Yesterday was Independence Day for Colombia and there were celebrations in Colombian communities across the country including Easley, South Carolina. The Greenville News reports :

Colombians now living in the Upstate said Sunday that they support a Bush administration proposal to tear down trade barriers between their native country and their new home, the United States

Omar Bonnet, a Mauldin resident who owns a body shop, said the barriers have kept his sister’s Colombian screen-printing business from exporting directly to the United States.

Bonnet was among the hundreds of people gathered at the Upper State Fairgrounds to celebrate Colombia’s independence from Spain in 1810. The festival focused on music and food, but a few revelers took a break to talk about the U.S.-Colombia free-trade agreement, which has stalled in the U.S. Congress.