Our forgotten friend

It was the sort of blow against terrorism operations we in America only hope for, and part of a campaign that enjoys success that is rare elsewhere in the world. On July 2, the Colombian army carried out a daring hostage rescue where not a shot was fired. Posing as terrorists, Colombian Army units tricked FARC, a Colombian terrorist group, into giving up their hostages, putting them in a helicopter and heading to an Army base. Among the captives freed were three American defense contractors and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

Colombia has pushed the left-wing terrorist group FARC, which was once a far more powerful threat, to the brink of extinction.  It did the same with right-wing paramilitaries that, in exchange for lenient sentencing, surrendered themselves to the government. A country so successful against terrorism is one we could learn from. Given that, and Colombia’s decidedly pro-U.S. stance, one would think America and Colombia would have a stronger relationship. But that isn’t the case.

And it isn’t only that most Americans think of Colombia as the source of cocaine and coffee and little else. It’s that we’ve let trade deals, widely seen as the originators of better relations, suffer due to election-year protectionism and an isolationist mindset. The worst part is that Colombia is a friend we sorely need in a region increasingly sympathetic to radical anti-American sentiment, such as the kind advanced by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. More than ever, we need to improve relationships with countries in South America to help spread democracy and defend our good name against those who defame us.

The two greatest obstacles to better trade deals with Colombia are our desire to protect our less-competitive industries and the view that Colombia’s worker’s rights program is somehow deficient. But these are both faulty ideas.
America seems to have succumbed to the ridiculous idea that it can save itself from economic gloom by refusing to trade with countries who make cheaper goods. This is like suggesting that one would be a faster runner if they disbanded the Olympics. Unfortunately, politicians unwilling to tell hard truths to groups who might lose their jobs have vetoed legislation increasing trade. Hillary Clinton was a notable example: She vetoed the most recent bill for free trade with Colombia to protect unionists, the beginning of her desperate, “do anything” bid to reclaim ground lost to Obama.
 
The second issue at hand is the ridiculous suggestion that unionists in Columbia are somehow the target of government-supported murder. True, there has been some violence, but unionists die in lesser percentages than the population at large. And when there were unionist-related deaths, it was because they were geographically in the middle of a civil war between FARC and right-wing paramilitaries. But the right-wing paramilitaries have for the most part disbanded, and the FARC is hardly hostile to union labor.

Colombia expected a better trade deal – and it deserved it. They must be wondering, and justifiably so, if this is how the United States treats its friends. And in two years, when the Colombian presidency is again up for grabs, many Colombians might reflect that its support of the United States bore little fruit.