WORLD NEWS REPORT: Colombia free trade deal could boost cocaine exports http://witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=1119

Manuel Esteban Tejada was a teacher in the Colombian province of Cordoba, near the Panamanian border. Unfortunately for him, he was also a union member. On January 10, paramilitary gunmen broke into his house at 6 a.m. and shot him multiple times, killing him.Tejada was the first trade unionist killed in Colombia in 2011, but not the last. At least five more have already been killed this year. Colombian and international labor officials report that 51 unionized workers in Colombia were killed in 2010--25 of them teachers. More union members were killed in Colombia last year than in the rest of the world combined.

The fact that Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world to belong to a union hasn't kept President Barack Obama from backing a free-trade deal with the South American nation that would further erode labor rights and wages.Obama and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos recently announced a labor rights "action plan" as a ploy to gain congressional votes in favor of the controversial deal. The Obama administration hopes this effort, which would do virtually nothing to deal with the violence targeting labor leaders,

will convince some Democrats to hold their noses and vote for the trade deal, despite Colombia's deadly labor track record.Just days before the two leaders made their announcement, Hector Orozco and Gildardo Garcia--farm workers who belonged to a union--were murdered. Business as usual in Colombia.It's no surprise that Washington would sacrifice labor rights in the rush to secure this free trade deal. But Colombia isn't only the world's leader in union murders--it's also the world's leading cocaine producer. Although efforts to stamp out drug trafficking have dominated the U.S.-Colombia relationship for decades, this trade deal would likely boost cocaine production.