Frank Hammer speaks with David Shuster of Take Action News about the campaign for justice for injured Colombian GM workers.

On 9/17, thousands around the U.S. stood with Colombian GM workers on hunger strike. Prominent faith leaders made statements and fasted in solidarity. Labor groups passed resolutions in support of the workers. Activists protested at GM headquarters and other locations around the country.

A small group of former General Motors Co. (GM) employees in Colombia who sewed their mouths shut as part of a three-week hunger strike over a dispute with the auto maker have called off the strike, GM said Thursday. The hunger strike began Aug. 1 in front of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota. The workers claim they were fired from GM's local unit Colmotores more than a year ago due to serious on-the-job injuries sustained while lifting heavy objects and doing repetitive movements on the assembly line and other tasks.

In Bogota, Colombia workers from a General Motors plant continue their protest outside the US Embassy. Thirteen current and former workers from GM’s Colmotores plant, launched a hunger strike earlier this month after camping out outside the Embassy for a year. Some have also sewn their mouths shut. The workers say they were dismissed from the factory after being injured on the job. GM denies the claims and says no worker has been dismissed due to health reasons. Colombia remains a dangerous place for workers and labor leaders.

Nine days into a hunger strike in which he has sewn shut his mouth, Jorge Parra, a former worker for General Motors in Colombia, says his condition is deteriorating. “I have terrible pains in my stomach, my lips are swollen and sore, and I am having problems sleeping,” he says. “But I will not give up.” The 35-year-old is one of a group of men who say they were fired after suffering severe workplace injuries at GM’s Bogota factory, Colmotores, and have taken drastic action to demand compensation.

At the beginning of this month a group of former General Motors (GM) workers stitched their lips shut and began a hunger strike in the Colombian capital, Bogota. They had already spent over a year outside the US embassy with no success in fighting against what they said was their unfair dismissal. The protestors say GM has fired more than 200 employees after they reported on-the-job injuries, including herniated discs, carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis, at the company's Colombian plant.

Outside of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, 13 former General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) employees are staging a hunger strike protest charging worker mistreatment by the company, and seven of those men have sewn their mouths shut. The protesting workers, part of the Association of Injured Workers and Ex-Workers of General Motors Colombia (Asotrecol), assert that they and as many as 200 other employees were fired by GM's Colombian subsidiary GM Colmotores following on-the- job injuries and that the company was responsible for "systemic negligence of the workers' health and well-being."

Lyn Clark Pegg and Amy Price report on the findings of their Witness for Peace delegation to Colombia.

Columbus is credited with forging the first links between American and European civilizations. But whether the manner in which these cultures collided merits commemoration as a federal holiday is doubtful at best.

President Obama claims that free trade will create jobs, but Bill Hardesty, chair of the board of Witness for Peace - Upper Midwest, sets the record straight.

Witness for Peace founder and Southeast Regional Organizer Gail Phares applauds Obama's decision to stop deportation proceedings against immigrants who pose no threat to national security or public safety....and pushes for the next step in comprehensive immigration reform.

Witness for Peace's Ken Crowley speaks to the expansion of Cuban cultural programs in areas such as sustainable agriculture and peace-building initiatives.

These days, you need not brave the sharks that populate the Straits of Florida to visit Cuba, says Witness for Peace's Sharon Hostetler.

Witness for Peace is one of a handful of organizations to be granted a license to expand delegation programs in Cuba.

Law student Isabel Saavedra reflects on her delegation to the U.S./Mexico border.

The story of the Reyes Salazar family illustrates the negative effects of U.S. policy in Mexico.

Witness for Peace is featured "where lawmakers come to blog," the Hill's prominent, inside-the-Beltway Congress Blog.

WFP member Martin Lepkowski on immigration and trade policy reform: U.S. taxpayers can spend billions of dollars to build walls and prisons but this issue will not go away. What is needed is a just immigration-reform policy. We need a fair-trade agreement, not a free-trade agreement that continues to impoverish the poor in Mexico, forcing them to migrate.

The agreement will also prove disastrous for Colombia's small farmers. If passed, subsidized U.S. grain will flood the Colombian market and leave at least 400,000 farmers without their previous source of income, writes WFP intern Kelly Miller.

One of the oldest examples of citizens working across national boundaries on coal issues is organizations like Witness for Peace, which has brought attention to mines in Colombia and the U.S.

The nefarious Colombia trade agreement would give corporate profits a small boost, but would have disastrous impacts on the working class and the environment both at home and abroad, says WFP intern Kelly Miller.

Any trade deal that turns a blind eye toward the mass murder of workers and spurs cocaine production should be a non-starter in Washington, says WFP's Moravia de la O.

There's only one Colombian industry that can potentially employ workers who would lose their job in the wake of a free trade deal.

Professor Kim Jensen compares lessons from two simultaneous delegations to Colombia: one human rights-focused and the other focused those who stand to benefit from free trade.

Witness for Peace Southwest marks May 1st with media waves.

The focus of the Witness for Peace demonstration was the criminalization and deportation of immigrants.

The protest was part of the 25th annual Pilgrimage for Justice and Peace, a statewide effort to support human rights for farm workers and undocumented immigrants.

The Pilgrimage for Justice and Peace passes through Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Demonstrations for immigrant rights and worker equality make the North Carolina evening news.

Witness for Peace marks 25 years of demonstrations for peace and justice.

The march was part of the 25th annual Pilgrimage for Justice and Peace, an event spanning North Carolina demanding immigration reform, fair trade policies and justice for workers.

Witness for Peace Associate Director Jess Hunter-Bowman sheds light on the faults of the "Action Plan" and the consequences of a U.S.-Colombia FTA for workers in both countries.

National Grassroots Organizer Catalina Nieto is featured in a hard-hitting piece on U.S. policy towards Mexico.

As the media builds up to President Obama's visit to Latin America, Witness for Peace Associate Director Jess Hunter-Bowman lays out the facts on how free trade affects Latin America.

Church Women United have awarded long-time Witness for Peace activist Phyllis T. Albritton the Human Rights Award. Phyllis has served on the WFP board of directors, as our Virginia state coordinator and was a WFP delegate to Nicaragua.

Amidst rising tensions between the U.S. and Mexico, Presidents Obama and Calderon decide to stay the course on aid to the Mexican military - despite the evidence that it only spurs more violence.

Four years have proven that the Mérida Initiative is a reckless strategy contributing to massive bloodshed in Mexico. So why is the U.S. granting the Initiative an extension and additional funding?

An opinion-editorial by Witness for Peace National Grassroots Organizer Catalina Nieto.

National Grassroots Organizer Catalina Nieto marks International Migrants Day with a call to address the roots of immigration: U.S. foreign policy.

Witness for Peace's Catalina Nieto and Galen Cohee Baynes demonstrated for immigrant rights at a for-profit detention center near the School of the Americas in Georgia.

An opinion editorial by Witness for Peace Regional Organizer Colette Cosner

A Washington-based nonprofit, Witness for Peace, presented a letter with 1,300 signatures at Chiquita's annual meeting. The group wants Chiquita to make a formal apology and establish a multimillion dollar fund for victims of Colombian terrorism. It also asked for the Cincinnati-based produce company to fire executives who were involved in making payments to Colombian paramilitary groups.

1,300 Witness for Peace activists delivered a petition to Chiquita CEO Fernando Aguirre demanding reparation for the corporation's involvement in funding terrorist organizations in Colombia.

Chiquita's top executive pledged to consider a petition asking for reparations for potential victims of terrorists bankrolled by Chiquita.

A Washington-based nonprofit, Witness for Peace, presented a letter with 1,300 signatures at Chiquita's annual meeting. The group wants Chiquita to make a formal apology and establish a multimillion dollar fund for victims of Colombian terrorism. It also asked for the Cincinnati-based produce company to fire executives who were involved in making payments to Colombian paramilitary groups.

Colette Cosner, Witness for Peace Northwest Regional Organizer, speaks to the Merida Initiative, free trade and immigration to the U.S.

Hear National Grassroots Organizer Ben Beachy on "Sojourner Truth," Pacifica Radio's KPFK 90.7FM

Activists from the Latin America Solidarity Committee visited the federal courthouse yesterday afternoon to urge members of the U.S. Congress to support a new House resolution that addresses the large-scale internal displacement of populations in Colombia.

Charles Roland "Buddy" Hughes Jr., a former Witness for Peace staffer in Nicaragua, is dead at 81.

Under the guise of protecting the country from drug smugglers and Mexican cartels, the U.S. government uses tax dollars to abuse undocumented immigrants.

15 Long Islanders explore the roots of migration to the U.S. on a Witness for Peace delegation to San Juan Sosola, Mexico.

How does President Obama compare to his predecessors expanding military aid to Latin America for the so-called "Drug War?"

Anne Holzman of St. Paul, who worked with Witness for Peace in Nicaragua in the 1980s, writes a rebuttal to an editorial calling for passage of a free trade agreement with Colombia.

A delegation of 15 Long Islanders - which included educators, university students, and government appointees from both Nassau and Suffolk counties - traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico and made a surprising discovery. They learned that Mexican migration patterns are inextricably linked to the global price of corn.

The war on drugs in Guerrero, like much of the rest of Mexico, is a head-on collision between poverty and militarization.

The Obama administration handed a significant victory to the military-backed coup government in Honduras by recognizing the results of its recent presidential elections.

In March 2006, Martha Giraldo returned to her father’s farm outside of Cali, Colombia, to find the property surrounded by soldiers and her father dead. Giraldo speaks about the impunity enjoyed by the government actors carrying out extrajudicial killings of Colombian civilians.

Witness for Peace protesters were ready to greet investors as Chiquita held its annual stockholders meeting in downtown Cincinnati.

The Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op welcomed a Witness for Peace spokesperson from Nicaragua to its Grandin Village store to discuss fair trade coffee and other food products.

An opinion article by Witness for Peace delegate to Honduras Roxanne Hanson.

Marblehead resident and former Boston Globe columnist Linda Weltner reports on her Witness for Peace delegation to Honduras.

The Rev. Kenneth Weare traveled to Honduras Witness for Peace to gather testimony and look into human rights abuses inflicted by the regime that ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya in a June 2009 military coup.

A letter to the editor published by Witness for Peace supporter Miles Freeman exposes the roots of migration: U.S. trade policy.

WFP Southeast Regional Organizer Gail Phares advocates immigration and trade reform based on her experience leading a delegation to Mexico.

An opinion editorial by Mexico-based Witness for Peace International Team member Alexis Ball.

Witness for Peace delegate to Cuba reports his experiences.

Francisco Romero prepares for a delegation of 37 educators from across the United States to travel to Cuba with Witness for Peace.

Witness for Peace's Andean Regional Director, Jess Hunter-Bowman, calls on Congress to end the costly, ineffective and unethical aerial fumigation program in Colombia.

President Barack Obama discussed a free trade agreement with his Colombian counterpart while scores of protesters clogged streets near the White House to demonstrate against the pact.

Witness for Peace delegates met with miners in eastern Kentucky prior to traveling to Colombia, where they will also study coal mining.

As Mexican security budgets inflate with U.S. aid intended to combat the rising power of drug trafficking and organized crime these funds are increasingly being used to protect the interests of multinational corporations.

Pike County resident Vanessa Hall will be part of a U.S. delegation visiting the coal fields of Colombia, South America.

Solo hay una industria Colombiana que posiblemente pueda dar empleos a trabajadoras/es que perderian su empleo tras un acuerdo de libre comercio.

Witness for Peace Regional Director Jess Hunter-Bowman critiques the application of militarized anti-drug measures in Mexico.

A letter to the editor on Mexico's drug-related violence and NAFTA by Witness for Peace supporter Jenaro Rodriguez.

Letter to the editor on Mexico's drug-related violence and NAFTA by Witness for Peace supporter Luisa Torres.

A Colombian newspaper reports on the protest in Washington, calling for a shift from military aid for Colombia to humanitarian assistance for the displaced and a continued hold on the U.S.-Colombia FTA.

Colombia's largest daily, El Tiempo, reports on the U.S. activities for the National Day of Action for Peace in Colombia.

Witness for Peace organizers protested unjust immigration policies during the 23rd annual Pilgrimage for Justice and Peace.

Witness for Peace Southeast makes headlines with their 23rd annual Pilgrimage for Justice and Peace.

Pyschologist and Witness for Peace Board member Judy Greenberg describes her recent delegation to Cuba researching the country's health care system and the impact of the U.S. embargo.

Witness for Peace sends a delegation of North Carolina leaders to Oaxaca, Mexico to examine the root causes of immigration to their state.

An opinion piece by Andean Regional Director Jess Hunter-Bowman demonstrates that chemical spraying in the Amazon is a failed drug policy with terrible consequences for Colombian farmers.

Pyschologist and Witness for Peace Board member Judy Greenberg describes her upcoming trip to Cuba as a way to see first-hand the impact of the U.S. embargo on Cuba's health care system.

A letter to the editor by a Witness for Peace delegate to Cuba.

An opinion piece by Andean Regional Director Jess Hunter-Bowman suggests military aid to Colombia should be halted due to a reported increase in killings by the Colombian military.

The National Catholic Reporter interviews WFP Executive Director Melinda St. Louis at this year's School of the Americas Vigil

Witness for Peace partnered with Dr. Avi Chomsky to bring Colombian coal trade unionists to the U.S.

WFP organizes a rally in Drummond Coal Co.'s hometown of Birmingham

The Honorable R. Scott Kennedy received the 2008 El-Hibri Peace Education Prize for his work as co-founder of Witness for Peace, the Resource Center for Nonviolence and Interfaith Peacebuilders, which have sent educational delegations to countries around the world to those countries whose people suffer from conflict, lack of educational opportunities, and social injustice.

Witness for Peace's Mexico-based International Team analyzes the U.S. policies at the root of Mexico's food crisis.

WFP delegate reports on his experience on the 25th anniversary delegation to Colombia and Washington, DC.

A letter to the editor regarding the Colombia Free Trade Agreement by Witness for Peace supporter Avi Chomsky.

WFP delegates from Lynn, MA share their experiences.

Local press coverage of WFP 25th anniversary delegate Nancy Mills from North Carolina

An opinion editorial by Hope Bastian of the Mexico-based International Team.

Witness for Peace and other solidarity groups pledge to continue the fight against the implementation of the unjust free trade agreement.

Witness for Peace activists oppose free trade agreements between the United States and Central America.