In Colombia, a Washington Sales Pitch

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Washington Post

In Colombia, a Washington Sales Pitch
Bush Administration Leads U.S. Lawmakers on Visit Aimed at Free Trade Pact

By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 19, 2007; Page A15



Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), who described himself as undecided on the Colombia
trade accord, talks with Gen. Freddy Padilla, commander of the country's armed
forces, after arriving in Nueva Bellavista.

Photo Credit: Twp

MEDELLIN, Colombia -- The U.S. congressmen were speedily transported in vans with tinted windows, their convoy escorted by policemen on motorcycles who ensured that no car ventured close. When the lawmakers stepped out, guards carrying M-16s watched wearily, whispering into microphones on their sleeves.

What the congressional delegation was told in Medellin, however, is that this city is no longer among the most dangerous in the world. In fact, its recovery has been "nothing short of a revolution," one American official said.

For the six lawmakers, led by the U.S. commerce secretary, the story of Medellin was presented last weekend as part of a larger success story in Colombia. It's one that the Bush administration is vigorously selling in Washington as it tries to prod Democrats, and not a few Republicans, into supporting a free trade pact with President ¿lvaro Uribe's government, the United States' closest ally in Latin America.
(snip)

It's extremely worrisome -- the record of a government in Colombia that spends a lot of money and effort on self-promotion but not enough on real progress," said Jos¿ Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch, the New York-based group. "I hope these congressmen don't let themselves be fooled by this dog-and-pony show."





Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/18/AR2007101802228.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Bush, Uribe action needed to save Colombia deal

Bush, Uribe action needed to save Colombia deal
Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:45pm EDT
By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A free trade agreement between Colombia and the United States could hinge on actions that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and U.S. President George W. Bush take for workers in coming months, two U.S. lawmakers said in separate interviews on Tuesday.

Although Uribe has made impressive progress in reducing violence from a decades-old civil war, many Democrats want more evidence he is serious about bringing the murderers of trade unionists to justice, said Rep. Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat just returned from a trip to Colombia.

Engel, who chairs a Western Hemisphere foreign affairs subcommittee in the House of Representatives, said he told Uribe: "I thought Colombia really had to do something dramatic to show that it was serious (about ending impunity for murderers of trade unionists) -- that it was really going after these people and it wasn't just lip service."

The AFL-CIO labor federation has fiercely opposed the trade agreement with Colombia, which it has called the most dangerous country in the world for unions. It has accused Alvaro's government of failing to aggressively prosecute hundreds of cases of murdered trade unionists.

The Bush administration has been trying to persuade members of Congress to visit Colombia and judge for themselves the progress the country has made.
(snip/...)

http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN1622908020071017

[Peace Patriot]

2. The OP article states that the Bush Junta isn't so worried about getting a

global corporate predator deal with Peru. The Colombian deal is the one that is in some trouble in Congress, due to the slaughter of union organizers and others by rightwing paramilitaries with close ties to the Uribe government.

But just give the "war on drugs" and "free trade" some time, and it will make a killing zone of Peru as well.

Bush seems quite desperate to provide some global corporate predator venues for his rich puppetmasters. I think quite a lot is riding on his ability to deliver up some Latin American countries to their tender mercies. His own neck may be on the line. They've lost their easy pickins in the Middle East, that's for sure. And South America is undergoing an historic and huge social justice and democracy movement, with U.S. corporations, its military and police state forces, its murderous and failed "war on drugs," the World Bank/IMF (global corporate predator loan sharks), and "free trade" (fuck the poor), all being rejected by country after country. There are now leftist (majorityist) governments elected in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, and Paraguay will likely be next--also Nicaragua to the north (Daniel Ortega elected), and boiling-just-beneath-the-surface social justice/democracy movements in Mexico, Guatemala and Peru. The fascists in Mexico barely averted a leftist victory last year; and CAFTA just squeaked by in Costa Rica--with both countries seeing enormous demonstrations against "free trade" and associated rightwing policy.

The Bolivarian countries (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina) are leading this amazing revolution, and are organizing new agencies, such as the Bank of the South, to further Bolivarian goals of Latin American self-determination and regional cooperation. And what is happening within each of these countries provides spectacular evidence of the benefits of Boliviarian ideas, in improved democratic processes and improved lives. Our war profiteering corporate news monopolies are black-holing news of the successes of Bolivarian government, but Latin Americans are more savvy at getting the "under the radar" news than our people are. They KNOW what's going on. Or at least they have faster and better people-to-people communication, even though many of them are poor and don't have internet access. Our people eventually find things out, but often way late. The Bolivarian Revolution is like a wildfire. Show people some democracy and social justice, and their hearts ignite. The workers, peasant farmers and other poor people in Colombia know what's going on in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. They hear it from returning Colombian immigrant workers in those countries.

So Bush--who is despised by most Latin Americans (and even by some of the few remaining rightwing leaders, I think)--is up against it. He must deliver more looting and killing fields, from the dwindling possibilities--and against a wildfire of positive change. I think impeachment and disgrace--that is, abandonment by his corporate sponsors--is what is hanging in the balance.