receive a subsidy from the government every two months@@@@ that confronts this economic crisis. the efforts to finance the government and to finance employers on one key component, to preserve investment confidence in our country. we want to build columbia into the most attractive country for domestic and international investors to invest in with

social responsibility. i know you have questions, comments, disagreements. and i have to be ready to take them. thank you. now the floor is yours. [applause] >> thank you very much, mr. ambassador. i did not recognize and should have earlier that we have two distinguished ambassadors here. we are delighted to have them. we will open it up for questions. we will begin with you. >> [inaudible] my name is richard dawson. first of all, i want to

congratulate you for your brilliant dispositions and very well balanced the covers the political, economical, and social aspects of your country. my question is about the farc . what do you think is the impact of the farc in the region? >> somebody very important in this country asked me three weeks ago, mr. president, do you consider that the progress columbia has made is irreversible? i said, not yet. we have weakened farc. farc has diminished a lot in this administration.

this narcotics trafficking terrorist organization still has the power to create many problems. for us to advance, we need effectiveness in other countries against this organization. if this organization can't find hideouts in other countries, this organization will never have the disposition, the likelihood to negotiate in columbia. we should understand that the best way to fill riches is by pressing farc, not by giving them hideouts.

the day before we left columbia, we visited one remote area. we have advanced a lot in illicit drugs eradication and providing people with social advances in health, education, electricity, utilities. this is not a paradise but it is a place making progress. before yesterday, the mayor and city councilors went to other rural communities. they were fired by farc. the farc attacked them by

explosives. the president of the city council was kidnapped 76 hours ago by farc. the members that produced that attack were furious, angry because the city councilor had been unable to stop my government from advancing in illicit drugs your medication. this is new evidence that, in columbia and as well as the international community, we need to make these groups [unintelligible] my government has determination to fight them. we need much more resources but we do not lack determination.

we have been very generous. during the 1990's, columbia saw the insertion of 4000 people. during our administration, we have received and are in the process of inserting over 50,000 people. we are as strong to fight them when they remain in violent activities are generous to receive them when they rethink their role and mobilize and come to terms with our constitution. >> mr. president, retired u.s. diplomat. by an accident of geography, you have as a near neighbor a very

theatrical chief of state who does not wish you well, does not wish the wonderful people of colombia of wealth and blocks some of the wonderful free color programs of your dynamic team here. this afternoon at 3:00, will you instruct your distinguished minister when they meet on that issue of honduras and the constitutional government to play a constructive role in blocking the effort of your favorite to hijack the inter- american system? >> spor[unintelligible] if i cannot bear the bruden

of st. paul lows, hikios, how cr the burden of st. peter? we are to be respectful. we ask for cooperation. we want conditions for social responsibility. we want freedoms in independent institutions. we want the country to meet standards of every modern democracy and we have to be very respectful. we are for corporations. we say, if you want a corporation in columbia, please help us. and not allowing these people to

find hideouts overseas. we request cooperation but we respect referring to honduras. the minister of foreign relations [unintelligible] yesterday, we had an opportunity to exchange ideas about this case. allied repeat, we need -- i repeat, we need to respect democratic decisions in every country. we need to respect that decisions made by people participation in accordance with their constitution and a lot of every country. we need to respect political rights and at the same time we need to be totally a

unbiased in the right of every country to determine its own path. we agree with the principle of respecting democracy in every country and with the principle of nonintervention. the principle of non intervention cannot be biased. i cannot say today that the side with intervention and at the same time tomorrow in a different circumstance to accommodate my interest to say, today, we need intervention. today, we don't need intervention. the principle of nonintervention should be permanent and constant.

with intervention, you create political problems. intervention creates problems. because of problems, you disrupt democratic institutions. therefore, there is a connection between the principle of non intervention with the principle of respecting the right of every country to determine its own destiny by democratic and constitutional means. >> mr. president, in the midst of an economic crisis as we are living, president obama has focused a substantial portion of his efforts towards the domestic agenda and in a sense has trade in the international agenda in this regard has taken a back seat. that will change sometime soon.

you just met with president obama and the fta is a very pending issue in the agenda. what role do you see ahead working with the administration in the prospects of moving ahead in congress? >> yesterday, the conversation with president obama was very constructive. i found him very interested in moving ahead with columbia. in the specific point of the political agreement. the political agreement with columbia is a question of politics. it is of confidence, of friendship, it is convenient for both countries. the only way for columbia to

provide some communities with real alternatives to the narcotics trafficking economy is through investment. we don't see the possibility to increase our exports to the united states in the near future. we have seen an adoption -- a huge reduction in our exports to the united states. keep in mind, some citiesave fought a lot to overcome terrorists. my city has sustained it a big battle against the cartels on narcotics trafficking. my city has advanced a lot. but my city has specialized

[unintelligible] the main market is the united states. it is because the decline in this market, my city has seen an increase in the unemployment rate, up to 18%. therefore, we do not see possibilities to increase exports dramatically to the united states in the short term. but we need the agreement as a sign for investors from all over the world to be much more confident in columbia. it is quite difficult for my government to invite investors to put their money in colombia when they ask, "i want to put my money in columbia, but why hasn't the united states approved the free trade agreement with columbia?" in a country with 46 million people, the only way for us to

prosper is by having access to all of the market's@@@@@@@@@ @ economy was at the moment and when our administration began of how into the world economy should be by the end of the second term. we find one difficulty. some countries ask, explain to me why the united states has not approved the free trade agreement with columbia yet. therefore, it is a necessary signal for our country.

for instance, [unintelligible] your question gives me the opportunity to refer to this problem. first, what is the cost? i was a student at a public university in the 1970's. columbia was one of the two main targets for guerrillas in our subcontinent. guerrillas brought to our country the idea of a combination of a struggle. they killed and penetrated the labor movement, the students' movement. journalists, politicians, and they created a paramilitary

reaction. [unintelligible] career list began to kill them, accusing them of being traitors. the complexity my government found. since far before the beginning of negotiations with the united states, since prior to our election, we proposed to colombians a policy on security with democratic values. that policy composed of 100 points. if we win the election, we are going to do our best to provide

columbus with security and democratic values to protect teachers, journalists, mayors, city councilors. colombia has 101,102 men disabilities -- municipalities. they have many political arenas were my government has begun -- has more than 400 mayors could not attend their cities because of the threat they receive from terrorist organizations. more than 250 trade unionists were killed year by year. this year so far, 17. we are not satisfied. we need zero cases.

the general rate of homicides in the columbia is 33 per every 100,000 people. in this specific case, it is between two or three between every 100,000 members of these groups. but we want zero cases. i want to repeat, we have two dozen trade unionists with individual protections provided by the government. this production has been very effective. no one with this production has been killed. under the umbrella of the international labor organization, we have agreed that employers, workers, and government to give more resources to the justice and to the administration. . .

today, we have 195. today, we have 175 people in jail because they have been convicted or they have been indicted for killings of trade unionists. therefore, we have advanced protection, we had advanced economic impunity. we have dismantled one threat.

today, the cases are -- they have to sources. deorbit -- the other source corresponds to isolated cases. we have made promises, but we have said that we need to do much more. in the case of labor rules, we have advanced a lot. last year, which improved to very important laws. -- we improved two very important laws. we have restricted corporations. with introduced a ban where they can no longer be labeled intermediaries. if they want to work, they have to pay for social benefits, and

they cannot act as labor intermediaries. i signed a new lot improved -- approved by congress. columbia --colombia calls it a statute of limitations. against those criminals blamed -- trade unionists and human rights. for 17 years, columbia -- colombia was on a blacklist for labor. my country has been taking away of that list. a few weeks ago, the

international labor organization has said that colombia is a country making progress. we have said that we have many problems to solve. we have advanced a lot. in the economic crisis, we have opposed the idea of many colombians, many of the social benefits that were lost -- have created for workers. in colombia, however we defend the right of the workers in the name of eternity, we don't want to make all colombians informants. we want the state to formalize the economy, to provide more high-quality jobs with syphilis it -- with the affiliation of the community system. imposing the government

obligation to put money to guarantee in come at the moment of the retirement for those in the formal economy who have not expectations to get a pension. we're trying to do our best in columbia -- colombia. and we need your help. in the case of the united states and in europe, it is a new source to protect the rights of the workers. it is a new source to protect the rights of the people. therefore, we except that we need your. -- your help. one is the approval of the free trade agreement. >> the final question will be

from her in the back. >> i am a former woodrow wilson center scholar. i have a question about internally displaced people in colombia. colombia has the largest number of idps or internally displaced persons in the world. you have a man who has taken on the job, but is a big job. i wish to talk a little bit more to us about your plans for expanding the scope of what he is doing and you are doing with this very large population. >> yes. we have two problems to protect internal be displaced people, and the other to protect reasserted people coming from the -- reasserted people from the terrorist groups. -- reinserted people.

for many people, this is a very negative incentives. -- incentive. we registered people that were 156,000 people who were in accordance with the declaration. they were displaced in between 1957 and 1987. therefore, our policy regarding internally displaced people has invited people displaced, even in the middle of the last century, to come to the administration office and to request for their benefits.

it is generosity, but at the same time, it is a big problem for our country. with internally displaced people, we have advanced a lot in education, health care, subsidies for them to freely flee from pain, for them to guarantee that children in school attendance. if i were asked by you what is the main problem, your main concern about internally displaced people, i want to confess. it is social housing. ladies and gentlemen, we have made progress, but we need many problems. my government is the first to a knowledge that we need to figure

out how to overcome these problems. the international red cross has helped us a lot to tend to internally displaced people. there are three sources of displacement. these resources are places in rural areas in the middle of the jungle. we have said to the international red cross, please talk to our military. we have said to our military, please contact the international red cross to inform them in advance about our military operations against north for terrorists -- narco terrorists.

we want to increase confidence in the communities living in these areas, especially in the indigenous communities. for them not to displace as a consequence of our military operations. in some areas of the country, we have succeeded in creating what i call liaisons' of confidence. there between the military and the community. one example is the case of santa marta. [unintelligible] in these indigenous communities, they said to me, mr. president, two days ago we received a visit from people in uniform