Poor pact
Re “Seal the Colombian deal,” editorial, Nov. 13
The Colombia Free Trade Agreement isn’t free to anyone. Besides the abysmal human rights record of President Alvaro Uribe’s administration, there are other reasons to oppose the pact.
A host of provisions would make the now discredited free-market, deregulated, trickle-down economic model an irreversible part of that country’s legal framework. The vast majority of the population already lives in poverty. A further economic downturn in Colombia can only make drug trafficking and participation in the ongoing civil war even more attractive as employment options.
There’s a superior alternative to the Free Trade Agreement -- the TRADE Act -- now being considered in Congress.
Diane Lefer
Los Angeles
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