Insisting On Free Trade Agreements Is Unethical

On March 6th, after participating in the "Solidarity Action for the Victims of Terror in Colombia," I went to catch the plane back home to Minneapolis from Washington D.C.

While the passengers were boarding the plane, I read one of the last reports about the uselessness of having spent close to $6 billion of U.S. taxes on Plan Colombia (the political plan to fight drugs and terrorism). I re-read how this war has displaced 4 million people, and how those who robbed these displaced people of 5 million hectares of land are the most powerful 4% in the country, and how this tiny percentage now possesses 61% of the land. In that moment I thought how incredible it seems that some politicians continue supporting this same insane plan that has only brought war and destruction.

Ah, and speaking of politicians, as if my thoughts had somehow communicated a prayer to the evil spirits, I was brought back to reality due to a commotion with some of the passengers: Someone with the smile of a veteran campaigner was greeting the passengers and shaking hands. It was Norm Coleman, Senator from Minnesota.

Immediately my mind flashed back to March 21, 2005 when I heard Coleman present a report of his work at a forum at the University of Minnesota. He had invited a panel of researchers and US experts recently returned from Colombia. Part of the forum was a glowing presentation of the work of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe with respect to human rights. As each presenter spoke I became convinced that the "so-called" experts seemed to all have the same source for their information, that of corrupt Colombian Congressmen, many of them presently incarcerated precisely because of their links with paramilitaries and also for having planned ordered massacres.

In the face of such misinformation and cynical lies, I intervened showing only two examples; the photographs of eight victims of the Massacre of San Jose de Apartado, committed by soldiers of the 17th Brigade of the military and paramilitary, just one month prior to the forum.

I also showed a photo of Aldemar Campos, Colombian social leader who was assassinated in front of his wife and his two young daughters near Bogota, and I asked Coleman, "How can anyone sleep in peace while their hands are marked in blood and how can those who are covering these lies sleep in peace?" I presented a brief summary of the humanitarian crisis that Colombia is suffering, the assassination of unionists and social leaders and the complicity of politicians including Alvaro Uribe with what we, in Colombia call "Narco-paramilitarism," or the militaristic politics corrupted by intimate ties to narcotics trafficking. I also spoke about the consequences of passing the free trade agreements, and that is when Coleman was so upset that he prohibited me from continuing. He stated, "Uribe is our ally and we will continue supporting him. The human rights situation in Colombia is just fine."

Those bad memories hit me in that moment in the airport, and I immediately stopped to speak with Coleman. Maybe he remembered me because his smile disappeared. Those present paid more attention. There, at the airport, I handed him this report about the disasters of Plan Colombia and the horrible effects of free trade agreements. He took it looking at his assistant and he said: "I have been to Colombia four times." And I responded, "I know. But I lived in Colombia my whole life, until I had to flee in exile because of persecution by the government."

In the end, Coleman, President Bush, and other politicians cannot continue hiding the fact that their main ally in Latin America is a government that is penetrated in many of its institutions by terrorism and narcotrafficking, including the Colombian Congress which negotiates free trade agreements. This single fact itself makes it illigitimate, unethical, and immoral to continue insisting on ratification of the FTA.

For now the free trade agreement is put on hold, but the tragedy in Colombia continues: As of April 9, 2008 17 unionists have been assassinated this year, plus the 2,524 between 1991 and 2007, and many of the intellectual authors of these murders are still in their positions of power in the government, in the corporations, and in military barracks. From there they will continue insisting on the passing of free trade agreements which serve their interests, but that do nothing to resolve the deep social and economic inequalities that exist in my homeland.

Thousands of Colombians and social organizations will continue working for fair trade that respects human rights, cultural rights and sovereignty. We are not alone.

Comments

[Liberal2]

The War on Drugs is simply making a lot of bad people wealthy and helping to finance terrorists.

We can't stop human nature, and taking drugs is a common theme in all cultures. The answer is legalizing all, yes *ALL*, but only allowing adults to buy them from a pharmacy. Adults would have to apply for a license to buy these drugs. The price of the drugs would be low to break the gangs that import and sell them on street corners. A tax would by placed on the drug to fully fund rehab clinics, especially the ones that do the "overnight" cures using drugs that instantly end addiction (a person must be sedated, the withdrawal here, although brief is extremely painful if conscious). So these clinics would be no cost to addicts.

Any adult selling or giving drugs to a child is given a long prison term. A child selling drugs is given one pass on first arrest, offered rehab; on second arrest---prison! This ends sales to children and the creation of a new generation of addicts.

Illegality of drugs allows criminals to sell to children. But removing the adult buyer, children can not provide sufficient profit to maintain the gangs needed for street level sales.