Levin: Major changes needed before Colombia trade pact can proceed

[Judi Lynn]

Levin: Major changes needed before Colombia trade pact can proceed
By Howard Schneider, Tuesday, March 29, 11:21 PM

The government of Colombia needs to make extensive changes to its laws and bolster its protection of union members before a free trade agreement moves forward, a key Democratic lawmaker said Tuesday in the most explicit statement yet of the hurdles facing the proposed Colombia-U.S. trade deal.

The comments by Rep. Sander M. Levin(D-Mich.), ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee and an important voice on trade issues, shows the quandary faced by the Obama administration. It is trying to push a recently negotiated agreement with Korea through Congress amid Republican demands that long-pending deals with Colombia and Panama move as well.

Levin’s comments in a speech at the Peterson Institute for International Economics raise the prospect of Democratic opposition to the Colombia deal in particular. He urged the administration to pursue separate action on the different agreements, and to pressure the Republican House leadership to vote on Korea now. The work to be done on the other agreements, particularly Colombia, can’t be rushed, Levin said.

“They need to change their laws and they have to take steps” to ensure that workers can organize and that violence against union leaders is prosecuted, Levin said. Although Levin said he believes the new administration of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is sincere about improving conditions for unions in the country, the reforms that are needed are complex and have been stymied in the country’s legislature before.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/levin-major-changes-needed-before-colombia-trade-pact-can-proceed/2011/03/29/AFGp5FzB_story.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. The Washington Post of course WAY UNDERSTATES the problem in Colombia where the Colombian military

itself is responsible for about half of the MURDERS of trade unionists (according to Amnesty International), with the other half committed by its closely tied rightwing paramilitary death squads. The Colombian military is funded by $7 BILLION in U.S. military aid. Their officers are trained at the U.S. "School of the America." There are dozens of U.S. military bases and "forward operating locations" in Colombia. These U.S. taxpayer billions have likely been an enticement to Colombian commanders in the "false positives" scandal, whereby Colombian military units enticed thousands of youths with jobs, murdered them and dressed their bodies up like FARC guerrillas, to up their "body counts," to earn bonuses and to impress U.S. senators.

It's not just Colombian laws that undermine labor rights. It's not just political disfavor and repression. It's not just "free trade for the rich." It's outright MURDER of hundreds of trade unionists and, in fact, a CULTURE OF MURDER that includes U.S. corporations such as Chiquita International and Drummond Coal which hired rightwing death squads to take care of their "labor problems" in Colombia. Our own U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, as a private lawyer, helped Chiquita execs evade responsibility for their death squad operations. That's how Holder earned his stripes for Obama Inc. He was appointed BECAUSE he supports scofflaw corporations, not despite it. The Colombian military and its death squads have also been killing teachers, community activists, human rights workers, journalists, political leftists, peasant farmers and others, in a general political "cleansing" of Colombia in preparation for U.S. "free trade for the rich," by decapitating Colombia's grass roots leftist leadership.

And there are even worse scandals lurking beneath the surface of Bush tool Alvaro Uribe's mafia-like government of Colombia, including probable U.S./Bush Junta involvement in illegal spying (on labor leaders, judges, prosecutors and others), U.S. military or U.S. military 'contractor' involvement in death squad murders, U.S. military (Dyncorp) involvement in dropping 500 lb U.S. 'smart bobs' on a FARC guerrilla camp just inside Ecuador's border in March 2008, and Bush Cartel/CIA or other U.S. involvement in the trillion-plus dollar cocaine trade.

Colombia is ONE BIG SCANDAL--of the bloodiest and dirtiest kind--that Obama Inc. operatives, including Holder, Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemispshere (and former Bush Junta ambassador to Colombia) William Brownfield, CIA Director Leon Panetta, Sec of State Clinton and others have been working furiously to COVER UP, by extraditing witnesses to the U.S. and burying them in the U.S. federal prison system, spiriting witnesses out of Colombia and getting them instant asylum in the U.S. client state of Panama, and "laundering" Uribe's image with prestigious appointments.

The Washington Pest makes this controversy seem TEPID, merely political and resolvable. It is none of those things. The scandal that is Colombia is fundamentally related to the corrupt, murderous, failed U.S. "war on drugs" and the HIJACKING of the "war on drugs" to KILL trade unionists and leftists. Obama Inc. hopes to CAPITALIZE on these horrors to benefit our multinational corporate/war profiteer rulers. They are actively engaged in sweeping these horrors under the carpet, and smearing "democracy" cosmetics over these many and terrible scandals, much like they smeared "democracy" cosmetics over the rightwing coup d'etat in Honduras--where union leaders are also being murdered--and are smearing "democracy" cosmetics over the U.S. occupation of Haiti (and U.S. control of $9 BILLION in earthquake aid, which is earmarked for U.S. corporate disaster profiteers).

I am glad to see that SOME Democratic politicians are keeping faith with the rights and interests of the majority--including ours and other peoples' labor rights (not to mention human rights--the right to live). But BEWARE of this kind of "laundering" of the discussion--quite typical of the Washington Psst (a CIA propaganda machine). We need to make an effort to find out and understand what we are NOT being told.