Others have indicated that Harper’s actions can also be views as a strike against protection of workers and human rights. Colombia suffers the worst record in the world for deaths of union members. Over ninety percent of the murders have gone unprosecuted. Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe, says that the number killed is dropping. Still the country accounts for over 60% of all murders of union members in the world. Amenesity International points out that Colombia has had single year drops in the past with an increase in following years. Thousands unarmed citizens have been murdered. Over three million have been displaced from their homes and it continues rising at the rate of over 18,000 a month.

The center for Conflict analysis and Amnesty International reports have shown the paramilitary to be the largest drug dealers and commit the most civilian murders in Colombia. Former paramilitary leader Salvador Mancuso claimed that his group controlled one-third of the congress. Accusations of collusion between government security forces and the paramilitary abound with the Colombian government now admitting it is among their top military leaders. Eleven congressmen have been arrested for ties to the paramilitary terrorists. The former director of DAS (Colombia’s equivalent to the FBI) is under arrest for providing a list of union leaders names to death squads. A Colombian now living in Canada said he witnessed the cousin of Uribe tell the paramilitary to kill farm owners so he could gain the land and the power in the area.

Colombia claims that over 30,000 paramilitary members have been demobilized under their Justice and Peace Law. Human rights groups have labeled it a farce and ineffective. The average paramilitary soldier not only avoids all prison time, but receives a monthly government payment. The leaders, responsible for murders of thousands of unarmed civilians, serve sentences from five to eight years in prisons called by many as country clubs. Phone taps revealed they continue to conduct their drug business and order murders from there. Many of the demobilized have formed new groups such as the “New Self-Defence Forces” and the “Black Eagles” and continue conducting extortion and drug activities. Reports from NGOs as well as interviews with citizens reveal that the paramilitary continues to wield great power and terror in many parts of the country.

Even the numbers show concern. In 2005 many sources reported 20,000 paramilitary members. By August of 2006 the government reported over 30,000 members as demobilized. Many explanations have been given for the large discrepancy, but one seems very logical. Part of the law demobilizing them allows a method to avoid extradition to the USA on drug charges. It is claimed that drug-traffickers paid for uniforms and hired common criminals to say they were paramilitary soldiers with the drug dealer as the leader. That way the men received government money and the leader has a chance to avoid extradition to the USA. Colombian mafia boss Fabio Enrique Ochoa Vasco recently stated all of this was agreed upon in 2001 to help Uribe gain the AUC’s support.
The reason the USA put the Colombian FTA on the back burner is because enough progress has not been made in protecting workers and civilians. The congress is asking for proof that a rule of law exists and is enforced for protection of the rights of workers and civilians.

It has been argued that the FTA will help the country achieve that goal. An economic analyst from England determined the opposite. Twenty percent of the families in Colombia control 52% of the wealth. Over 50% of the population lives below the poverty level and Colombia has one of the largest ratios in the world between rich and poor. The analyst concluded that the FTA benefits mostly medium sized manufacturers around Uribe’s home town. Colombian citizens claim they do not want the FTA because with the current regime in power the money only fuels the massive corruption.
Prime Minister Harper seems to even ignore the Colombian human rights abuses with a connection to his own county. In 1999, Kimy Pernia Domico traveled from Colombia to Ottawa to advise the Canadian parliament how their $18.2-million for the Urra Dam project hurt the Embera tribe. The indigenous tribal member stated he was putting his life in danger for just speaking with them. Domico was later kidnapped and killed by the paramilitary. It is believed that politicians who gained financially from the dam project colluded with the terrorist group for the man’s death.

Where people disappear

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It would be nice to think that a human rights worker who comes to Canada and speaks at parliamentary hearings would gain enough international status to protect him from harm.

Not so, to judge by the brazen assassination of Kimy Pernia Domico.

He died because he spoke out about a hydroelectric project in Colombia that Canada helped finance. Now it's Canada's duty to demand information and justice.

As a leader of an indigenous community in Colombia, Mr. Pernia Domico came to Canada in 1999 to tell Parliament about the impact of the Urra dam, built with money from the Export Development Corp.

In his testimony, he emphasized that he supported development, but wanted Canada to insist on transparency and local consultation before getting involved in development projects in places such as Colombia. ...

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