"Free" Trade & Blowback

The concept of "blowback" is not something new. As I noted in my most recent syndicated column [1], blowback is a term long used by our intelligence agencies to describe retaliation against our government for supporting foreign government brutality. Jeremiah Wright - albeit inartfully - described the influence of blowback as it related to the 9/11 attacks and our longstanding support for a variety of Middle Eastern dictatorships. Now, we can see the potential for blowback as it relates to our economic policies - and right here in our own hemisphere.

As you may have heard, the Bush administration is pushing Congress to pass a "free" trade deal with Colombia - a country whose government has been supporting - whether directly or indirectly - all sorts of horrific brutality against its own people. Here's the latest from the Washington Post [2]:

Funded in part by the Bush administration, a six-year military offensive has helped the [Colombian] government here wrest back territory once controlled by guerrillas...But under intense pressure from Colombian military commanders to register combat kills, the army has in recent years also increasingly been killing poor farmers and passing them off as rebels slain in combat, government officials and human rights groups say.

Clearly, the Colombian government's efforts to crack down on guerillas who work with drug cartels is a good thing - but this kind of brutality is unacceptable. Couple it with the Colombian government's known association with paramilitary gangs [3] and with the ongoing violence against union organizers, and the prospect of rewarding this country with a much coveted "free" trade deal is downright troubling - especially when you consider the prospect of blowback.

That's what the anti-Americanism epitomized by the rhetoric of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez really is - a Latin American version of blowback. I'm not saying it is deserved or should be applauded at all - but it certainly should be something we consider when we make foreign policy and international economic policy. When we reward oppressive governments with economic goodies, we tell the indigenous population in the region that America exists not to spread freedom, but to spread oppression. Continuing to pass "free" trade deals that enflame anti-American passions (and, of course, destroy our own economy here at ome) is just downright stupid - no matter how happy it makes corporate lobbyists on K Street.

And yet, the push for these "free" trade deals continues. As Reuters [4] reports:

The Bush administration hopes pending trade deals with Colombia and Panama will help it realize its longtime dream of a free trade zone stretching from northern Alaska to the southern tip of Chile.

Mind you, polls show this "free trade zone" is unpopular in almost every country it encompasses. The only demographic it is truly popular among are wealthy elites. And no matter how much the Bush administration says it wants to stop anti-Americanism in our hemisphere and fix our economy at home, passing corporate-written trade deals is the way to do the exact opposite.