[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3649]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     COLOMBIA FACT OF THE DAY: COLOMBIA IS STOPPING LABOR VIOLENCE

  Mr. WELLER of Illinois. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
  Ladies and gentlemen of the House, today I rise to urge the Speaker 
of the House to bring forward the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion 
Agreement. I also ask my colleagues to support this agreement. It's an 
agreement that's good for America, it's good for my State of Illinois, 
and it's good for Colombia. In fact, the State that I represent, 
Illinois, is a big winner under the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion 
Agreement.
  The International Trade Commission did an economic analysis. They 
said if you're an Illinois worker, an Illinois manufacturer, an 
Illinois farmer, you're a winner under this trade agreement. Corn, 
soybeans, pork, beef, manufactured metal products, chemicals, 
machinery, exports will go up. Why? Because right now Colombian 
products enter the United States duty-free, tariff-free, tax-free, but 
our products face tariffs. Caterpillar, the biggest employer in my 
district, 8,000 workers, their heavy construction equipment faces a 12 
percent tariff. For a million-dollar piece of equipment, that's a 
$100,000 tax which would be eliminated immediately, day one, when this 
trade agreement would go into effect.
  The bottom line is Illinois will be a big winner.
  Now who is Colombia? To begin with, the democracy we know as 
Colombia, the oldest democracy in all Latin America, today is the 
United States' most reliable and trusted partner in Latin America. Its 
President, President Uribe, is the most popular elected official in the 
hemisphere. And while this Congress suffers from 15 percent approval 
ratings, President Uribe in his own country enjoys 80 percent approval 
ratings. Why? Because he's made a difference in reducing violence and 
winning the war against the FARC and the narcoterrorists. Today, 71 
percent of Colombians say they are more secure under President Uribe. 
Seventy-three percent of Colombians say Uribe respects human rights. 
Homicides are down. Kidnappings are down. Today the murder rate in 
Colombia is the lowest in 15 years. In fact, Medellin, once considered 
one of the most dangerous cities in the world, today has a lower murder 
rate than Washington, DC, or Baltimore.
  Now there are those who oppose President Uribe. There are those who 
oppose the trade promotion agreement between the United States and 
Colombia. They argue that President Uribe just has not done enough on 
the issue of labor and protecting labor leaders from violence. Well, 
let's look at the facts. Under President Uribe, he's totally reformed 
the judiciary, the entire institution. For the general prosecutor, he's 
added 2,166 new positions, including 418 new prosecutors and 545 new 
investigators, and increased funding for the general prosecutor, the 
federal independent prosecutor, by 75 percent. Carlos Rodriguez, 
president of the United Workers Confederation of Colombia, said about 
this: ``Never in the history of Colombia have we achieved something so 
important.''
  I would note that President Uribe has also created special programs 
today to protect labor leaders. In fact, they spent almost $39 million 
this past year for body guards and protection for labor union members. 
There are 1,500 labor union leaders and activists who receive special 
protection, the second largest protected group in the entire country, 
and this program has been successful. In fact, no labor leader has lost 
their life who's been under this protection program. In fact, the 
murder rate, which is a terrible thing, for labor and union activists 
is lower than the national rate for everyone else. So tremendous 
progress has been made.
  The International Labor Organization has removed Colombia from its 
labor watch list. Colombia has agreed to a permanent ILO representative 
in Colombia, and 14 labor union leaders representing 14 labor unions in 
Colombia have endorsed this agreement.
  Now we continue to hear from opponents and they are really the people 
who have always traditionally opposed trade and so they've got a 
different line today, but they always say that President Uribe still 
has not done enough, we need to demand more, but they never 
specifically say what more they want. Clearly, President Uribe has done 
a lot, a tremendous amount, and he has made real progress.
  As we have seen this past week, there is a lot happening in Latin 
America. Colombia, of course, has been fighting the FARC and other 
terrorists and narcotrafficking groups over the last three and four 
decades and they've made tremendous progress under President Uribe. We 
know the FARC in particular are the biggest leftist, antigovernment 
narcotraffic and terrorist group. They fund themselves by the sales of 
narcotics. It was recently uncovered, we discovered the links between 
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and the FARC, possibly $300 million in 
subsidies, long suspected but now proven.
  The bottom line is the Colombia agreement is good for democracy, it's 
good for America, it's good for workers, and it's good for 
manufacturing. I urge this Congress to bring it up for a vote and let's 
pass it.

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