[FAIRTRADE] Breaking Development on Colombia FTA - Act Now
 
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:24:45 -0500 (CDT)


Global Trade Watch
April 25, 2008

--- Breaking Development on Colombia FTA - Act Now ---

for the full-graphics version of this e-mail, please see:
http://action.citizen.org/t/6413/content.jsp?content_KEY=4099

In Brief: Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's cousin and closest political
advisor has just been arrested for connections with murderous right-wing
paramilitaries! This development can sink Bush's proposed Colombia NAFTA
expansion. Write your representative today and urge him or her to oppose the
outrageous Colombia FTA.
http://action.citizen.org/t/1153/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=24348

Dear Fair Trade Supporter,

On Wednesday, the lies of the Bush administration and the Colombian government
were laid bare as Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's cousin and closest
political advisor, Mario Uribe, was arrested for his connections with
murderous right-wing paramilitaries responsible for assassinations of union
activists and forced displacements of Afro-Colombian and other citizens from
their lands.
See:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/22/AR20080422011
44.html

With your help, this development can put the final nail in the Colombia FTA's
coffin. Last year's Peru vote suggested that some members of Congress still
don't get that it's the NAFTA model that's the problem. But even those
congresspeople can't support this agreement, given the Colombian government's
record of human rights violations and violence against its own people. This
extraordinary new piece of evidence forces our representatives and senators to
choose sides: for the FTA and murderous human rights abuses, or against the
FTA and the Uribe government's reign of terror.

Take action here:
http://action.citizen.org/t/1153/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=24348

Colombia has the world's highest rate of assassinations of union leaders and
activists in the world and it is now increasing relative to last year. Over
500 unionists have been killed by right-wing paramilitaries - and in some
cases by the Colombian army - since the current president, Alvaro Uribe, took
office. The Uribe government has signaled this horrific conduct is acceptable
by prosecuting less than 3 percent of these cases.

The right-wing paramilitaries - often with the Colombian army's cooperation -
have also waged a systematic campaign to violently displace Afro-Colombians
from their lands so that national and international companies can exploit
these rich territories. Gruesome massacres, killings of community leaders,
threats and intimidation have resulted in approximately 79 percent of the
Afro-Colombian population who lived on collective lands being forcibly
displaced.

It's time we stop President Bush's agreement with a government leading a
morally repellent campaign of murder and violence against thousands of
Colombians seeking to exercise their most basic human rights.

Please take action today to make sure your representative votes NO on the
Colombia FTA!
http://action.citizen.org/t/1153/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=24348

Thanks for all that you do,
Global Trade Watch

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