Economy & Trade, Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean, North America

US-COLOMBIA: Dismal Rights Record Shadows Uribe Visit

Eli Clifton

WASHINGTON, Jun 7 2007 (IPS) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is back in Washington for the second time in just over a month to lobby for a U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement (FTA) but he faces significant opposition from human rights groups and within the U.S. Congress itself.

At a press conference Thursday, Reps. Jan Schakowsky, Jim McGovern, Linda Sanchez, Betty Sutton and Phil Hare, all Democrats, and leaders from civil society and labour groups made their case for why the George W. Bush administration and Congress should reject Uribe’s campaign for an FTA this year.

“If I had been born in Colombia, there is a strong possibility I would not be here with you today. I could be dead,” said Hare, who served as a union leader before running for Congress. “In Colombia, my fight for higher wages, better working conditions, and a secure pension could have cost me my life – 2,100 labour leaders have been murdered in Colombia since 1991. There have been only 37 convictions.”

Congressional resistance to the free trade deal focuses on the ongoing intimidation of trade unionists and Colombia’s notoriety as a country where more trade unionists are murdered than in the rest of the world combined.

Of specific concern to some legislators and human rights groups are the links between right-wing paramilitaries and individuals entrenched in the military and political establishment.

The FTA faces an uphill battle to overcome the perception that Uribe’s government has consistently ignored calls to improve human rights in Colombia and the political challenge faced by U.S. legislators coming up on a presidential election year where free trade agreements, which are seen as sending U.S. jobs overseas, are notoriously unpopular.

Uribe’s previous visit at the beginning of May, when he visited several prominent Democratic legislators and think tanks, did little to swing political support to his camp.

His answers to questions about human rights abuses were seen as evasive and rambling, and his verbal attack on human rights activist Jose Miguel Vivanco at a dinner hosted by Senators Mel Martinez and Ken Salazar further damaged his image.

“We are ready to improve whatever we have to improve,” Uribe told the Council of Americas, an association of sympathetic businesspeople who support the proposed trade accord. “My government needs every day to apologise for mistakes – never for crimes – because our fight is to (rid) Colombia of crime.”

That was a theme that he found himself repeating during his visit, particularly during an appearance at the Centre for American Progress, a predominantly Democratic think tank, where, uncharacteristically, he personally engaged the protestors for some 10 minutes on the street before entering the building.

“Last time all he did was read everyone statistics about how great everything was in Colombia and it didn’t go over too well,” Adam Isaacson, director of the Colombia Programme at the Centre for International Policy, told IPS. “The last trip probably made things even worse for him. He did not know how to talk with Democrats.”

At the press conference this morning, held in the same building in which Uribe was meeting with legislative groups such as the Congressional Black Caucus, representatives expressed anger and frustration with both Uribe’s apparent unwillingness to protect labour organisers and union leaders and the Bush administration’s continued support for “Plan Colombia” – a major anti-drug initiative – and the FTA.

“No more unenforceable lip service (to human rights) inside trade agreements,” said Sanchez. “If our president doesn’t want to stand up for the Colombian workers then President Uribe should.”

“(Uribe) keeps coming back because he doesn’t like what he hears: ‘Human rights, human rights, human rights’,” said McGovern. “We should not be talking about a free trade agreement for another year until we see progress.”

Plan Colombia may also be headed for major changes as the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations has approved a bill that would reduce the ratio of military to humanitarian related aid from its current levels of 76 percent military aid and 24 percent humanitarian aid to a more even 55 percent military and 45 percent humanitarian.

The proposed reduction comes amid reports that attempts to reduce coca cultivation in Colombia have failed even though the U.S. government has invested 31 billion dollars in Plan Colombia over the past decade.

Coca cultivation in Colombia climbed 9 percent to 388,000 acres last year and the street price of cocaine dropped, while quality increased, despite the wide use of aerial fumigation funded by Plan Colombia.

“The FTA isn’t going anywhere and I think we have the votes to do that,” said McGovern. I don’t think it will go to the house floor until (human rights conditions) improve.”