How is Colombia any different from the Oman and Peru deals--which both Clinton and Obama supported, i believe?

and how does the Andean Trade Preference Act play into any Colombia deal? And did anyone care about dead CEOs--or fair trade-- when it kept getting extended and extended?

-- http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?lanCode=1&artCode=5548 -- Ten more months of tariff preferences (3/08)

How does this compare to the overall rates of murders and prosecutions? Not that it would speak better of Colombia if they weren't prosecuting murders more generally, but it would speak badly in a different way.

Too bad they fired Mark Penn. I would've loved to hear him defending a record like that.

How I wish we could end the war on drugs and get our people out of Columbia. Free trade is good. We gave aid to the Colmibian Goverment to fight the civil war. Insane! Both sides are bad.

Of *course* we should go for free trade with Colombia because it's good for the US, something no one here seems to consider.

They already have access to our markets, but when trying to sell goods there, our producers meet stiff tarrifs. It will be to our advantage, both economically and strategically, to do this.

Alan,

I find it pretty hard to believe that the rate of murders tried in general in Columbia is 0%

We could also use a bit more public support from U.S. politicians for Colombia's fragile independent judiciary, who have made history in attempting to penetrate the dense links between the right wing narco-paramilitary death squads and the government itself.

Uribe has overall supported their efforts, but then tends to lash out whenever their investigations lead to close to him via his closest allies.

Oh, also, let's not ignore that for the first time a national march was called for this past 06 March to commemorate the victims of the gov't-linked forces & narcoparamilitaries.

(This followed the much larger & state-encouraged march a week prior emphasizing the victims of the left wing guerrillas.)

In response to the call, Uribe's assessor called them allies of the guerrillas. This had the intended effect and 4 of the organizers -- trade unionists -- were assassinated within a week of the march.

From IPS:

...Since the march, four of the organisers have been murdered and another survived an attempt on her life. In addition, more than 50 people and organisations have been named in written threats distributed by a group calling themselves the "Black Eagles", who say they will be "implacable" with those who organised the demonstration...

...The march in homage to the victims of the paramilitaries came under attack from the government. Starting on Feb. 10, top presidential adviser José Obdulio Gaviria stated on several occasions that the demonstration was "convened by the FARC."

Gaviria’s verbal attacks on the organisers of the march were immediately echoed by paramilitary chiefs serving light sentences in prison, and those who took part in the demonstration were declared a "military objective" as "enemies of the fatherland."

Referring to the threats and the murders of four organisers of the march, MOVICE stated in a recent message to Uribe that the "violent reaction is a response to the massive public repudiation of which (the paramilitaries) were the target on Mar. 6."

The organisation also said the remarks by Gaviria, who specifically focused some of his attacks on MOVICE spokesman Iván Cepeda, "generated a climate conducive to violence."...

..."Indeed, on February 11, the day after Mr. Gaviria first made the comments, the supposedly demobilised AUC paramilitary group released a statement on its website echoing Mr. Gaviria’s attacks on Mr. Cepeda and the victims’ movement," the letter added...

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41817

There is something big missing from this debate. The Martin Crutsinger AP article I read this morning said that most Columbian products enter the US duty-free and the trade deal is to lower Columbian duties on US goods. Uh... can't Columbia do that any time it wants? Obviously we are giving Columbia something that is not being spelled out in what I am reading. What is it they get from us?

"Patriotism" is similar to "Family" in that you give both your family and your country special consideration over others.

The commenters, instead, seem to be more interested in benefitting the foreign workers at the expense of the US.