The Obama administration should be praised for issuing a statement condemning the coup in Honduras, standing by democracy and rule of law and separating the United States from its' past backing of military coups in Latin America. This is a step in the right direction but should it take a coup for Obama to address the increasing civil unrest amongst the majority of the poor, marginalized peoples of Latin America? Shouldn't the fact that within the past decade, Latin American citizens have expressed clear dissatisfaction with free market development policies by electing left-leaning regimes time and time again?

Uribe will claim that he has made important labor law reforms to address the less egregious, but very widespread problem of subcontracting and "labor cooperatives" that has denied basic labor rights to hundreds of thousands of Colombian workers in all sectors. Decrees meant to address the problem have done nothing on the ground because Uribe has not demonstrated the political will to enforce such measures. Women workers have lost at least 10% of their salaries on average, due to Uribe's labor reforms. Uribe will show that the cut-flower sector has made progress under the free trade model.

Recently, Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington introduced an amendment to a defense spending bill that calls on the Department of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to "produce a map of mineral-rich zones and areas under the control of armed groups in the DRC" and to make the map publicly available.  The map will be called the "Congo Conflict Minerals Map" and will be updated every 180 days.  This amendment is an important component of the work that many people are starting to do to increase transparency in the mining sector in the DRC, linked to the electronics industry.

Flowers; my grandmother buys flowers maybe every so often. She, with vases, puts them up in her room, her living room, and sometimes even in the window seal. Through ILRF I’ve herd and seen how workers from Ecuador and Colombia get mistreated, verbally and physically abused, sexually assaulted, and more in order for them to either keep their job or get a job. Flower workers do a lot to maintain, grow, and care for the flowers, I think of this everyday when I wake up and walk into my living room every morning and see a vase full with gorgeous flowers. I love flowers and so does she but now I see the real thrones that flowers bring.