Columbian election corruption

So from the Associated Press (as published by the Chronicle Herald) - comes this story about the winner of the Columbian election. . .

BOGOTA, Colombia — A 58-year-old U.S.-educated economist who dealt withering blows to leftist rebels as defence minister has won Colombia's presidency by the largest margin in modern history.

Juan Manuel Santos got 69 per cent of the vote in Sunday's runoff in a ringing endorsement of his promise to continue the U.S.-backed security policies of outgoing conservative President Alvaro Uribe that he helped craft.

Just one problem that seems to go unmentioned in this article from the Huffington Post. . .

But documents obtained from Colombia's Camera de Comercio - the private national Chamber of Commerce - raise questions about a possible conflict of interest and show that he may not be so committed to transparency as it seems. The documents listing the board's membership made clear that he sat for several years on the board of directors of a securities firm that manages election logistics- from printing voting cards to transporting stuffed ballot boxes - while at the same time heading Uribe's "U" political party.

Santos' campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Some Colombians contacted for this story are troubled by Santos' mix of the elections business and politics. "None of the candidates who are vying for the presidency should have had relationships with a company carrying out elections," said Alejandra Barrios, director of the Electoral Observation Mission, a watchdog agency. "This kind of relationship should have been disclosed for the sake of transparency."

So the winner "by a landslide" of the Columbian Presidential elections is on the board of directors of the company that makes the election systems? hm m m .. . what's wrong with this picture.

Also, Canada has just signed free trade agreement with a country that kills and jails union activists, people who work for civil and human rights, or who are political opponents.

On June 21st, for example, at least 32 miners were killed in Columbia with the Associated Press reporting, that at least 40 miners were still underground, and that "The exact cause of the explosion is unknown, but the mine's records indicate it lacked a methane ventilation pipe and gas-detection devices."

There is just no way that we should be helping our corporations do more work in Colombia -- According to the Council of Canadians. . .

Despite widespread public demands to put human rights before corporate interests in Colombia, on June 14 Liberal and Conservative MPs voted ‘yes’ to the third and final vote on the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (Bill C-2). This agreement has been stalled for over a year because of a persistent human rights crisis in Colombia that continues to see labour leaders assassinated and rights activists threatened with murder. A human rights side agreement to the FTA, proposed by the Liberals and tabled on May 31st in the House of Commons, is wholly inadequate. Human rights and trade justice advocates continue to call for an independent human rights impact assessment to be carried out before the free trade deal is ratified. But on June 1, Liberal and Conservative members of the committee abruptly shut down debate on C-2 without hearing from a list of witnesses who could have spoken to the deal and its human rights side agreement. It is the responsibility now of the Senate to hear from those witnesses and to put rights before trade.