Uribe promotes US-Colombia FTA at Georgetown .

[Judi Lynn]

Uribe promotes US-Colombia FTA at Georgetown .
Thursday, 09 September 2010 16:38 Kirsten Begg

Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe stressed the importance of Colombia's free trade agreement (FTA) with the U.S. during his first lecture to students of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Washington D.C.'s Georgetown University Thursday, according to news source Efe.

Despite a protest mounted against the Colombian leader prior to the lecture, Uribe entered the school escorted by body guards in order to give his first conference on economics in Latin America to a group of thirty students.

Attending students reportedly agreed to a "pact of honor" not to disclose specific details about what was discussed in the lecture. However students did reveal that Uribe "focused more on theory and what the country has done to open up the market," such as negotiating FTAs with countries such as the U.S.

Colombian student Cristina Botero said that Uribe "did not speak about Colombia's internal politics" but instead examined "the implications for Colombia if a neighbor country doesn't agree with Colombia wanting to open markets with other countries like the U.S."

Botero said that one student had made awkward comments to Uribe during the lecture, but was forced to leave.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/11769-uribe-fta-georgetown.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Ex-Colombian President Uribe’s arrival to SFS sparks protests

Ex-Colombian President Uribe’s arrival to SFS sparks protests
Written by Cole Stangler on September 9, 2010

On Wednesday afternoon, Georgetown students, faculty, and local human rights activists gathered in Red Square to protest the hiring of former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe.

Georgetown hired Uribe this summer as a Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership in the School of Foreign Service. The group said that Uribe, who will begin teaching classes this week, had a poor human rights record while he was president of Colombia and is unfit to teach at Georgetown.

“On what basis was this man appointed to Georgetown?” Mark Lance, director of Georgetown’s Peace Studies Program, asked the group of about fifty protestors and onlookers. “He’s not a scholar of anything. … This is a man who shows contempt for the very idea of human rights work.”

Nico Udu-gama, a member of the D.C.-based School of the Americas Watch who was at the protest, said there were numerous humans rights abuses during Uribe’s eight-year presidency, including the displacement of roughly three million citizens, and the deaths of union leaders and journalists. His group had intended for the rally to coincide directly with Uribe’s arrival on campus, but he said that the University refused to disclose the details of Uribe’s arrival.

~snip~
Several protestors said that Uribe’s human rights record puts him at odds with the University’s Jesuit identity and dedication to social justice.

Gonzalez noted that last November, the University had commemorated the 1992 assassination of six Jesuit activists working in opposition to the U.S.-backed El Salvador regime. For activists like Gonzalez, the University is sending mixed messages about its commitment to human rights.

“I feel very strongly about the matter. Uribe is a killer,” David Bow, a professor of anthropology and development at George Washington University, said. “I think Georgetown should be embarrassed. I hope students can organize, make a lot of noise and bring attention to the authorities.”

More:
http://georgetownvoice.com/2010/09/09/ex-colombian-president-uribes-arrival-to-sfs-sparks-protests/

[rabs]

2. "Distinguished Scholar" needs bodyguards at a Jesuit university?

"Uribe entered the school escorted by body guards in order to give his first conference on economics in Latin America to a group of thirty students."

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Wonder if the guards were armed and who is paying for them.

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Attending students reportedly agreed to a "pact of honor" not to disclose specific details about what was discussed in the lecture.

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What? A secret lecture? How bizarre.

[Bacchus39]

3. wow, with those fierce protests its amazing he escaped unharmed

any info on whether there were more students in the lecture or more at the protest????

[Judi Lynn]

5. They'll have to shred their tests after they learn their grades. Jeeez.

That is the ODDEST damned thing I've ever heard.

Isn't that crazy?

He probably doesn't want the rest of world to know the cover-your-ass whoppers he's telling them.

[rabs]

4. The Tombs and more tombs

See post #4

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4534690

[Judi Lynn]

6. Can't get over the strange coincidence of his appearance at that place

as they are bringing up for identification more victims from the last mass grave discovered.

Referring to those roadway billboard signs with _{George Bubbya Bush} and the question, "Miss Me, Yet?" a guy on tv said, "No one but the guy who threw the shoe."

The La Semana article you posted says next week he's going to Oxford. Hope those guys will do the right thing and give him the welcome he deservers. They used to be very awakened politically there during the VietNam War.

It's wildly strange, isn't it that Georgetown kept his invitation to the university SECRET FROM THE STUDENTS, so they DIDN'T KNOW he was coming?????

And now the students CAN'T DISCUSS what he said in class with others?

Oh, my God.

Have never heard of anything so unforgiveable by a university in my LIFE. That's just not right. I guess you'd have to say it's right-wing.

[naaman fletcher]

7. There is no strange coincidence

It is the most popular and famous university bar/restaurant. If you visit anyone at Georgetown they will always take you to the Tombs. Anybody who has ever been anywhere near Georgetown knows this.