On April 19, while President Obama was shaking hands with Colombia’s President Uribe, mine workers for a US coal company in Colombia were being violently assaulted by Colombia’s National Guard. The workers were engaged in a peaceful demonstration in solidarity with a worker who was killed on the job on March 23, and to demand enforcement of better safety and health protections in the workplace. National Guardsmen surrounded the meeting with tanks, injured several workers, and detained the union leaders.