Senator John McCain visits Colombia this week. At issue is the Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Plan Colombia, the multi-billion dollar, U.S.-backed, drug eradication effort designed to halt coca production and end cocaine shipments. According to news reports, his campaign committee is financing the trip.

The ongoing conflict in Colombia pits the U.S.-funded Colombian military, and paramilitaries, against leftist guerrilla groups. Civilians are often caught in the crossfire. Given the egregious human and labor rights violations that continue to result in the death and displacement of countless people, the systematic violence against union activists and people of African descent in Colombia, and the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators, TransAfrica urges the 2008 presidential candidates, as well as all U.S. political leaders, to reject the FTA, discard the failed Plan Colombia policy, and consider the negative implications of both initiatives on the over 26% of Colombia that is of African descent.

TransAfrica Forum has close ties with partners in Colombia, and allies in the United States, that vigorously oppose the U.S.-Colombia FTA. As the oldest and largest African-American human rights and social justice advocacy organization promoting diversity and equity in the foreign policy arena, TransAfrica Forum recognizes the FTA would not protect workers in Colombia (the most dangerous country in the world to be a union activist), would devastate rural family farmers and would exacerbate poverty and inequality in the country.

During a week-long visit to Colombia in February 2008, TransAfrica Forum staff talked extensively with Afro-Colombian civil society organizations and learned the proposed U.S.-Colombia FTA would further legitimize various laws in Colombia that directly undermine Afro-Colombian rights. Increasingly, Afro-Colombians are being forcibly removed from their constitutionally protected territorial lands.  These lands are being appropriated for the cultivation of monoculture crops that contribute to environmental degradation, devastate local food production and increase food insecurity. Afro-Colombians also shared testimonies about the adverse impacts of Plan Colombia, which includes the aerial and forced manual eradication of coca crops and exposes food crops, water sources and civilians to harsh and dangerous herbicides.

Recommendations

In light of Colombia’s flagrant human rights record, and in response to mounting pressure by human rights and labor organizations, the United States Congress has delayed consideration of the FTA. Based on its findings and its determination to stand in solidarity with Afro-Colombian civil society, TransAfrica recommends the following actions:

• Members of the United States Congress should publicly oppose the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. Passing the FTA will intensify the systematic oppression and exclusion of Afro-Colombians and reinforce the Colombian government’s ability to maintain the status quo.
• The U.S. government should cease funding for military operations in Colombia carried out by U.S. or Colombian governments or private military contractors and redirect those funds toward programs that promote economic and social development.
• The U.S. government should not consider any trade agreement with Colombia until there is documented evidence that:
  • The government of Colombia has followed its own law (Law 70, The Law of Black Communities, 1993), which requires previous consultation with affected communities and participatory approaches in creating development plans.
  • The government of Colombia, as is required by its national laws, recognizes and respects Afro-Colombian bodies of representation as established and recognized under Law 70.
  • Both the government of Colombia and trade union associations verify that the intimidation of labor and civil society leaders has ceased, and that perpetrators of attacks and extrajudicial killings are brought to adequate justice under the law.

All U.S. leaders should communicate with the Colombian government to request the evidence outlined above and hold the Uribe government accountable for delivering on its promises to do more to protect Afro-Colombians and other vulnerable citizens and for persecuting those responsible for committing crimes against humanity. Without this commitment, the United States sends a clear signal that it tolerates these abuses and condones repression of the same democratic ideals it claims to uphold.

TransAfrica Forum is the leading U.S. advocacy organization for Africa and the African Diaspora in U.S. foreign policy. TransAfrica Forum helped lead the world protest against apartheid in South Africa and today works for human and economic justice for African people on the continent of Africa, in Latin America and in the Caribbean.

For more information or to schedule interviews, contact Joia Jefferson Nuri, cell 240-603-7905, jnuri@transafricaforum.org.