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

76,000 GM Customers and Rights Activists Call for a Just Settlement for Injured Workers. Injured Colombian Worker and Supporters Deliver Petition to GM.

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.

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 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.

Jess Hunter-Bowman outlines the scope of Colombia's displacement crisis.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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