Colombia and United States Free Trade Agreement

Since I have memory the Free Trade Agreement has been kind of a big deal for my country Colombia. When I was in college, I took a class about how to prepare for the Free Trade Agreement; this was probably ten years ago. I could not believe when the agreement was finally signed, and that it will start implementation as soon as next month. The Free Trade Agreement will open the door to a wide variety of goods to enter Colombia without paying import taxes. It is expected that 80% of the goods that are imported today from United States will be duty free. However, is Colombia ready to compete with the massive and high scale productions of goods in United States? local businesses, factories, and agriculture will have to compete in prices, quality, and quantity with this new influx of products. To compete in prices and quality these business must count with the technology and the resources necessaries to survive the big avalanche of goods coming from United States. Moreover, Many local supermarkets are already in panic mode when last month representatives of Wall-Mart were visiting Colombia to choose the locations for the new stores. However  Colombians know this is a necessary evil, something that sooner than later was going to happen, as part of a growing economy the challenges also become greater. The president of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos and the president of he United States Barack Obama talked about the agreement in the recent Summit of the Americas. Regardless of the scandals and the various diplomatic incidents and absentees, the Summit of the Americas showed the new generation of leaders of the Americas, people that care deeply about the economic future of their countries instead of their own personal gain and power. I also want to mention Shakira's Speech in front of hundreds of the most powerful business people of America. For those of you that don't know about Shakira, she is not only a very successful singer and a song writer, but also since the beginning of her career she has worked with the community in Colombia helping children to get education and nutrition. Shakira and her foundation "Pies Descalzos" have built schools for children with limited resources in Colombia. Her speech in the Summit of the Americas talked about the importance of education to strengthen the future economyof countries in South America and around the world, she said " education is the most valuable asset in a nation" for every dollar spend in the education of a child the return will be seventeen dollars. Her words completely blew me away. In countries like Colombia and many others in South America there is a high percentage of children that don't have the resources to attend school and don't have any other choice than being part of rebel groups or organized crime. It is very sad to see children at the stop lights begging for money to help to support their families instead of being in school. Education is the only way someone can brake the path of generations of poverty. Anyway here is part of her speech.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/15/world/americas/summit-of-the-americas/index.html

" Latino Foreign Policy"??

This article was recently posted in CNN; it strongly suggests certain changes to the current US foreign policy to focus more in the neighbor countries specially the Latin America countries and also to make use of the many Hispanics working for the US government to aid the country to strengthen the diplomacy between United States and these countries. It is not unknown to everyone that the economy is changing around the world and Countries like Brazil, Argentina and Colombia that used to be considered in disadvantage economically speaking are turning into economics growing rapidly and robustly. The US foreign policy should be redirected to capture these markets in South America and reactivate the economy in America, instead of looking in other continents for the resources that are so close to us. I don't no much about foreign policy, however I know that Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba are encouraging the other countries in South America to be independent from United States. This is the time for United States to strengthen diplomatic relationships with the countries that have not yet joined the Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro movement. It is time for this country to take advantage of the many well educated and successful Hispanics working in the different government agencies for the purpose to better the actual foreign policy.

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/12/is-there-a-latino-foreign-policy/?hpt=wo_r1

President Obama's Secret Service Agent Having Way too Much Fun in Cartagena Colombia

President Barack Obama, his Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and other leaders around the globe are gathered in Cartagena Colombia in what is called the Summit of theAmericas. This event has been the highlight of the week in Colombia, not only because this is the first time president Obama visits Colombia but also because he was to focus on trade, energy and regional security. In April 2012 the 34 Heads of State and Government will address the Sixth Summit central theme, “Connecting the Americas: Partners for Prosperity", which focuses on the role of physical integration and regional cooperation as a means to achieve greater levels of development and to overcome the Hemisphere’s challenges in several key areas including poverty and inequalities, citizen security, disasters and access to technologies. The Summit, which occurs every three years, offers the opportunity for countries to jointly define a hemispheric agenda at the highest level to address urgent challenges and propel positive change.  This is the longest a president of the United States is going to stay in Colombia. The president's Secret Service has been working for weeks previously to the event  with the heads of security of Colombia to make sure no violent event obscure this diplomatic meeting. However the summit is being overshadow by an scandal that had 12 United States secret service agents released from duty and replaced with other secret service agents. A source has confirmed that the agents have engaged in misconduct related with prostitution. The agents visited prostitutes in Cartagena and now they are in trouble. Just when I was going around telling everybody how proud I was that president Omaba was in my country this happens. Anyway it does not surprise me though Cartagena is well known for its beautiful women sometimes with not so much of a good reputation; and yes I know that you may be wondering if I'm from Cartagena, no I'm not ...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/14/world/americas/colombia-summit-secret-service/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Hello !!!! please check the criminal record before granting a pardon...

A man involved in a crash three months ago (Harry Bostick), that resulted in the death of a 17 year-old, is one of the felons chose by the ex-governor of Mississippi to grant a pardon. He was being charged with his third DUI when he received his pardon. Communications gathered by CNN between attorneys representing Bostick and the Governor's chief advisor and this secretary of state show that they knew about that Bostick, about to get his pardon, was involved in a car accident in which he was driving under the influence and that ended the life of  17 year- old and injured another. This is just outrageous and makes me sick to my stomache, this person obviously has a drinking problem it was a matter of time for him to get into a tragic accident while driving, however after he proved again that he was still a danger to the society he got his pardon. What made the Governor of Mississippi think that a person like this was rehabilitated and deserved a pardon?? this just proves that he did not do his due diligence and granted pardon upon request.

 http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/13/justice/mississippi-pardons-dui-emails/index.html?hpt=ju_c2

George Zimmerman's First Apperance

Today, April 12 2012, George Zimmerman had his first appearance in front of a judge in Florida. First appearances are brief; basically the judge goes over the charges against the defendant, and  prosecutors file affidavits to establish enough probable cause to continue with the process.( read affidavit) http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/120412_Zimmerman_CauseAffidavit.pdf. Zimmerman is scheduled to appear in court in a few weeks for his arraignment hearing in which the judge will formally read the charges against him. For those of you who are not following this cases, George Zimmerman was charged with the murder of Trayvon Martin on February 26 of the present year in the state of Florida. Zimmerman was a neighborhood watcher in a suburban area of  Seminole County when he ignored police orders and went to pursue Martin, pursue that ended with the death of Martin by a gun shoot on his stomach. This case is considered highly controversial not only because there is racial profiling involved, but also because thanks to a law in Florida called "Stand your Ground" Zimmerman might be found immune from prosecution. "Stand your Ground" is a controversial law in Florida which allows, in some cases, the use of deadly force in self defense when there is reasonable belief of a threat without an obligation to retreat first. This is certainly a very sad case in which many people have been affected. On one side Martin's family is mourning the death of their 17 year-old son, and on the other side Zimmerman is facing charges of second degree murder and a possibility of a sentence to life in prison. Defense experts are already speculating that Zimmerman might take the stand at the evidentiary hearing to explain why killing Martin was an act of self defense. The standard of proof in this type of hearings is preponderance of evidence, which is a lower standard than beyond the reasonable doubt. I will keep following this case very close...
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/12/11166967-george-zimmerman-expected-to-take-the-stand-in-trayvon-martin-murder-case-legal-observers-say?lite

Does the Privacy Act's "actual damages" provision cover mental and emotional distress?

In 2006, pilot Stanmore Cooper disclosed that he was HIV-positive to Social Security officials in order to receive medical benefits but withheld his status from the Federal Aviation Administration. But the Social Security Administration then turned over his medical records to the FAA, which revoked his license. Cooper filed suit against the agency for emotional distress for mishandling his medical records. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the exchange of records was improper and that Cooper has standing to sue. This place was argued before the U.S Supreme Court last year. The Supreme Court ruled that the authorization of suits against the government for “actual damages” in the Privacy Act of 1974 is not sufficiently clear to constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity from suits for mental and emotional distress. I'm not very familiar with the Privacy act, however it is only logical to ask for a person's authorization before to disclose medical records, specially to your employer.

Am I under Custody?

We all have seen it on TV, the police detective reading the Miranda rights to a suspect before he proceeds to take his/her confession. Well, let me give you an advise; before you answer to any police interrogation make sure you are under custody. This was the issue presented to the U.S Supreme Court in Bobby v. Dixon. Dixon buried a man alive and stole his identity in order sell the victims car and write checks on his behalf. The police took him into custody and started questioning him after gave him his Miranda rights, Dixon told police he did not know anything about the victims whereabouts. However he was brought for interrogation for forgery charges in the same case, this time police started interrogating Dixon and procrastinated to read the Miranda rights seeking to get a murder confession which they did. During the interrogation the defendant asked for an attorney to be present but police disregarded his request. The issue before the Supreme Court was whether the police violated Dixon’s constitutional rights by failing to read his Miranda rights during the forgery questioning.The Supreme Court ruled that the police did not violated defendant constitutional rights because when he asked for an attorney he was not in custody. The Supreme Court also found Defendant's confession to be valid because it was voluntary. Apparently Miranda rights are only applicable when suspects are under costudy, but police can still question suspects even if they are not in custody. I think this situation gives police a little room to be sneaky and get confessions from suspects without reading the Miranda warnings.