The agreement signed between Bogotá and Washington will accentuate inequalities.

"They have privatised everything except the air" This serious and wry remark from Gabriel sums up "the exploitation" brought about by neo-liberal eformsin force in Colombia. It’s a disaster as well as a mess according to this young man from Bogotá. While Bogotá displays its outstanding development potential especially in relation to biodiversity, its social indicators are alarming. The liberal economy of President Alvaro Uribe, which is based on foreign investment, has certainly boosted the economy leading to a growth of 4% in the economy in 2004. But the effects have not been shared; 64% of Colombians live below the poverty line.

Studies by the World Bank confirm that the rate of inequality today is similar to that in 1938! Social welfare payments have been cut; nearly 50% of Colombians have no access to medicines. Work flexibility has undermined stable employment increasing the precariousness of wage earners. The rate of unemployment, the main worry among Colombians according to a recent survey, is nearly 14%. The result of Uribe's economic liberalisation: foreign companies are dividing up Colombia's national resources, such as oil, by repaying themselves ridiculous royalties. "Uribe's government is acting in favour of US interests", according to those in progressive or trade union circles. This explains the current unpopularity of the Free Trade Agreement (tratado de libre comercio, TLC) signed on 26 February last between Washington and Bogotá after 21 months of fierce bargaining.

According to several surveys, 70% of Colombians are opposed to the treaty. The main sector suffering from commercial conditions imposed by the USA: agriculture. One million hectares currently cultivated are at risk of disappearing when two million tons of maize from USA, exempt from import taxes will flood the Andean market. Same story in the pharmaceutical industry. By extending the terms of patents on medicines, North American trusts delay the production of generic medicines that would make these more accessible. The Colombian negotiators themselves are doubtful, the meagre compensation obtained on behalf of coffee producers, for example, does not compensate them for their agreed losses. No doubt, the billions of US dollars from the US government, that finance the fumigation of cocoa plantations and the "war" on rebels would have explained the timid reluctance of Bogotà.

Jorge Enrique Robledo has compared the Free Trade Agreement to an " economic tsunami against employment, the incomes of farmers, native groups and wage earners". Among the trade union organisations, there is outrage, increased after the President announced the creation of a tax to finance sectors damaged by the Free Trade agreement. The President of the Central Union of Workers, Carlos Rodriguez who launched " a general alert ", refuses to accept that society should for the consequences of this agreement, seen by many as an annexation of Colombia.

Sunday's elections should boost the President and the right, involved as they are in a dirty war against the rebels and so unable to reduce poverty.

A series of elections begin this Sunday in Colombia with local and national elections culminating in the presidential elections on 28 May. Well away from the swing to the left in Latin America, Colombia seems to remaining solidly in the grip of the right and its president with "his iron fist" Alvaro Uribe enjoys a comfortable lead in the polls with nearly 56% of voting intentions.