Colombia FTA: Essential Reading

Overview

• Public Citizen 2-page Fact Sheet: Colombia NAFTA Expansion - Economic and Human Rights Nightmare (PDF)
• Public Citizen Talking Points: Colombia’s Horrific Labor Abuses Are Among a Long List of Reasons to Oppose the Colombia FTA (PDF)

Labor & Human Rights

• Washington Office On Latin America: Human Rights Arguments Against the Colombia FTA
• Latin America Working Group: So Far to Go - Human Rights in Colombia (PDF)
• AFL-CIO report: Workers' Rights, Violence and Impunity in Colombia
• AFSC report: The Violent Intersections of Commerce and Conflict (PDF)
• U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project: Violence Against Colombian Trade Unionists
• April 2008 statement: AFL-CIO "strongly opposed" to the Colombia FTA (PDF)
• April 2008 statement: Human Rights Watch: Reject Colombia Free Trade Deal
• April 2008 statement: Teamsters "Strongly Oppose Colombia Trade Agreement"
• November 2007 Letter from AFL-CIO to U.S. Representatives saying AFL is "unalterably opposed" to the Colombia FTA (PDF)
• April 2007 Letter from Colombian Civil Society Groups Urging Colombian and U.S. Congresses to Reject the U.S.-Colombia FTA (PDF)
• Letter from U.S. Trade Unions to Congress Opposing Colombia FTA (PDF)

Afro-Colombian & Indigenous Issues

• The Hill's Congress Blog: Why Afro-Colombians Oppose the Colombia FTA
• TransAfrica Forum: FTA is a Threat to Afro-Colombian Rights
• University of Texas Rapoport Center: FTA will "further endanger the rights of Afro-Colombians" (PDF)
• Letter from National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) opposing FTA (PDF)

Economy, Environment & Investment

• Public Citizen factsheet: Colombia FTA’s Investor-State System Expands on CAFTA’s Definition of Government Activities Subject to “Regulatory Takings” Claims (PDF)
• May 2008 letter to Congress from Amazon Watch, Earthjustice, Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Sierra Club and Rainforest Action Network opposing Colombia FTA (PDF)
• Statement on Colombia FTA from Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth (PDF)
• WOLA/Public Citizen fact sheet: Peru and Colombia FTAs Projected to Increase Drug Trafficking, Violence and Instability in the Andes (PDF)