To: STATE EDITORS

Contact: Steffi Domike of the United Steelworkers (USW), +1-412-562-2559

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United Steelworkers (USW) will host a presentation by Freddy Caicedo, an acknowledged human rights expert from Colombia on Thursday, October 16. Caicedo will speak at a luncheon in the USW Headquarters at Five Gateway Center beginning at 11:45 AM. The public is invited, but reservations are required as seating is limited.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080131/DC12982LOGO )

His tour is timely in that the fate of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement remains unknown. President Bush introduced the legislation to Congress in April. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi soon thereafter removed a deadline for a vote, delaying a decision indefinitely. Many representatives, Democrats especially, have opposed the agreement on the grounds that Colombia has not done enough to curb targeted assassinations of labor unionists, which remain higher than in any other nation.

Caicedo brings years of experience as a human rights investigator, educator, and organizer in Valle de Cauca, Colombia. He has exposed the extermination of Afro-Colombian and indigenous groups through the Association for Investigation and Social Action (NOMADESC), and has documented crimes against humanity with Colombia's "Never Again" project. Caicedo also runs the Tiberio Mafla Memory Gallery, a community center that houses the Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) and commemorates the victims of Colombia's civil war.

Caicedo is touring cities throughout the Mid-Atlantic with the US-based organization Witness for Peace, and will address some 40 audiences from October 6-25. His presentations will draw upon his degree in Economics, his experience as a human rights educator in public schools, and his training as an organizer with Christian base communities.

Witness for Peace, the organization hosting Caicedo's tour, is a politically independent grassroots organization based in the US, with international offices in Colombia, Mexico and Nicaragua. WFP's mission is to support peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americas by changing US policies and corporate practices which contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America and the Caribbean.

CONTACT:

Steffi Domike

(412) 562-2559

SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)

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