ISDS Case Map
Colombia
A broad U.S. business coalition urged President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday to drop his opposition to a free trade pact with Colombia and work with Congress to approve it and a second agreement with Panama this year.
Colombia's U.S. ambassador visited Huntsville on Monday to urge support for a U.S.-Colombia free-trade agreement and to document her country's recent success in reducing violence and spurring business growth.
A free trade agreement with Colombia has become a campaign issue in Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart's bid to hold his seat in the congressional district that represents the largest number of Colombian-American voters in the country.
"The police did fire" on indigenous protesters, said Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, who yielded to pressure to meet next Sunday with the leaders of a two-week-long demonstration by native groups.
At least one person was killed and more than 130 were wounded during indigenous demonstrations last week in several departments in Colombia. But with multiple press freedom violations being committed, you would be hard-pressed to find out what's going on.
More than 10,000 indigenous Colombians have begun a protest march against President Alvaro Uribe. Marchers are protesting the militarization of their territories, the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, and the failure of Uribe's administration to fulfill various accords with the indigenous communities.
In Colombia, thousands of indigenous people are staging a week long march. Marchers plan to march through 70 miles of Colombia's countryside. They say they want to change economic policies that are impoverishing their nations. And they reject the presence of US corporations on their lands. Manuel Rueda joined the march as it passed through Colombia's Cauca Province.
In the Cauca region, a twelve-thousand strong Indigenous and Popular Minga (or Assembly) was held in opposition to the militarization of Indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant communities/territories. The Assembly also declared it's firm opposition to the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Canada, U.S. and the European Union.
On October 13, 12,000 indigenous Colombians marched onto the Pan-American highway in Cauca, and refused to lift their blockade until their demands for land, liberty, and life were met by the state. The resulting clashes between protesters and police killed at least two indigenous Colombians, and wounded at least 70 more. This week the indigenous rights groups will march to Cali, the third-largest city in Colombia, to press their demands.
Audio interview about the struggles of Colombian workers and farmers against repression, violence, militarisation, biofuels and the US-Colombia FTA.
