2009

LAWGEF Comments on the Pending U.S. Trade Agreement with Colombia

by Vanessa Kritzer and Lisa Haugaard on September 15, 2009

Today, LAWGEF joined labor, environmental, human rights, development and faith-based organizations in submitting written comments to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in response to a formal request to the public for opinions on the pending trade agreement. In their comments, these groups outlined the specific human rights and labor problems in Colombia, and urged the Obama Administration to insist upon seeing fundamental improvements on these issues before going forward with a free trade agreement.  Violence against trade unionists and other obstacles to worker rights were outlined by the AFL-CIO and US Labor Education in the Americas Project.  Some groups also outlined the potential impact of the trade agreement on the rural poor, including Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities.

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:2009, Blog Posts, Colombia, LAWG/LAWGEF Statements, Memos, and Speeches, Lisa Haugaard, Vanessa Kritzer
 

Activists Rally to Support Colombia's Broken Hearted: We've Got the Pictures!

by Vanessa Kritzer on September 14, 2009

Last week, a group of intrepid activists came together to raise awareness about the serious human rights issues that the Colombian government is seeking to hide with their recent campaign “Discover Colombia through its Heart.” Here are some great pictures shot of actions during the week by Brandon Wu from Public Citizen.

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:2009, Blog Posts, Colombia, Vanessa Kritzer
 

Write a Letter to the Editor: Don't Break Colombia's Heart

by Vanessa Kritzer and Lisa Haugaard on September 11, 2009
$800,000 on hearts.

You heard that right. With a massive humanitarian crisis on their hands, the Colombian government is spending $800,000 on an installation of more than forty, 8-13 ft tall heart sculptures in DC and New York this fall. This campaign, called "Colombia Is Passion," was supposedly designed to educate Americans about the "real" Colombia, a fun and beautiful country in which violence and human rights abuses are a thing of the distant past.

At this point, you might be asking, "Why this? Why now?"

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:2009, Action Alerts
 

Ignoring Human Rights: A Response to the Release of Merida Initiative Funds for Mexico

by Vanessa Kritzer on September 14, 2009
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:2009
 

New Treasury Regulations for Cuban American Family Travel

by Emily Chow on September 08, 2009

On September 3, 2009, President Obama made some of his campaignpromises official, related to the Cuban-American community; the Officeof Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at the Department of the Treasuryreleased new Cuba regulations. This was a step forward for theCuban-American community, but what about the rest of U.S citizens - you and me? These changes in OFAC regulations are welcomed, but are long past due.  They don’t mean that we can stop urging a change for a just policy for everyone.

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:2009, Blog Posts, Cuba, Emily Chow
 

Oh, No, Not Again. State Department Certifies Colombia

by Lisa Haugaard on September 11, 2009

Just as the Bush Administration did countless times before, the Obama Administration certified on September 8th that Colombia meets the human rights conditions in law. The conditions, which refer to gross violations of human rights by Colombia’s security forces and collaboration between those forces and paramilitary or other illegal armed groups, are attached to thirty percent of Colombia’s military aid.

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:2009, Blog Posts, Colombia, Lisa Haugaard
 

CNN on Juanes Concert in Cuba

by Mavis Anderson on September 02, 2009

Check out the CNN video about the Juanes “Peace Without Borders” concert scheduled in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución for September 20 here and embedded below. 

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:2009, Blog Posts, Cuba, Mavis Anderson
 
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