• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

A trade deal between the US and Colombia will be full implemented by May 15th, satisfying a major goal of the Obama administration. President Obama announced on Sunday during a trip to Colombia for the Summit of the Americas that years of talks that included demands for strengthened rights for Colombian workers has borne fruit. The President called the deal, “a win for both our countries.” However Colombian union leaders and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka here in the United States expressed concern that not enough has been done to stop the murder of unionists in Colombia, where 51 labor leaders were killed in 2010 and 30 were killed last year. The trade pact negotiated between Obama and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will lift tariffs on 80% of industrial and manufactured exports from both countries, and on over 50% of US agricultural exports to Colombia.

The President’s jubilant announcement on the trade deal came during an otherwise rocky week in US/Latin American relations overall. As the economic summit in Cartegena began on Saturday, news broke that secret service agents sent to Cartegena ahead of the President hired prostitutes during a night of heavy drinking at their hotel. Meanwhile, during the two day summit the President refused to discuss with Latin American leaders, drug legalization as a way to decrease drug violence and other consequences of prohibition that plague many nations. The President argued legalization, “could be just as corrupting… as the status quo.” The summit ended on a sour note when 30 nations protested Cuba’s continued exclusion from the event by refusing to sign a joint declaration.

GUEST: Gimena Sanchez-Garzoli is a senior associate for the Andes with the Washington Office on Latin America

Visit www.wola.org for more information.