PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
Contact: Colombia Human Rights Committee
info (at) nomorebrokenhearts.net

September 8, 2009

ADVOCACY GROUPS LAUNCH COUNTER-CAMPAIGN TO RAISE CONCERNS ABOUT $800,000 COLOMBIA PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFENSIVE

Washington, D.C. – As the U.S. Congress launches another busy legislative session in D.C. this Fall, the Colombian government has simultaneously launched a new public relations campaign to reveal a "kinder, gentler" image of Colombia called "Colombia is Passion." Forty, 8 to 13-foot-tall, outdoor, heart sculptures will be scattered across D.C. (and later New York City and Los Angeles) with tourist information and statistics about Colombian culture and its people. There will also be musical and cultural performances, free coffee and flowers, and other educational programs so the American public can discover the "real Colombia."

Since the United States' Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Republic of Colombia was signed in November 2006 and amended in June 2007, Colombian government authorities have held hundreds of meetings with U.S. lawmakers to get Congress to approve the agreement. At the same time, the ongoing, four decade, internal armed conflict in Colombia continues and the administration of President Alvaro Uribe has not demonstrated sufficient progress and political will in addressing the precarious labor and human rights situation and related violence and impunity.

Those familiar with the anxious attempts of the Colombian government to create a more advantageous environment for the passage of the FTA and the large sums of money it continues to invest, know full well that the PR campaign and its timing are not just coincidence. The PR campaign has setup shop at Union Station, gateway to the Capitol, and sculptures have been placed at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service - not known for its tourist generation, but many faculty have political connections to the State Department and Congress.

As a result, a coalition of human rights, labor and environmental groups have mobilized a counter-campaign to remind members of the U.S. Congress and the American public of the human rights violations that still occur in Colombia and demand that President Uribe put an end to the violence against trade unionists and human rights defenders in Colombia before the United States even considers entering into a free trade agreement with the Latin American country—particularly in light of certain FTA provisions that have the potential to negatively affect poverty and inequality and only further fuel the internal armed conflict.

The counter-campaign, Don't Break Colombia's Heart, is co-sponsored by the International Labor Rights Forum, Witness for Peace, Public Citizen, Washington Office on Latin America, TransAfrica Forum, The Student Trade Justice Campaign, and DC's Colombia Human Rights Committee.

The message is to urge Congress not to break Colombia's heart, and to continue opposing the proposed FTA, and to show that the "real" Colombia is indeed full of wonderful, brave people dedicated to making their country a better place. Yet, countless numbers of them continue to have their hearts broken by an insincere government that is more concerned with image than with tangible steps on the ground to invest every penny in providing reparations to victims of internal displacement, dismantling and prosecuting paramilitary groups suspected of killing union and human rights leaders, enforcing rules to curb labor abuses and strengthen existing labor laws, and ending extrajudicial killings. In just July of this year, the government rejected a law to create a "Bank of Genetic Profiles of the Disappeared" due to "financial considerations"—arguing the implementation would be unfeasible because of the country's current macroeconomic situation.

Unfortunately, the "real" Colombia is also plagued by the following statistics:

• With over 4 million people internally displaced, Colombia's crisis is the worst in the Americas, and second only to Sudan worldwide. Another 30,000 a month flee their homes due to violence, and 370,000 were displaced in 2008, 24% more than in 2007, according to Colombian human rights monitor CODHES.
• Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world to be a union member. In 2008, 49 of the 76 trade unionists killed worldwide were Colombian.
• Colombia has the highest rate of unsolved murders of journalists in Latin America. 83 journalists have been killed in the last 11 years.
• Colombia is the source of over 90% of the cocaine entering the United State despite that fact that the U.S. has provided approximately $6 billion dollars for counter-drug efforts under Plan Colombia since 2000.

In a July 2009 Bloomberg article, the branding campaign's general manager said the $800,000 tourism effort, which is being financed by the government and business groups, "is intended to alter the perception among some in the U.S. that Colombia means drugs, violence and crime and isn't intended to sway lawmakers on the trade accord." At the end of the same article, the manager also admitted that it would be great if they could help get the free trade deal approved, "But that's not the purpose. This is not a political thing."

When hundreds of thousands of Colombian taxpayer dollars are being invested in an international art exhibit in the United States at the start of a new Congressional session with a stalled FTA at play, that's a hard case to make.

For more information about the counter-campaign, visit: NoMoreBrokenHearts.net