President Álvaro Colom of Guatemala meets with his U.S. counterpart this week. The Central American leader hopes to decrease Guatemalan poverty, despite the challenge of global economic insecurity. "With decisive action, and international assistance," writes COA Vice President Eric Farnsworth, "the new president has the opportunity to regenerate a broader growth agenda."

In an op-ed for the Washington Times, Shankar Singham—a partner with global law firm and COA member Squire Sanders & Dempsey, L.L.P. —warns against anti-free trade rhetoric utilized in current U.S. presidential campaigns. "Those political candidates who have hidden behind trade as the primary reason for economic anxiety are hiding voters from the truth of the new global economy," writes Singham.

In a Christian Science Monitor op-ed, AS/COA's Susan Segal and the Center for Global Development's Nancy Birdsall discuss how the pending U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement could lower incidents of human rights abuses in Colombia.

In an op-ed for El Diario, Christopher Sabatini argues that congressional delay of a vote on the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement could have negative political and economic effects on the entire hemisphere and also threatens security and free trade in Colombia. (en español)

In an op-ed, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urges congressional approval of a bilateral trade agreement with Colombia, emphasizing the Andean country's commitment to democracy and and the opportunity provided by the trade deal to strengthen U.S. competitiveness.

Philippe Legrain, a journalism fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States, writes that: "The Democratic rivals have bought into most of the myths that have been peddled about the agreement and have placed their opposition to NAFTA at the center of their campaigns. Here's some information that could help them update their stump speeches."