Colombia trade deal doesn’t pass the smell test

Colombia trade deal doesn’t pass the smell test
By Jess Hunter-Bowman - 06/21/11 11:05 AM ET

Thanks to a multimillion dollar lobbying campaign by the Chamber of Commerce and the Colombian Government, many in Congress erroneously believe that the human rights and labor rights situations in Colombia are improving.

The truth is that just in the past decade, 30,000 innocent civilians have died in the country’s bloody civil war. Another 3.3 million have been violently driven out of their homes and off of their land. The U.S.-backed Colombian state security forces themselves have been implicated in thousands of murders in recent years.

And again in 2010, more trade unionists were killed in Colombia for their union activities than in the rest of the world combined.

Corporations seeking profits in a country at war have unleashed paramilitary death squads to protect their profits. Chiquita, for example, is still paying a Justice Department fine for bankrolling brutal killers for over a decade responsible for at least 14,000 murders.

More:
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/167539-colombia-trade-deal-doesnt-pass-the-smell-test

is expendable, as is the environment and natural resources. These agreements are akin to a crack smoking pit bull on steroids.

When we pointed out why, we were told we got it all wrong, that we just didn't understand them and know enough about how good they were.

After they passed the "fast track" ( ahem, railroaded....bum's rush ) and became law, and our fears and concerns were realized and justified, the same people that said "trust us" now tell us to just shut the fuck up because that's the new way it's gonna' be, like it or lump it.

....And the cycle repeats itself with each passing trade deal.

..doesn't pass the smell test.

What did Campaign Obama say about Free Trade?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LtbLEKHsi0&NR=1