By DANIEL KOVALIK - Counterpunch Weekend Edition

That [former Colombian Vice-President Francisco] Santos, who openly urged AUC death squads to carry out killings, was the standard bearer for Colombia’s [Free Trade Agreement] lobbying efforts is emblematic of what the FTA is all about. In short, the FTA is indeed about death, for it will accelerate the continued displacement of Colombians...from their land in order to make way for multi-national exploitation.

By Leah Gardner - The Dominion

In southwest Colombia people are organizing within and throughout their villages, creating a strong network of resistance to Canadian gold mining. But they’re not fighting for concessions or reforms: they’re fighting to win...Canadian mining company Gran Colombia Gold set up exploration platforms in small farming communities near Berruecos, Colombia in early 2011. Soon after, local coffee farmers began to question the benefits of a large-scale gold mine. “All I see that can come from this project is conflict and displacement...”

By Brandon Barrett - The Dominion

The Canadian government's failure to report on Colombian human rights, as promised as part of its Free Trade Agreement (FTA), drew criticism from the country's opposition last Thursday...The FTA...received the backing of Canadian opposition parties when Prime Minister Stephen Harper committed to releasing annual reports on how trade was affecting human rights in Colombia. A report analyzing the treaty was released last Wednesday with no mention of human rights issues.

America's imperial arrogance makes more enemies than friends. It also weakens influence. Ravaging the world one country at a time doesn't help. Neither does bullying nations to go along or else.

By DANIEL KOVALIK, GIMENA SANCHEZ-GARZOLI & ANTHONY DEST - April 11, 2012

...[D]espite continued anti-union violence, the high rate of impunity, serious impediments to union organizing, and the dire conditions faced by workers, President Obama is now poised to announce at the Summit of the Americas that Colombia has complied with the Labor Action Plan...If Obama goes ahead with his plans...to green light the [U.S-Colombia Free Trade Agreement], Colombian and U.S. workers will lose their last bit of leverage to stem the tide of anti-union violence and defend the rights of Colombia’s most vulnerable populations.

By Seth Robbins - Monday, 05 March 2012

A former AUC [United Self Defense Forces of Colombia] paramilitary member will testify before a U.S. court that Alabama-based coal giant Drummond Ltd. ordered his group to kill union organizers at its mine in Colombia, the victims' defense said Monday...[Attorney Terry Collingsworth] said he would testify about how Drummond operatives directed the AUC to kill union leaders.

By David T. Rowlands - Sunday, November 27, 2011

Plan Colombia was sold to the taxpaying public as a necessary component of the “war on drugs”. In fact, it was a vehicle for furthering the traditional designs of US imperialism, of which there is a long and bitter history in Colombia...[T]he targets of Washington’s Plan Colombia offensive are not only armed [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia] or National Liberation Army (ELN) guerillas but also any peasant and indigenous groups standing in the way of capitalist globalisation.

Fake files target Hugo Chavez.

By Anna Baltzer - October 13, 2010

[Alvaro] Uribe, recently appointed by the United Nations to investigate Israel's fatal attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, has a notoriously horrific track record on human rights. Less explored are the clear parallels between his government's mistreatment of indigenous peoples of Colombia and Israel's abuses of the indigenous people of Palestine.

Colombia is a corrupted fascist narco-state and America's closest South American ally.

By Conn Hallinan - August 04, 2010

“False positive” is the name given to the Colombian armed forces operation that murdered civilians and then dressed them up in insurgent uniforms in order to demonstrate the success of the army’s counterinsurgency strategy, thus winning more aid from the U.S. According to the human rights organizations...some 2,000 civilians have been murdered under the program.

By Eva Gollinger - July 28, 2010

President Chavez ordered maximum alert on Venezuela’s border with Colombia after the Uribe administration made grave accusations against Venezuela claiming the Chavez government harbors terrorists and terrorist training camps...Colombia alleged that Venezuela is harboring “terrorists” from the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) and hosting several “terrorist training camps” near the border region that divides the two nations.

By Claire Hall - June 10, 2010

“We have heard about the BP incident in the USA. We send our condolences to the families and fellow workers of those who died due to the failure of BP to take the necessary measures to ensure safe operations and protect the lives of people working for them...Here in Colombia, BP has also shown their lack of respect for life. They have brought about a war that has left over 9000 people dead.”

-- Oscar Garcia of the National Oil Workers Union of Columbia

By BILLY WHARTON - May 5, 2010

Multinationals have torn up the globe converting the repression of workers into cheap labor and free trade agreements into new market opportunities all in the name of ever-increasing profit margins. Left in their wake are legacies of environmental destruction, corrupt governments and employer violence. This process is precisely what a documentary...entitled The Cola-Case aims to expose.

By DANIEL KOVALIK - April 26, 2010

Father Javier Girardo...estimated that, between 1988 and 1995, more than 60,000 Colombians lost their lives to the internal conflict in Colombia – most of them at the hands of the state, either in the form of the official Colombian military or the paramilitary forces supported by the state...As for the Colombian state’s support for the paramilitaries, also known as “death squads,” that is well-known.