Inside a red-carpeted, medieval-style room at First Congregational Church, Colombian human rights organizer Freddy Caicedo jarred residents as he discussed the potential ramifications of the controversial U.S.—Colombia Free Trade Agreement currently under consideration in the U.S. Congress.

The hourlong lecture, given by Caicedo, a human rights investigator, educator, and organizer in Valle de Cauca, Colombia, was sponsored by Witness for Peace, a politically independent grassroots organization with a mission to support peace, justice and sustainable economies in Latin America.

The organization maintains that the agreement would further jeopardize human rights of people living in war-torn Colombia.

"It’s a lie," Caicedo said of the Free Trade Agreement. "More people would be unemployed. They don’t have the rights to unionize, and they do not have pensions, health care or vacations. And anyone who speaks out against what is going on risks being assassinated."

Free trade, the elimination or lowering of taxes and other trade regulations between countries with the intent to increase exports and promote economic growth, has become one of the foremost concerns among politicians, according to Witness for Peace representatives. The fate of the trade hangs in the balance during the election season.

The agreement with Colombia is resolutely condemned by Colombian civil society, said Caicedo, whose stop in Montclair was part of a monthlong Mid-Atlantic tour to offer an insider’s look at the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

Caicedo told horror stories about Colombia’s labor unionists, indigenous groups and Afro-Colombians.

While proponents suggest that the Free Trade Agreement would create jobs and stabilize Colombia’s economy, it is ultimately comparing apples to oranges, with the potential to increase trade but not guarantee improving standards of living, he said. Colombia’s watchdog government would not offer stabilization for people fighting for social justice and would further unequal society, Caicedo said.

For instance, he said, sugar cane plantation workers currently on strike had been working for wages far from livable. Yet, their cries are hushed because the owners of the plantations are the same people who own the country’s major television stations and media outlets, who rarely mention the workers except to portray them as trouble-making radicals, Caicedo said.

Since 1991, more than 2,200 Colombian union members have been murdered, according to Witness for Peace data.

The repercussions could also extend to immigration, the data indicated. Warning of knock-on effects, Caicedo said that since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – with an intent to create jobs – was implemented in Mexico in 1994, about two million jobs have been lost in Mexico.

Migrating to the United States rather than starve, the number of Mexicans living in the nation has since doubled to about 11.2 million, about 10 percent of the Mexican population, Witness for Peace data indicated.

And thousands of jobs created there after NAFTA have disappeared, according to the data.

As pictures depicting torture and children in war zones faded into each other on a large projector behind him, Caicedo said the Free Trade Agreement would by and large affect children and women, who are forced to work for deplorable wages.

"These agreements destroy life," he said. "We all should have our human rights respected and fulfilled."

For more information, visit www.witnessforpeace.org.

Contact Tanya Drobness at drobness@montclairtimes.com.