Obama Opposes Vote on Colombia FTA

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Wednesday, 10.08.08
Obama Opposes Vote on Colombia FTA

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is against scheduling a congressional vote after next month's election on a free-trade agreement with Colombia, a campaign adviser said.

Concerns about violence against labor leaders and low worker organizing rates in that nation haven't been resolved, and labor rights must ''be addressed in a meaningful way'' before a vote, said Lael Brainard, who represented the Obama campaign at the Washington International Trade Association today. ``This is the moment the U.S. has leverage.''

Democrats in Congress earlier this year delayed a vote on the trade accord, and lobbyists have sought a vote after the Nov. 4 election in a so-called lame-duck session of Congress. President Bush made approval of the Colombia free-trade agreement a priority for his last year in office.

Philip Levy, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington and an adviser to John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, said he doubts Congress will vote on Colombia this year.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/718474.html

Sanctions can be dealt with openly and fairly. Cuba comes to mind. Trade agreements are a can of worms.

Colombian paramilitary leaders await sentencing in U.S.
Frances Robles
October 8, 2008 5:49 PM
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)

Right-wing warlord and drug trafficker Ramiro ''Cuco'' Vanoy took the stand in Colombia's special peace court this spring and calmly told a mother that her son's body was tossed in the river after he stole a rifle.

Another mother testified that she found her son's leg and wanted to know if Vanoy knew where to find the rest of his remains. The former commander of the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia's (AUC) Miners Bloc, who had admitted to some 200 murders, said he would look into it.

Vanoy and Francisco Javier Zuluaga-Lindo - the former commander of the AUC's Pacific bloc who's better known as ''Gordo Lindo'' - will be sentenced on drug charges Thursday before U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore. They pleaded guilty to a 1999 ''Operation Millennium'' indictment in a plea bargain that human rights groups say leaves victims of paramilitary violence still yearning for the one thing they most wanted: truth.

''It's worrisome for us victims, because it gives more importance to drug cases and sets aside crimes against humanity,'' said Jorge Salazar, a peasant who fled his town in the Alto Naya region in southwest Colombia when paramilitaries came through with chain saws. ''When they extradited them, they trampled over justice and made a mockery of our rights. We still want to know: who gave the order?''

More:
http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=NATIONAL&ID=565382627462610963

~snip~
Roxanna M. Altholz, Associate Director International Human Rights Law Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, said the U.S. government is not doing all it can to make sure the victims get justice. She represents victims of seven paramilitary chiefs, including bosses Diego Murillo (aka 'Don Berna') and Salvatore Mancuso.

''The reality is,'' she said, ''that they are striking deals with individuals who are responsible for more murders than Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.''