Why Democrats are undermining US ally in Columbia

Houston Chronicle:

The reaction was fast and furious when 40 workers at the Bochica flower-packing plant tried to form a union.

Their homes were spray-painted with graffiti labeling them Marxist guerrillas. Paramilitary death squads sent them leaflets proclaiming them targets. Even the police weighed in, warning the Bochica employees that they could not guarantee their safety.

Eventually, 18 workers changed their minds or were fired, putting an end to the drive, because, under Colombian law, a union requires at least 25 members.

Colombia is the most dangerous spot on the globe for organized labor.

Over the past 15 years, some 2,000 union members have been killed, more than in all other countries combined. Often, death threats stop workers from organizing.

Now, the violence is emerging as a major bone of contention in the United States.

Democrats are threatening to block a trade agreement with Colombia unless President Alvaro Uribe, the Bush administration's closest ally in Latin America, improves conditions for organized labor and cracks down on the killers.

...

The trade pact is a top priority for Uribe, who says the deal would boost the legal economy in a nation plagued by drug trafficking and a four-decade-long guerrilla war.

It also would strengthen U.S. ties to Colombia at a time when Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and other leftist leaders in the region are turning away from Washington.

"This agreement has strategic implications," President Bush said last month after meeting with Uribe, whom he called "a true democrat, a strong leader and a friend."

...

... Human Rights Watch, which normally takes no position on trade agreements before Congress, has come out strongly against this accord.

...

Uribe has argued during his frequent lobbying trips to the U.S. capital that security has improved under his watch. He cites a dramatic drop in the number of murders and kidnappings.

Given Colombia's long history of violence, some analysts suspect that protectionist Democrats may be latching on to the union issue as an excuse to block the trade agreement.

...

Uribe has been quick to point out that 31,000 paramilitaries have disarmed during his five years in office.

His government is spending millions on bodyguards and armored vehicles to protect labor leaders and has appointed 13 special prosecutors and more than 120 investigators to track anti-union violence.

Vice Labor Minister Andres Palacio said that before Uribe's 2002 election nobody had been convicted of killing labor leaders but that 59 have been jailed in the last year alone. "You have to put things in context," he said in an interview.

...

Human Rights Watch has lost credibility with its attacks on the US and its bogus condemnation of the situation at Gitmo. The Democrats are normally the party of cultural diversity until the Union thugs in the US pull their strings and tell them what to think about the culture of Columbia.

What is missing from the story is whether union thugs in Columbia were coercing people into joining the unions. It would not be surprising, particular with the communist enemy in Columbia using unions its attempt to ruin the economy.

BTW, I am not anti union despite my rhetoric. I am very suspicious of union leadership. Their partisanship makes their motives suspects. It would not surprise me that they and teh Democrats would put partisanship above the interest of the country.