Colombian President Met with Protests

Dozens of labor and human rights activists joined an impromptu lunch rally Wednesday to protest the rights abuses and paramilitary killings occurring in Colombia under President Alvaro Uribe’s watch. Chanting “No labor rights? This treaty bites,” and holding images of victims of paramilitary death squads, protestors attempted to confront the Colombian President outside the Center for American Progress, where he was participating in a brownbag lunch discussion. Uribe is in the US to build support for the proposed Colombian-US Free Trade Agreement. “There have been 236 trade unionists killed in the past three years” in Colombia, reports the Washington Office on Latin America, which notes that this is more labor killings than in any other country in the world. 
-Story/photo by Andy Richards