Free trade agreements with Peru and Panama now seem headed toward US Congressional approval. But a separate trade pact with Colombia rightly remains in legislative limbo over a stark labour problem. Colombia leads the world in the killing of labour activists. President Álvaro Uribe’s government has finally begun acknowledging the problem. But it has yet to demonstrate that it means to take effective steps to protect endangered workers and punish those who terrorise them. While the number of killings has declined somewhat over the past few years, it is still unacceptably high. Last year, an average of six union activists were murdered per month. And until now, far too few of these crimes have been prosecuted.

The Uribe government must expand its investigative efforts, improve its conviction rate and send a clear message that this form of terrorism will no longer be tolerated. That need not take long, particularly if Washington is prepared to provide some of the resources Colombian justice officials will need. With a good-faith effort all around, approval of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement could be possible before the end of this year. That would help Colombia provide jobs for some of those now recruited into the kind of paramilitary organisations suspected in many of the labour murders.