May 21, 2007

Reminder: today is a Day of Action for Colombia! Please call your representative (www.house.gov) and senators (www.senate.gov) TODAY at 202-224-3121 to ask that they:

• Shift the balance of aid to Colombia - Cut military aid and increase social assistance. The United States should help alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Colombia instead of fueling the country's decades-long civil war. The U.S. should provide greater assistance to help Colombia's over 3 million internally displaced persons and other victims of violence, to strengthen the justice system, and to provide real economic alternatives to poor farmers to address the causes of violence and illegal drug production.
• Do not support the current Colombian Free Trade Agreement (FTA). More labor union leaders are killed in Colombia each year than the rest of the world combined -- any country that cannot adequately protect the basic rights of labor unionists does not merit a free trade agreement. Additionally, the flooding of the market caused by an FTA will put many small farmers out of business, likely causing many to turn to more lucrative drug production.

This is an important moment to ask Congress to change directions on Colombia policy. In coming weeks, the House will draft its version of the foreign aid bill, which will determine the make-up of "Plan Colombia 2." The Senate will follow the House, but they are already beginning to work on their version of the bill.

Today's Day of Action is part of the second annual Days of Prayer and Action, which LAWG has helped organize with coalition partners. Sixty-eight religious congregations in the United States, 38 in Canada and 31 in Colombia are taking part in the event, in which they prayed yesterday for an end to violence and suffering in Colombia and will take action today for policies that will help achieve peace. For more information on this event, visit www.peaceincolombia.org.

For a little more background information on Colombia, read this excellent one-page piece by our friends at the US Office on Colombia, the "Plan Colombia for Victims" : http://peaceincolombia.org/PlanColombiaforVictims.pdf.