Obama: Don't Let Uribe Convince You of Progress in Colombia

By Eva Seidelman, ILRF Program Assistant

Obama has taken the bold step of hosting a White House meeting with the President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe on Monday, June 29th. Uribe will undoubtedly try to convince Obama that Colombia has progressed enough on human rights to deserve the pending Free Trade Agreement signed by President Bush. Many hope Obama will see through Uribe's rhetoric and recognize that human rights issues are getting worse, not better.

The international labor rights and human rights groups, unions and members of Congress have communicated to Obama that he must make harsh demands on Uribe. Today's Boston Globe editorial brings up many important concerns. Obama must address the egregious Watergate-like scandal and evidence that Uribe's administration has ties to the rights wing paramilitaries that have killed thousands of union leaders and activists in the last two decades. There's no evidence that Uribe is making any progress on dismantling paramilitaries: since January of 2008, 70 union leaders have been killed, a higher number than the previous two years.

Uribe will claim that he has made important labor law reforms to address the less egregious, but very widespread problem of subcontracting and "labor cooperatives" that has denied basic labor rights to hundreds of thousands of Colombian workers in all sectors. Decrees meant to address the problem have done nothing on the ground because Uribe has not demonstrated the political will to enforce such measures. Women workers have lost at least 10% of their salaries on average, due to Uribe's labor reforms. Uribe will show that the cut-flower sector has made progress under the free trade model. Read a paper from ILRF's Colombian partner demonstrating that the free trade model has only hurt workers in the cut-flower sector. Read real testimony on what the industries working conditions are like here.

Read ILRF's paper on labor issues in Colombia here.

Comments

[Sarah]

Thanks for all the resources--they provide indisputable evidence that Uribe and the Colombian government have direct ties to routine human and labor rights violations. Before Obama meets with Uribe on Monday, make sure this message gets across to our President by attending the rally scheduled for 12:30 (Monday) on the North side of the White House.