Thirty-six years after they were killed, the trial for the murders of catholic priests Carlos de Dios Murias and Gabriel Longueville will begin in La Rioja today. Ex-army general Luciano Benjamín Menéndez, ex vice-commodore Luis Estrella and ex-police superintendent Domingo Vera have been charged with the murders.

Murias and Longueville worked at the parish of bishop Enrique Angelelli, a politically active priest who supported the activities of peasants and workers’ unions from his church in Chamical, La Rioja.

The two priests were tied down, blindfolded, tortured, and shot to death on 18th July 1976, at a time when a military government ruled the country. Two weeks later, and as he was investigating the murders of Murias and Longueville, Angelelli himself died in a mysterious car accident, though it is widely believed he was killed.

Ramiro Fresneda, the lawyer representing the human rights secretariat, said that he will prove the existence of “a systematic plan of persecution against Enrique Angelelli’s diocese.”

The trial for the murders of Murias and Longueville was due to start at 9am this morning, but had to be postponed until this afternoon, as Menéndez is being driven from Córdoba, where he is serving a life sentence for the murders of 31 political prisoners in 1976. Menéndez has also been charged with the death of monsignor Angelelli, together with former dictator Jorge Videla.

Proceedings began today in the trial against Ramón Céaceres Jorquera and Edgar Cevallos Jones, the two men accused of torturing and killing General Alberto Bachelet, the father of former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.

This morning, Judge Mario Carroza read the charges against the accused who are both retired coronals in the Chilean Air Force (FACH). The men have been charged with torturing former general Alberto Bachelet to the point of death in March of 1974, during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

The charges read that the men “organized operatives, had custody of those detained in the War Academy, participated in the interrogations to which detainees were submitted and subjected prisoners to diverse methods of cruel, inhumane and degrading coercion.”

Jorquera and Jones were detained on Monday and brought to a FACH base.

A key turning point in the case came with the June announcement of the findings of an investigation by Justice Department and the Medical Legal Service into the general’s cause of death. The investigation determined that Bachelet had died as a direct result of the torture he suffered during his detainment, which provoked the heart attack that lead to his death.

Alberto Bachelet, who was a general in the Air Force, died on 12th March 1974 in the Public Prison in Santiago, where he was being held on charges of treason. He was one of the high-ranking army officials that did not support Pinochet’s coup.

The next morning, he suffered acute cardiac arrest and died. According to the report by the Medical Legal Service, the general had informed prison authorities that he was in poor health before the interrogation, but he was ignored and denied necessary medical care.

The day before his death, Bachelet had been taken to the FACH War Academy, where he was interrogated.

The former president and her mother, Angela Jeria, also intend to take legal action against the two men. Both women were also detained and tortured during the dictatorship.

Proceedings opened this morning in the Federal Oral Tribunal against officials of the former dictatorship charged in Jujuy with the disappearance of 43 people. The tribunal marks the first public and oral trial of officials charged with Crimes Against Humanity in the northern province.

The accused are Luciano Benjamín Menéndez, Antonio Orlando Vargas, José Eduardo Bulgheroni, and Mariano Rafael Braga. The four are charged with unlawful entry, illegal deprivation of liberty and homicide in connection with the 43 disappearances.

Nearly 200 witnesses are expected to testify during the proceedings, and it is estimated that the first trial will take about four months.

Menéndez, who was the director of the Third Army Corps, is the principal accused. He has already received seven life sentences, and has been excused from appearing in court for medical reasons.

Vargas, Bulgheroni and Braga were present today in court.

Vargas, the former director of Penitentiary Service, is now 71 years old and fell ill while the judge was reading the summons. He was examined by a doctor and moved to a private clinic, where he was placed in a room with video conferencing so that he could follow the proceedings.

Bulgheroni and Barga, both former army intelligence officials and both 61, were present throughout today’s proceedings.

The trial unites five cases under Crimes Against Humanity. Four of the cases include multiple victims. According to Prosecutor Pablo Pelazzo, the five cases are related to the disappearances of: Julio Álvarez García; Luis Ramón Aredez with five other victims; Paulino Galéan with the victims of Tumbaya and San Salvador de Jujuy; Reynaldo Aragón and the victims of San Pedro held in the Villa Gorriti prison; and Avelino Bazán and the Mina El Aquilar case.

Julio Ronaldo Álvarez García, the only victim whose case will be tried individually, was a student and the leader of the Peronist University Youth (JUP). His case will be the first to be tried.

Another of the victims, Luis Ramón Aredez, was a radical leader, pediatrician and the former mayor of the city of Libertador General San Martín.

Libertador General San Martín is also the home city of Ledsema, the company accused of complying with the 1976 “Blackout Night” when electricity was cut in the city and an estimated 400 people were kidnapped. Charges are pending in San Salvador in Jujuy against Ledesma owner Carlos Pedro Blaquier in connection to these crimes. Among the 43 victims, many were employees of Ledesma.

The judges overseeing the Federal Oral Tribunal are René Vicente Casas Gamboni, Mario Juárez Almarez and Daniel Morín.

Over 150 family members of the disappeared, civil society actors and government officials filled the courtroom this morning. Outside of the courthouse, members of civil society groups and human rights organizations gathered throughout the day.

The preparations necessary to begin today’s proceedings accelerated after resignation of former Judge Carlos Olivera Pastor in March. Prominent human rights organizations had accused the judge of blocking trials of Crimes Against Humanity from moving forward. The judge’s resignation followed a demonstration by many of these civil society groups, including the Madres y Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos and H.I.J.O.S.

Now in it’s 14th year, Instituto Multimedia DerHumALC’s (IMD) International Human Rights Film Festival has brought films focusing on human rights and environmental issues from all corners of the globe to Buenos Aires.

Still from Australian film 'Abendland'

The festival is putting on a mixture of short, medium and long documentary and fiction films, consistently focused on global human rights – a subject that occupies the consciousness of Latin Americans and Argentines due to a far too recent heritage of dictatorships, civil wars and social movements. It therefore makes it fitting for this consciousness to be embodied in the film festival’s theme this year: Identity.

“We chose the issue of Identity because we see it, metaphorically speaking, as a tree deeply rooted in the past to bloom in the actions and choices of the present,” explains IMC festival director, Florencia Santucho.

“Just like the branches and leaves turn towards the sun in search of vital energy, each person needs their identity to freely develop their potential and choose their own path.”

The Greek documentary The Argentina Experiment, one of the films running for the festival’s Feature Films Official Competition, illustrates this mentality by investigating how identity can be derived from the development of present decisions from the actions of the past. It follows Greek director Yorgos Avgeropoulos’s return to Argentina ten years after the economic crisis to see if Greece can learn fiscally from Argentina’s example.

Although constantly framed by the theme of identity, the festival branches off into many sub-topics covering a diverse range of issues, both international and national – from the environment, native peoples, childhood and youth, to migrants and gender views. The festival casts a wide scope, showing films on Colombia, on the Middle East, the Arab Spring, while also opening the ‘window’ to controversial political movements in Venezuela and Cuba.

Films competing in the Feature Films Contest include the Austrian documentary Abendland (meaning ‘evening land’ in German), a critical commentary on the Europe’s addiction to technology and security, and the influence of the Western world. In Acorzado, a Mexican fictional entry, the protagonist decides to make a raft from his neglected taxi and sail off for a better life in the USA, only to find himself in Cuba. The British documentary Cocaine Unwrapped on the other-hand offers a start to finish look at the cocaine trade and asks some important questions about the way governments are fighting back against the industry.

Each film in the festival teaches the viewer lessons on the way we look at life – from Journey to Portugal’s questioning of border control’s treatment of people, to the Canadian short documentary, Keepers of the Water, chronicling the plight of group of children protesting about environmental crime.

Putos Peronistas, Cumbia de un Sentimiento is in competition this year.

This year’s festival also sees the addition of the National Film Contest category, which focuses on homegrown talent. Drawing on the central theme of identity, Sin Punto y Aparte (No Full Stop) follows its director’s return to Argentina after fleeing to Israel during the military dictatorship, and discovering the role of Judaism in modern day Argentina. Putos Peronistas, Cumbia de un Sentimiento (The Peronist Fags, Cumbia Feeling) tells the fascinating story of a revolutionary political group of Peronist homosexuals in a district of Buenos Aires. Also catch the woman’s prison based Captive Moons, and the documentary Jopoi, All Together, on the legacy of Paraguayan indigenous language.

As festival director Florencia Santucho explains, each film corresponds to a “social memory [which] is deeply rooted to the identity of all communities where each and everyone knows who he or she is in view of the sum of past experiences, present commitments and future objectives.”

Through others’ exploration of identity the festival tries to make the viewer question their own perceptions, asking, “how much does the judgement of others influence our perception of ourselves?” The theme of Identity isn’t just there to tie the films together neatly; it’s also a recommendation on how to view these films.

All films are showing in ten venues across the city from the 23^rd to the 30^th May. For more information see the IMD festival’s website for the programme.

The Argentina Independent plans on launching a free, independent, monthly publication in June. In order to remain 100% independent, we are hoping to raise the funds to cover the initial costs of design, printing and distribution via crowdfunding platform Ideame.

And to remind you of all the good things we have done over the course of the past six years as a publication, as well as giving you a reason to support us in our bid to go into print and help us keep doing such things, we will be bringing you a taste of some of the good times each week! This week – a selection of our best content.

If you would like to support us in our fundraising campaign, please visit our Ideame page where you can either make a donation (every cent counts), or help us by spreading the word!

Endangered: Argentina’s Disappearing Languages

Every two weeks, one of the world’s languages dies out, and Argentina is not immune to this mass linguistic extinction. Kate Granville-Jones’ investigated this phenomenon and discovered of the 35 languages spoken in Argentina in pre-Columbian times, now just 15 remain, and one has only two living speakers.

Family members fight to be heard at a protest against family member's deaths in February 2010 . (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

Gatillo Facil and Deaths in Police Custory

“2009 was not just another year. It started with a new Miguel Bru that was Luciano Arruga, and finished with a new Walter Bulacios: Ruben Carballo. Police repression and violence grew to the point of taking the life of someone every 24 hours.” Any student of Argentine history is familiar with the dictatorship of the 1970s and 80s, and the thousands of students, unionists and activists that were “disappeared” by the military regime. A subject which is less-publicised, however, is that state violence and repression did not end with the return of democracy in 1983. As Daniel Edwards discoverd in his 2010 report, federal and provincial police forces continue to routinely use extreme violence and torture against suspects and detainees in their facilities, which often results in the death of the victim.

Guaraní Suicide

After a 2008 report indicated that the Guaraní indigenous group had the highest rate of suicide as a people in the world, Kristie Robinson headed up to community in Misiones, just 15km from the world-famous Iguazú Falls, to meet with Guaraní leaders to talk about the alarming rates of suicide and what is being done to tackle the issue.

Paco in the hands of an addict (Photo: Kate Stanworth)

Paco: Drug Epidemic Sweeping the Streets of Buenos Aires

Anthony Bale’s 2008 article on paco, a by-product of cocaine that is wreaking havoc on the lives of many shantytown inhabitants, brought the stark reality of life in Buenos Aires’ underclass home to many of our readers.

Secret Squats and Silent Evictions: A Response to BA’s Housing Deficit

In 2009 Harriet Hernando’s looked into Buenos Aires’ social housing crisis and the city government’s handling of the situation, highlighting mass migration to the cities and inadequate government policies, as well as violent police crackdown on illegal squatters as the main culprits in the crisis.

It was announced on Monday that the former Guatemalan dictator, Efraín Ríos Montt, is to face a second trial for charges of genocide.

The ex-dictator was also charged in January for crimes against humanity, human rights abuses and genocide. His year long de facto rule is considered as the height of violence in Guatemala’s 36-year conflict.

Guatemalan judge Patricia Flores stated that she had found enough evidence connected the former leader to a 1983 massacre.

Known as Las Dos Erres, is generally considered to be one of the biggest atrocities of the country’s conflict. Around 20 soldier entered the Dos Erres village, who had been ordered to search for weapons. 201 men, women and children were then strangled, shot and beaten with a sledgehammer, before their dead bodies were thrown into a well.

El Universal reported that Ríos Montt expressed his innocence, stating: “Under army law, I am pleading innocent your honour.”

His defense claim that since the de facto leader was not present physically, he cannot be charged.

Five other soldiers have been sentenced since August in connection to Las Dos Erres, each with a sentence lasting more than 6000 years, particularly significant since Guatemalan law limits prison sentences to just 50 years.

Ríos Montt is currently under house arrest.

Yesterday, the human rights organisation Amnesty International named the impunity that often surrounds violations of human rights a “norm” in Latin America.

In their annual report named “The State of the World’s Human Rights 2012”, presented yesterday in London, Amnesty International analysed human rights abuses, for example those found in the police, justice system, those against indigenous people, immigrants and women and children if Latin American countries.

The report denounced violations of human rights in Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Honduras, Venezuela, Guatemala and Colombia.

The report noted that: “Many human rights cases made slow progress, obstructed by the
absence of meaningful access to justice,” among other factors. The organisation criticised particularly the “threats against and killings of human rights defenders, witnesses, lawyers, prosecutors” as well as the increased targeting of journalists in the above countries.

The report did, however, point out “significant advances in the investigation and prosecution of past human right violations,” naming cases in Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia, Haiti and Colombia.

However, the Amnesty International report also noted that these advances are significantly overshadowed by the current situation of serious human rights abuses that plagues many Latin American countries.

“Important though these cases were, they were the exception, and impunity for human rights violations remained the norm,” said the report.

In 2011 alone, 266 homosexuals were murdered in Brazil, the Grupo Gay da Bahia revealed yesterday in occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO).

The group had based its study on press reports published by Brazilian media throughout the whole year. The federal government and most states in Brazil, however, do not record official statistics for this kind of crimes.

The Brazilian hotline Dique Derechos Humanos receives every day an average of 3.4 reports of cases of gender-related violence. Reported cases include episodes of physical, sexual, psychological and institutional abuse. After a report has been made, cases are brought to the attention of police and local governments.

Yesterday, Peruvian LGBT communities also revealed the number of gay people murdered in the country. Fourteen homosexuals (10 gays and four transsexuals) have been killed in 2011, four less than 2010. Figures were compiled by the Peruvian LGBT Network and the NGO Promsex.

Promsex director and secretary of the International Gay and Lesbian Community of Latin America and the Caribbean, George Liendo, pointed the attention to the lack of an official record of killings of homosexuals, like records for femicide.

Also Mexican LGBT communities have denounced yesterday how hard it is to investigate crimes related to gender identity or the victim’s sexual orientation in the country.

The ineffectiveness of many law systems in Latin America encourages high levels of impunity, which in turn lead to its chronic repetition, plunging the victims and their families in total helplessness. In Bolivia, 30 homosexuals were killed in the last two decades and none of these murders got punished, the local Civil Association of Social Development and Cultural Promotion revealed.

The World Health Organization removed homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses 22 years ago. It is still illegal in 78 countries, while 12 states around the world allows gay adoptions and 10 recognise gay marriages.

Following the brutal Neo-Nazi attack of a young gay man, Daniel Zamudio, in March this year, on the 9^th of May the Chilean Congress approved an anti-discrimination law. The new law states that it is a criminal offence to discriminate against race, ethnicity, nationality, political opinion, religious beliefs sexual orientation, gender, illness, handicap and appearance, among other motives.

Recently, US President Barack Obama expressed his support for the gay marriage cause, and Argentina passed a Gender Identity bill into law.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) has presented an overview of the current regional prison situation in “Report on Human Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas,” in which it voices concerns over unsatisfactory prison conditions and overcrowding.

The paper denounced the structural deficiencies of the prison and state negligence toward elements that conspire against the rehabilitation of people living in prison.

The organisational body of the OAS Human Rights also highlighted the lack of protection of vulnerable groups, lack of employment and educational programmes and lack of transparency in prison management.

According to data published in the report, Uruguay, Mexico, and Venezuela are the countries that invest the least in their prisons, while the Bahamas is the largest contributor.

Moreover, the commission expressed that in various countries in the region, the inmates spend long periods in detention before being charged and brought to trial.

The document also reports the use “of torture for purposes of criminal investigation,” and the “use of excessive force” as well as preventative detention.

Finally the organisation calls on the regional states to guarantee the rights of persons deprived of their liberty and to ensure decent conditions of detention.

Translated from Pulsar

Emergency Rally for Human Rights in Colombia (Photo: mar is sea Y)

At the Summit of the Americas in April, US president Barack Obama announced that a free trade agreement with the host country, Colombia, would go into effect on the 15th May 2012, months earlier than expected. The agreement, originally signed in 2006, has stretched over two US administrations, reputedly due to Colombia’s notoriously poor record on workers rights, with the highest level of trade union deaths worldwide.

During his 2008 presidential campaign, Obama publicly opposed a bilateral agreement in a televised debate against John McCain, vowing that he would not push the deal forward until he was “certain they are not killing union leaders.” Four years later, in the face of mounting economic pressure, the Democrats have dismissed previous qualms, seizing the opportunity to intensify trade and investment, on the grounds that Colombia has made “historic progress in workers protections and human rights.”

For Angela María Orozco, a former Colombian minister of trade, the postponement of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is due largely to the “extreme polarity of party politics” in the US; as well as to “Colombia’s delay in negotiating the deal.”

Figures reveal that violence against unionists is slowly being curbed in what is considered to be South America’s most pro-US nation. But, with 40 trade unionists killed in the last year alone, 60% of the total global figure according to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), exercising labour rights in Colombia is still a highly precarious act.

Agricultural Exports

Over the past decade, improved security and foreign investment have bolstered the Colombian economy, which has an expected growth rate of 4.7% in the next year, according to IMF figures. The US has, however, lost US$1bn in agricultural exports to Colombia over a two-year period due to regional accords and international competition.

Total US agricultural exports to Colombia plummeted from US$1.8bn in 2008 to US$827m in 2010, while Argentina’s agricultural exports to Colombia rose from US$457m in 2008 to $1bn in 2010, according to a report by the US Senate foreign relations committee. Colombia currently applies tariff protections on all agricultural produce, including some of over 100%. The FTA will provide duty-free access on 77% of all agricultural products, accounting for 52% of US exports to Colombia.

Farm workers carry sacks of coffee beans in Colombia's southwestern Cauca department. (Photo:Neil Palmer (CIAT))

In the short term, Orozco predicts, “displaced employment” is probable. But, she argues, “in the medium and long term, this will mean greater competitiveness for the country and will bring in foreign investment, both from the US and from other countries which have trade agreements with Colombia.”

In October, Obama stated that the implementation of the agreement “will significantly boost exports that bear the proud label ‘Made in America’, support tens of thousands of good-paying American jobs and protect labour rights, environmental and intellectual property.”

The ratification of the FTA is a victory for Obama, and for advocates of the belief that foreign trade can prop up the US economy in the face of rising protectionism across party lines. But the economic benefits of the removal of trade tariffs are reported to be “negligible” for the country, according to a federal agency estimate in 2007, with an increase in gross domestic product of US$14.4bn, or approximately 0.1%.

Moreover, the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA), a trade preference system designed to promote alternatives to illegal drug production, already boasts Colombian exports.

Many US exports to Colombia, on the other hand, are subject to duties as high as 35%, which has caused the US business community to argue that the FTA would put US producers on a level playing field, granting them equal access to Colombian markets.

At a time when Latin America is deepening regional integration, cultivating strong ties with Colombia is seen as a strategic move on the part of the US government. One which, undoubtedly, bears domestic political currency in the lead up to the 2012 presidential elections.

Colombia might also thank China for the ratification of the agreement. Evidence from the US Senate foreign relations committee forecasts that China, already Colombia’s second largest trading partner, will oust the US if an agreement is not implemented.

Obama’s support for the measures has provoked outrage among his political base, including labour groups who fear that foreign competition will lead to unemployment back home. According to US union leader Richard Trumka, the signing of the agreement is “deeply disappointing and troubling” since it “perpetuates a destructive economic model that expands the rights and privileges of big businesses and multinational corporations at the expense of workers, consumers, and the environment.”

Violence and Impunity

Since 1991, Colombia’s National Trade Union School (ENS) estimates there have been 2,245 killings, 3,400 threats and 138 enforced disappearances of trade unionists in the country. Impunity in these cases is over 90%. The Attorney General’s Office, which oversees the prosecution of such crimes, has opened investigations into more than 1,300 cases of anti-union violence. However, of the 298 cases of trade unionist murders between 2002 and 2004 under investigation, only four have resulted in a sentence, that is to say, just over 1.3%.

Human Rights March against the violence in Bogotá 2009 (Photo courtesy Nuevo Arco Iris)

According to Luis Celis, the political coordinator of NGO Nuevo Arco Iris, the high level of violence is attributed to the “affiliation of local governments, armed forces and police with the paramilitaries.” Moreover, the persistence of the armed conflict and territorial struggles are also contributive factors.

In response to increasing pressure from the US, the Colombian government has launched a new Labour Ministry to oversee the Action Plan Related to Labour Rights, initiated in April 2011.

For Orozco, the trade agreement has prompted measures which will ensure a “greater transparency and flexibility in administrative procedures.”

But, Celis argues, institutional impunity is still entrenched in the system and continues to “generate a logic of violence. The government needs to send out a message that trade unionists’ crimes will not go unpunished, strengthening the physical, political and judicial protection of trade unionists,” if this is to change.

“The aim is to reduce the death toll to zero,” says Celis. Such was the case in Guatemala, leading up to the ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in 2006. But since its implementation, trade union violence has skyrocketed and corporate rights remain prioritised above labour concerns.

Human rights activists have argued that while the Action Plan requires Colombia to create new programmes nominally dedicated to protecting unionists, it sets no benchmarks for reducing the homicide rate. They have petitioned accordingly for a number of guarantees built into the agreement, including a mechanism which would void the agreement in the event that violence escalates again.

The US government has refused to meet with the request. But, in an attempt to fend off opposition, the Obama administration has established various programmes by which workers, displaced by foreign competition, are offered retraining schemes and financial aid.

Harmonising Intellectual Property

Besides the controversial lack of union safeguards, the FTA also demands that Colombia abide by US intellectual property legislation.

The copyright bill Lleras 2.0 was pushed through Congress in just 18 days, the shortest period of time on record for a piece of legislation to be passed in Colombia. Critics have challenged the legislation on the grounds that it concentrates on importing homogenised US-style cyber enforcement procedures, while failing to provide protections and limitations for producers and consumers.

In response, a group of international academics have sent a letter to the Colombian legislature, asking them to recalibrate the balance between rights holders and other citizens by introducing flexible limitations and exceptions into the national law. Sean Flynn, a US expert in intellectual property, considers Colombia to be a “starting point in the global ramping up of intellectual property protections through trade agreements” which will lead to a “harmonisation of US norms.”

Encoded in FTAs are regulations which concentrate solely on obligations with regard to proprietor rights, while failing to safeguard other interests that include free expression, access to educational materials and technological innovation, as enshrined in the US Fair Use system.

Intellectual property governs creativity, free expression and innovation, that is to say, domestic policies. According to Flynn, a “one-size-fits-all intellectual property protection law” is likely to harm recipient countries developmentally and hamper economic growth, as well as market opportunities for US pharmaceutical companies and internet service providers.

Regional Alternatives

The revival of support for free trade, initiated by the Bush administration in 2006, comes at a time when both Democrats and right-wing Republicans have adopted anti-trade positions, albeit on different grounds.

Such agreements, which eliminate tariffs and other policies protecting domestic produce, are generally considered to benefit developing nations by creating a common market which jumpstarts industry and reduces poverty. But it is equally clear from recent studies that such deals are also liable to create “enclave economies,” the benefits of which are confined to the international sector and do not translate into growth and prosperity, as is the case with NAFTA in Mexico.

While FTAs continue to require developing countries to eliminate or reduce protection on agricultural and manufacturing exports, they perpetuate an economic model that plays straight into the hand of multinational corporations at the expense of local workers, thus reinforcing US dependency.

Latin America’s internal trade accounts for only 22% of its total commerce. But the increasing presence of Mercosur and the Community of Latin American States and the Caribbean (CELAC), recently created in response to the global economic crisis, is gradually shifting the regional economic landscape. Such blocs offer less rigid, regional alternatives in the face of deepening trade imbalance with the US, carving out a space for burgeoning economies to compete on a level playing field.

“The current commercial networks in Latin America offer enormous opportunities for increasing manufactured exports and added value, since they are the primary consumers of Colombian products,” says Orozco. “Creating a cohesive value chain within the hemisphere” is a priority for the immediate future.

Click here to find out what Argentines think about free trade agreements between Latin American countries and the US.