Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Excellency. It's a pleasure to have you here, and I look forward to visiting your country in the near future and seeing the individuals first-hand and face to face. It will be of much benefit to this committee and to our country, I think, as we move forward in this agreement.
I know that since 2002, when President Uribe was democratically elected, the country has gone through great transformation. As has been alluded to, there are many changes and challenges still ahead, and one of them was recently identified.
I've spoken with the former Canadian ambassador to Colombia as well as a Canadian university professor I know, a historian who has been to Colombia on several occasions, and the concern as we enter into a free trade agreement--and I believe it's a fair trade agreement as wel--is that one of the things we've noticed is at times when developers move in, especially for mining explorations, people are moved off their land.
My question to you, then, is what kind of commitment would be provided as we move to strengthen the economic gap in these communities that individuals' property rights will be protected and homeowners won't be displaced off their land?