SourceL: Fault Lines, Al Jazeera

As the debate over whether to sign the U.S. Colombia Free Trade Agreement unfolds in Congress, the reality of the impact of free trade policies becoming increasingly apparent on the ground.

With gold now worth $1,500 an ounce, multinational companies are flooding in to Colombia.  Colombia’s pro-business mentality has seen arbitrary concessions by the state sold to multinational companies, often on indigenous land.  Fault Lines travelled to Colombia to speak to the people caught in the middle of this rush for gold - the rural workers and artisan miners who have mined for generations, and some whose ancestors were enslaved during the first gold rush centuries ago.