What's going on, in concrete terms, is that the army, in collusion with the paramilitary, are displacing peasant communities where lands represent an economic interest in the context of a potential export development project. You have to understand that these communities had a functional local economy, but that that has been destroyed. These are unemployed people who are being given work. They had a functioning economy, but the army displaced them because these lands represented an economic interest. Subsequently, they finance the companies that implement agri-industrial projects on their lands. These peasants are converted into cheap labour on the plantations. No, their living conditions have not improved. No, they haven't created good jobs for them. That's absolutely false.
As regards the financing of these businesses by the agricultural financial company, we now know that a number of members of the boards of these businesses have serious ties to the paramilitary groups. This is absolutely deplorable. The main African palm company in Bajo Atrato is Urapalma. However, one of the members of its management committee, Antonio Zúñiga Caballero, belongs to a family recognized for its connections with drug trafficking in Colombia. That family's tentacles have extended into the government's agrarian bodies. His daughter, María Fernanda Zúñiga Chaux, was a member of another African palm business in Curvaradó, but she was also a director of Fido Agraria, a rural development trust company in Colombia. That body, which reports to the department of agriculture, gave Urapalma, in which her father is involved, the equivalent of CDN $1.85 million in agrarian bank credits. That gives you an idea of how things work.
These businesses were established on the lands of the communities following their forced displacement. Brigade XVII of the Colombian army is directly involved. It joined forces with the paramilitary to conduct the forced displacement. Yes, the government is directly responsible. In our opinion, the implementation of a free trade agreement between Canada and Colombia would merely worsen this kind of situation. That's how they implement development projects in that country.