International Trade committee  Thank you. Yes. I cannot see how this can make the living conditions in Colombia deteriorate. Regarding the drug trade, some research came out last week. It was a joint research effort of Canadian and Colombian researchers that came up with a very important result, which is that the environmental effect of our aerial eradication campaign is taking into account the environmental effect of coca production.

International Trade committee  This is not in my study. Many NGOs that I have talked to ask me, what's the natural question after this study? I agree with them that the natural question after this study is about impunity. Let me go to your question now. After 2006 the number of cases of killings of union members actually investigated by the judicial system was almost zero.

International Trade committee  Yes, I think they are. The most important thing, I think, is that other groups present different information. I think we should agree on how we present the data. I'm not saying that I have the last word on this. I'm just saying that if we're going to try to look at the evolution over time of something--call it unemployment, call it inflation, call it growth, call it violence against union members, call it violence against the police, call it whatever--we should agree on how we look at information and how much we manipulate it.

International Trade committee  Do you mean where did I get the data?

International Trade committee  It was from the unions' NGO website. They are official documents. I have all of them that I downloaded from their website. I have them cited in the paper. Which unions and NGOs have I met? Unfortunately, it has been only in the U.S. Two weeks ago I met with Human Rights Watch's Washington office for Latin America and eight NGOs.

International Trade committee  Sorry, which one goes gradually up?

International Trade committee  One source of criticism is yes, the homicide rate of union members has gone down, but in general, the homicide rate in Colombia has gone down. What's the big advance reached if the total homicides are going down? What graph III wants to point out is that the homicide rate, not only the total number but the rate for unionists, has gone down faster than the homicide rate for the total population.

International Trade committee  Yes, there is a change in the focus of Plan Colombia. Between 2000 and 2006, Plan Colombia was mainly focused on the eradication campaigns of illicit crops. In 2007, 2008, and this year, both the Colombian government and the U.S. government have realized that they have to complement this with alternative development programs.

International Trade committee  They are looking at the evidence and they are looking at the advances that have been reached. I agree completely with the statement. I think they are looking at the areas and they see the advances we've made, or that the Colombian government has made, or that all Colombians have made, in trying to solve the large amount of problems we have.

International Trade committee  Not that I know. I know that the European Union and the United States are concerned about many things, as Colombians are concerned about many things. We don't neglect that there are many problems in Colombia, but I think we should look at the evolution over time in solving these problems.

International Trade committee  Yes. Most of the justice system in Colombia is now taking care of all the corruption and all the problems where the senators and congress had ties to paramilitary groups and ties to guerrilla groups. If we are going to discuss corruption, violence, and displacement, let's discuss it in general.

International Trade committee  Thank you for allowing me to respond to this. If they discredit the study, on academic grounds I would like to know why exactly. Is it the statistical tools we use? Is it the figures we use, which are their figures? Every single number we use is cited, from the document we take it from.

International Trade committee  I don't know the exact number of attempts to kill President Uribe, but I know that many have been made. I don't have the figures.

International Trade committee  Regarding his popularity, most polls I have seen that were done in Colombia—this is not part of my research and I'm not talking here as a university professor—talk about a popularity above 60% or 70%, depending on the survey you look at.

International Trade committee  That's a good question, and I think the answer is because unions are very organized groups that can push for more government protection. Other groups cannot organize with one voice to ask the government for more protection, in my view. For instance, unions are more organized and they have more of a centralized government than indigenous or other groups.