serious human rights problems. The Blair government in the UK, for the most part, quietly followed suit, providing substantial assistance to Colombia’s military with no strings attached. It’s time to rethink that policy.