The passage of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the governments of Colombia and the United States was predicated on the belief that the human rights situation in Colombian had improved. Yet, reports continue to surface which suggest that for labor organizers, Afro-Colombians, and Indigenous community leaders nothing has changed. In fact, according to many in the Afro-Colombian community, the FTA makes it even more difficult to hold on to their ancestral lands now that these lands are even more valuable for exploitation by US transnational corporations.

IPS Associate Fellow Ajamu Baraka and Annette Dickerson, the Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights’ Education and Outreach Program, joined a number of international delegates between May 14 to May 21st, to tour Colombia, meet with community leaders and attend a national gathering of delegates from Afro-Colombian communities from across the country in the country’s capital of Bogota. Ajamu Baraka and Annette Dickerson will be joined by Charo Mina-Rojas to provide a multi-media report back on the situation of Afro-Colombians.

2012 African Liberation Day series:

• May 24 – FTAs, Afro-Colombians and The African World
• May 31 – Film: The Neo-African Americans
• June 7 – Film: Apocalypse Africa: Made In America