On Tuesday afternoon in Committee Room 10 in the House of Commons there was just a whiff of the intense debate facing people in Latin America, as Parliament considered the European Union trade agreement with Colombia and Peru.

This agreement is designed to give Colombia and Peru privileged access to European markets and has sparked huge concern among environmental, human rights and indigenous groups in both countries.

AB Colombia, a coalition of Cafod, Christian Aid, Oxfam, SCIAF and Trocaire which all run programmes in Colombia, gave an excellent briefing to MPs last Thursday.

It reported that since 2010 the number of human rights defenders killed in Colombia has been rising, from 32 in 2010 to 69 in 2012. A further 37 have been killed in the first six months of this year.

The reasons for these tragedies are not hard to understand. They gained increased poignancy when Adelena Gomez was killed on September 30 after receiving an anonymous telephone call ordering her to stop speaking out against the very damaging effects of mining on indigenous people.

On top of that there have been massive protests from the national miners' strike in June, the agrarian strike in October and the indigenous social protests in the same month.

All of them were met with ferocious and excessive force by security forces.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights observation visit to the country expressed "serious concern regarding the violations of economic, social and cultural rights in the Catatumbo region."

To its credit the British embassy called for dialogue and an inquest into the killing of peasant farmers. The Colombian government was nevertheless keen to get a free trade agreement with the EU on a par with the deal they already have with the United States.

Both of these agreements contain human rights clauses and in the parliamentary debate a number of Labour MPs, especially Jim Sheridan, Michael Connarty and myself, raised the question about how the EU and in particular the British government will monitor the abuse of human rights of those that dare to speak out to stop the disastrous mining operations in Colombia or in Peru.

This follows years of concern by the TUC and many trade unions about the treatment of trade unionists throughout Colombia and the almost routine assassinations that take place there.

While there is a peace process with the Farc revolutionary group being negotiated in Cuba, the talks have often been used as a cover to ignore the very serious violations of human rights of people throughout the rest of the country.

There are three specific demands for inclusion in any treaty arrangements governing free trade.

The first is the creation of an effective and independent mechanism to monitor human rights violations within any country that has a free trade agreement with us.

The European Parliament was very concerned about a lack of ability to examine such abuses and the negative effect on women which may result from the free trade agreement.

Another question concerns the rights of indigenous peoples, who suffer discrimination and exploitation in much of Latin America.

In Peru's case 70 per cent of indigenous people are malnourished and even the EU's own impact assessment has warned that the expansion of agriculture, logging and extractive industries have undermined indigenous livelihoods and increased conflict.

In the two years since President Ollanta Humala took office 27 people have been killed in demonstrations and 650 injured.

The third requirement is for environmental protection around polluting industries. The free trade agreement merely undertakes not to lower the existing - very low - levels of environmental protection in the countries that sign up to it.

However, both Peru and Colombia are busy speeding up investment in these industries as prices fall and they wish to maintain revenue streams.

Needless to say the agreement has been approved by the British government with the Labour front bench sadly abstaining.

While the West holds Colombia up to be an example of the kind of economic model that international companies like Monsanto, the US and Europe think is the right course for Latin America, there are alternatives.

In the Alba countries, including Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela, there is a very different process under way where trade within the continent is encouraged.

Those who have signed up to Alba have to be dedicated to reducing the gap between the rich and the poor, respecting indigenous traditions and land rights and ensuring social improvement and development.

This process is obviously deeply threatening to the US.

Elections are due in Venezuela in December and the well-funded opposition is trying to present them as a referendum on the future of the whole social process in Latin America as started by the late president Chavez.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Madura has tried to deal with the problem of inflation by imposing price controls and has taken a number of companies into public ownership to ensure the supply of goods as well as enforcing prices that ordinary people can afford.

Attempts to destabilise his government are rampant in the run-up to the election, just as occurred many years ago against the radical Allende government of Chile when the CIA was plotting a coup.

What is happening in Latin America is a microcosm of the debates taking place in many countries where people are looking for an alternative economic model.

On December 7 the annual Latin American conference will be held at the TUC Congress House.

There will be speakers on human rights, the environment and many other issues facing the entire continent. This will be an opportunity to understand the process and, above all, to express our solidarity with those fighting for trade union rights, basic human rights and the protection of the natural environment, as well as an opportunity to be sharply critical of the EU and the US for signing trade agreements which assist multinational corporations at the expense of the poorest and most vulnerable people.

I hope to see you there.

Jeremy Corbyn is Labour MP for Islington North