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Colombian Military Murders More and More Unionists

Colombian Military Murders More and More Unionists

Adolfo Gonzalez Montes, a Colombian coal miner and leader of the union SINTRACARBON, was assassinated in his home, leaving behind his wife and children. Adolfo Gonzalez Montes was the 13th unionist murdered in Colombia this year, putting Colombia on course to far exceed its rate of 40 trade unionists killed last year.

Since 1991, around 2,300 union leaders have been killed in Colombia — a country which continues to lead the world in the murder of trade unionists. It must be noted that 433 of these unionists have been killed since President Alvaro Uribe took office in 2002. Some of these, moreover, have been killed by the Colombian military itself. And, all were put at risk by the Uribe Administration, which continues to wrongly stigmatize trade unionists as “guerillas” and “terrorists.”

As the LA Times recently reported, the Colombian military’s share of extra-judicial killings has been on a steady increase recently, with the military responsible for the killing of 287 civilians last year alone — a 10% increase over the previous year. In total, the Colombian military has been responsible for over 955 extra-judicial killings since Alvaro Uribe was elected president in 2002.

The LA Times article also notes that this rise in extra-judicial killings has been accompanied by an increase in the phenomenon known as “‘false positives,’ in which the armed forces … kill civilians … and brand them as leftist guerrillas.” The LA Times further explains: “A macabre facet of a general increase in ‘extrajudicial killings’ by the military, ‘false positives’ are a result of intense pressure to show progress in Colombia’s U.S.-funded war against leftist insurgents . . . .”

An example of the phenomenon of “false positives” is the murder of three union leaders in the oil-rich region of Arauca by the 18th Brigade of the Colombian Armed Forces. As Colombia’s own Attorney General as well as a well-respected judge of Colombia’s Constitutional Court concluded, these unionists were killed by the Army in cold blood. They further concluded that the Army, after the fact, planted guns in their hands to make it look like they were guerillas killed in a gun battle.

When I recently met with President Alvaro Uribe as part of an AFL-CIO fact-finding mission to Colombia, and stated concern about this and like instances, Uribe expressed his continued belief — a belief held in contradiction of the findings of his own Attorney General and Constitutional Court — that these unionists had been guerillas. Not surprisingly, the judge who made findings belying this belief, and who handed out long sentences to the Army personnel responsible for the union killings, was inexplicably let go by the Colombian government under circumstances being questioned by U.S. Congressman George Miller.

Another example of the phenomenon of “false positives” was the killing of 4 unionists between March 4 and March 7 of this year. All of these unionists were associated with a peaceful March 6 world-wide demonstration in support of the victims of paramilitary and Colombian state violence. Prior to this demonstration — a peaceful protest which the United Steelworkers union (USW) co-sponsored — a spokesman for President Uribe announced that Uribe would not participate in this demonstration because, he claimed, it was being “convened by the FARC.” This is a dangerous statement because the FARC is a guerilla group which the Colombian state has been at war with for decades. And, what predictably followed from this provocative, and baseless announcement by the Uribe Administration was a killing spree by the Black Eagles, a re-formed part of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) — the right-wing paramilitary group which our own State Department reports has been closely tied with the Colombian government and military. The result: 6 more victims, 4 of them unionists, of the paramilitary/state violence in Colombia.

It is against this backdrop of anti-union violence, violence both encouraged by the Colombian government, and in a number of instances carried out by the Colombian military itself, that the United Steelworkers is carrying out its struggle against human and labor rights abuses in Colombia as well as the struggle against the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

While the Bush Administration is attempting to premise its current efforts to try to force passage of the Colombia FTA upon the claim that anti-union violence in Colombia is abating, the facts point to the contrary. Indeed, all three major union confederations in Colombia — confederations which the AFL-CIO delegation met with in Colombia this past February — are unanimous in their opposition to the FTA. And, they base this opposition on the belief that they are under attack by the Colombian government, that they are near extinction as a result and that passage of the FTA will only ensure their ultimate demise.

The truth is that, as a result of overt anti-union violence as well as legal maneuvers by the Uribe Administration, union membership has declined under Uribe from 6 percent to 4 percent of the workforce. Even more disturbingly, less than 1% of Colombian workers (that is, a mere 60,000 out of 18 million workers) benefit from the protection of a labor contract — this is 25% of what that figure was only ten years ago.

In regard to the anti-union “legal” maneuvers, the Uribe Administration — in clear violation of the core labor standards of Conventions 87 & 98 of the ILO (conventions which Colombia has ratified) — has stripped thousands of workers of their bargaining rights by: legislation which denies public sector workers the right to bargain collectively; delaying, denying and taking away the registration of unions without cause; denying the right to bargain to temporary and cooperative workers as well as to subcontractors; allowing the blacklisting of trade unionists and union supporters; and denying the right to strike to numerous workers, including the USW’s fellow union workers in the oil industry. As to this latter issue, Colombian Congressman Wilson Borja explained to the AFL-CIO delegation in February how the Uribe administration is labeling more and more segments of the economy, such as the oil and other extractive industries, as “essential” and thus immune from the legal right to strike.

And, it is those relatively few remaining workers who are protected by labor contract who are being targeted for assassination in Colombia. In short, there are significantly fewer union workers in Colombia left to kill, but they are still being killed at a horrifyingly high rate.

The USW, in accord with the vast majority of union workers in Colombia, opposes the passage of the Colombia FTA on the basis of our belief that any leverage we have on the Colombian government to stem the continued violence and attacks against union leaders is the withholding of this preferential trade regime until the Colombian government can show that (1) it is willing to take the steps necessary to protect trade unionists; and (2) it has the will to prosecute those responsible for the thousands of killings which have already taken place.

In the latter regard, we note that 97% of those killings remain unsolved and unprosecuted. In addition, we believe that the agricultural provisions of the FTA in particular will only exacerbate the ongoing civil war in Colombia. Thus, these provisions will allow government-subsidized food products from the U.S. to flood Colombian markets, thereby undercutting small, poor farmers. The result will be the dislocation of these farmers, swelling the ranks of the already large internally-displaced population of Colombia and pushing a number of these displaced farmers into joining illegal armed groups.

By SUERTE GRINGO on Oct 2, 2008, 15:14 in Friendly Talkzone.

SUERTE GRINGO says on Oct 2, 2008, 15:19:

Army murders mar victories over FARC

Colombia’s army is passing off murdered civilians as guerrillas in its war on FARC, says Mike Power

Mariel Munoz was out selling food near her home in Vista Hermosa, Colombia, when a local boy ran up to her and said: "The army took Jailler and I think they killed him."

By the time Munoz found her son, the soldiers had dressed his corpse in guerrilla army fatigues and planted a radio, a gun and grenade on him. Under pressure from President Alvaro Uribe to show gains in the endless fight to destroy FARC - the leftist rebel army which has been at war with the Colombian state since the 1960s - the soldiers were trying to pass off 15-year-old Jailler as a guerrilla.

There is no evidence that the boy was ever a member of FARC. "He worked by his father's side," his mother told me. "When he wasn't here, he'd tell me where he was. He was a decent boy, he didn't like drinking, he liked watching TV and playing football."

Jailler worked stripping the leaves from coca plants - an illegal but common enough job in Colombia, the world's biggest cocaine producer - or as a wood carrier. "Everyone loved Jailler," his mother said. "They killed him for supposedly being a guerrilla, but he never liked the guerrillas, or the army. They killed him because they felt like it."

Mariel Munoz's story might be treated as the outpourings of a grieving mother unable to bear the truth - if her story wasn't a common one. Last month, Amnesty International USA published a report on extra-judicial killings in Colombia, and detailed cases where peasants have been seized by the army in civilian clothes, killed and later dressed in guerrilla fatigues in a phenomenon known as 'false positives'.

Jailler died in 2006. Last year, Munoz decided to launch a legal case to question the killing. In February she had to leave her home when army officers threatened her after learning about the lawsuit.

"The army came to my home. One of them

said, 'What a shame that I let you escape,' And then he made a gesture like he was slitting someone's throat. I left everything dumped there, and fled with the clothes I was wearing. They didn't give me time to get anything else."

She now lives in Bogota, supported by friends. "What else am I going to do? I'll keep on fighting," she says.

Jailler's death came in a wave of executions carried out with almost complete impunity by the Colombian army, according to Ramiro Orjuela, a Bogota-based lawyer working for victims of state violence. In the Meta province alone - a cattle-ranching region south-east of the capital - 300 people have been killed since 2006. The army's 12th Mobile Brigade operates there, and is believed to be responsible for most of the killings.

I met Mariel Munoz just as the news was emerging of the capture of FARC leader Nelly Avila Moreno (right), known as Karina, wanted for a string of murders, abductions and extortion. Karina - women make up more than a third of the ranks of FARC - was reported to be "nearly dying of hunger" when she handed herself in after President Uribe guaranteed her safety if she surrendered.

However, behind the government celebrations of Karina's capture, and of the recent high-profile raid into neighbouring Ecuador to execute FARC's number two, Raul Reyes, the army's casual slaughter of innocent people continues.

As John Lindsay-Poland, of New York's Fellowship for Reconciliation, puts it, the killings are easy: the army are rarely if ever prosecuted for killing civilians, and they measure success by body count. "The predominant proclamation of success is how many guerrillas were killed in combat. There is seldom any punishment for killing a civilian." Out of 955 reported cases of military killings of civilians over five years - including 'false positives' - only two have resulted in convictions.

Mariel Munoz recalls the moment she confronted the officers who confirmed they had killed her son. "They laughed, right there and then."

“If you're gonna eat your crackers in bed, you're gonna have to sleep with crumbs."

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SUERTE GRINGO says on Oct 2, 2008, 15:22:

Colombia military atrocities alleged

Human rights groups say extrajudicial killings by the army and police have risen, with at least 329 last year. Officials acknowledge problems and point to efforts to train troops.
By Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer - August 21, 2008

MELGAR, COLOMBIA -- The number of civilians killed by the Colombian armed forces has soared, activist groups allege, with many of the abuses committed by army units that had been vetted by the State Department.

There were 329 so-called extrajudicial killings by the Colombian military and police last year, a coalition of Colombian rights groups asserts in a report, a 48% increase from the 223 reported in 2006.

FOR THE RECORD:
Colombia abuses: An article in Thursday's Section A on human rights abuses by Colombia's armed forces said that a report by rights advocates alleged that as of June 2007, Colombian military courts had won only four convictions in more than 900 cases of alleged murder involving uniformed soldiers and police. The article should have included the following sentence: "A Colombian Defense Ministry official said that since the formation of a special prosecutor's office in mid-2007 to investigate alleged killings of civilians, 14 soldiers and police officers have been convicted in connection with those killings." —

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Colombian Commission of Jurists, a Bogota-based civil society group that is responsible for verifying many of the deaths, said last week that a significant number of killings of civilians by the armed forces had been reported so far in 2008 in five Colombian states, but provided no precise numbers.

A separate analysis of last year's killings by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a New York-based peace group, alleges that 47% of the homicides were committed by army units that had been scrutinized in 2006 or 2007 by the State Department, which determined that they had complied with human rights requirements, making them eligible for U.S. military aid and training.

Backed by more than $4 billion in U.S. military aid since 2000, the Colombian military recently has shown dramatic progress in its decades-long struggle against leftist rebels and right-wing militias. A 40% increase in the number of uniformed forces, tactical training by U.S. advisors and improved communications have been important factors.

Colombia's immensely popular president, Alvaro Uribe, has become the United States' No. 1 Latin American ally in its war on terrorism and drugs, and a political counterweight to anti-U.S. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

But the Colombian military has been plagued by accusations of atrocities, including extrajudicial killings called "false positives" in which armed forces allegedly kill civilians, usually peasants or unemployed youths, and brand them as leftist guerrillas.

The continuing allegations have led Congress to criticize U.S. military aid under Plan Colombia and have been an obstacle to approval of a binational free trade agreement.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on State Department and foreign operations and author of the 1996 law that makes foreign military aid conditional on human rights compliance, expressed dismay.

"While the secretary of State certifies sufficient progress on human rights in Colombia, multiple sources report that unlawful killings by the Colombian army are continuing despite efforts by the minister of defense to stop it," he said in an e-mailed statement. "After providing billions of dollars in training and equipment to the Colombian army, we should expect better, including vigorous investigations and prosecutions of these crimes."

In a recent interview, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos acknowledged that human rights were the "Achilles' heel" of his military forces. Since taking office two years ago, he said, he has made improving that record a priority, resulting in a comprehensive human rights policy he unveiled in January.

"Now we can see that the military has a human rights concept different than before in its relation to society and individual citizens, because they know perfectly well that their legitimacy depends on support from the people," Santos said.

Without challenging the figures, a U.S. government official in the embassy in Bogota, the capital, said such numbers were only "examples among a wide variety of statistics" gathered by various civil society groups that monitor human rights in Colombia.

"At the end of the day, Colombia has made enormous strides under the Uribe administration to address this crucial human rights issue," said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. "We applaud the progress while acknowledging that the situation is not yet perfect."

With U.S. input, the Colombian military command issued a number of human rights- oriented directives last year, including changes in the code of conduct and "rules of engagement" -- the circumstances under which soldiers can fire on perceived enemies.

One, in an effort to battle impunity, gives civilian investigators more powers in examining killings. Another made captures and demobilizations of rebels, not body counts, the primary measure of an officer's battlefield competence and the basis for points for promotion.

Since a British review found that Colombian human rights training was too much theory and not enough practice, the military has begun requiring soldiers to spend more time funneling through the "human rights trail," including one at Colombia's largest military base, called Tolemaida, 70 miles south of the capital.

The trail consists of eight set scenes that dramatize human rights issues soldiers deal with in combat, from treatment of guerrilla prisoners to the rights and customs of indigenous people.

"It's like a work of theater where soldiers play roles to learn what they have to do in given situations," said Col. Juan Carlos Gomez, human rights training chief for the Defense Ministry.

Some of the impetus for the policy changes came after a devastating report in October by human rights advocates that said the number of extrajudicial killings by the Colombian military and police over a five-year period ending June 2006 was 50% higher than during the preceding comparable period.

The study also alleged that as of June 2007, Colombian military courts had won only four convictions in more than 900 cases of alleged murder involving uniformed soldiers and police.

"The changes don't produce results overnight," Santos said. "We still have problems. You take a professional soldier who has 10, 12 or 14 years in the jungle and suddenly you ask him to work in a different way, it's a big effort and sometimes impossible.

"But the process continues, and the story today is different from that of a few years ago."

“If you're gonna eat your crackers in bed, you're gonna have to sleep with crumbs."

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SUERTE GRINGO says on Oct 2, 2008, 15:23:

Colombian Army possibly responsible for kidnapping and murdering missing people

Friday, 26 September

In only four days the families of 46 people found out their loved ones had been killed by the army, while the families had reported them missing, Colombian magazine Semana reported Friday.

If the forced disappearances in Bogotá, Soacha and the coffee region are to blame to the army it would be a serious blow for the Colombian Government, that already is put under a U.S. microscope because of the desired free trade agreement with the U.S.

The authorities earlier blamed the leftist guerrilla group FARC or the right wing paramilitary group Águilas Negras for the disappearances.

Some of the parents of the young people that ended up on the army's guerrilla body count, say their children never came back from meeting someone about work. The disappeared ended up found in mass graves almost 500 miles from their homes and were registered as being killed in combat by the army.

Further investigation on the corpses however showed the people were killed only one or two days after their disappearance. Too soon to possibly enroll in any armed group and be killed in combat.

By Friday, 46 people that had earlier being reported as guerrillas killed in combat proved in fact to be on missing persons lists.

If the logical suspicion is correct that the army is responsible for the kidnapping and murder of these 46 people only to report a larger number of killed subversives, it would be a massive and systematic violation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and a gross violation of human rights.

Paradoxically, the army recently officially launched an extensive campaign to exterminate human rights violations by its troops. the highest boss of the Armed Forces general Freddy Padilla de Léon even said to comply with human rights is a strategic need to win the war.

Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos announced to investigate the deaths and the possible military responsibility.

"There is a strange situation here, one that requires a lot of explaining," Santos said in a speech to military cadets. "I am told that there are still officers in our public security forces who require dead bodies as proof of results."

President Álvaro Uribe -- who volunteered to personally present Colombian human rights records to the UN on December 10 -- will have the difficult job to explain whether the Army as a whole is massively and systematically violating human rights or individual soldiers are responsible for the forced disappearances

“If you're gonna eat your crackers in bed, you're gonna have to sleep with crumbs."

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SUERTE GRINGO says on Oct 2, 2008, 15:26:

Impunity Rate Abysmal for Colombian Trade Union Murders; Only Three Convictions in First Half of 2007
In late September, USLEAP released a new report detailing the continued levels of impunity for murders of Colombian trade unionists. The report, based on July 2007 data provided by the Colombian Ministry of Social Protection, examines the homicide convictions for trade union murders achieved since the inauguration of President Alvaro Uribe in August 2002 and finds that in the first six months of 2007, convictions were achieved in only three cases.

The issue of impunity for trade union violence has become a major obstacle for President Uribe this year as he lobbies for a Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. A Congressional delegation, led by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutirrez to promote the U.S.-Colombia FTA, visited Colombia in mid-September. According to Reuters, President Uribe told the delegates, “The facts show what this government proposed from the beginning, that Colombia no longer tolerates impunity.”

According to the USLEAP report, the Colombian government data demonstrates convictions for trade union murders in a total of 40 cases for the over 1200 murders that occurred between 1996 and 2007.

Of the nearly 400 murders that have occurred during the presidency of Mr. Uribe, there had been convictions in only 10 cases.

For the past two years, the Colombian government has been promising the International Labor Organization that it would make progress on prosecuting a limited number of priority cases, and that it was allocating extra resources to do so. As of January 2007, the list of “emblematic” cases, developed in consultation with Colombia’s three major trade union organizations, had grown to 234, to which the government had assigned 13 special prosecutors and 78 investigators.

The resources expended on this program, however, have achieved few results according to the CUT, Colombia’s largest trade union federation. The CUT reports that there have been convictions in only 15 of the priority cases. The federation expressed frustration with the government’s limited progress and concern that the prosecutions were not taking the context of anti-union violence in Colombia seriously.

Colombia Tops Global Trade Union Murder List, Again

The International Trade Union Confederation released 2006 figures for global trade union violence in September, confirming that Colombia continues to be the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists. According to the ITUC report, 144 trade unionists were killed globally in 2006. Colombia again claims over half of the murders (78 by ITUC numbers). Globally, there was a significant increase over the 115 trade unionists murdered in 2005.

Soldiers Sentenced in Arauca Case

In late August, four Colombian soldiers were each sentenced to 40 years in prison for the killing of three trade union leaders in Arauca. The three leaders, Jorge Prieto, Leonel Goyeneche, and Hector Alirio Martinez, were killed on August 5th, 2004 by members of Colombia’s 18th Brigade, which was receiving counterinsurgency training from the U.S. Special Forces to protect an oil pipeline that is partially owned by U.S.-based Occidental Petroleum.

The soldiers reportedly stripped the union leaders down to their underwear before killing them. They then put guns in their hands to create the illusion that they died in battle.

This became the most high-profile case of Colombian trade union murders and was often cited as an example of the active involvement of the Colombian military in violence against trade unionists. The government of Colombia was under pressure from several Democrats in Congress to conclude this case prior to consideration for a Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

The Washington Post quoted political commentator Daniel Coronell on this: “This proves what human rights groups and the United Nations had long reported, that some sectors of the army had the practice of killing civilians and passing them off as guerrillas.”

While USLEAP welcomes the convictions, the Uribe government’s overall record on impunity remains dismal.

Cuts in Military Aid to Colombia Approved by Full Senate

The House and Senate have approved a foreign aid bill that includes significant cuts to military aid to Colombia and a modest increase in economic and social aid. Final details still have to be reconciled in a Senate-House conference committee, but several important improvements are expected in the final version of the bill:

(1) Significant cuts in overall military aid and funds for aerial spraying. Military aid was cut by $156 million in the House version, but this was scaled back on the Senate side.

(2) Increased funds set aside for victims of violence and for investigating and prosecuting human rights abuses.

(3) A greater percentage of the military aid Colombia receives will include human rights conditionality. This means that the Colombian government will have to demonstrate some degree of improvement in human rights conditions before receiving a portion of the aid package.

Total U.S. aid for Colombia for next year will be at least $680 million, with at least $440 million of it in military and police aid. While the above improvements still leave the aid package unbalanced, they represent an important reversal in previous trends in congressional policy on Colombia

“If you're gonna eat your crackers in bed, you're gonna have to sleep with crumbs."

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SUERTE GRINGO says on Oct 2, 2008, 15:32:

The Coca-Cola Killings:

Is Plan Colombia funding a bloodbath of union activists?

After the leader of their union was shot down at their plant gate in late 1996, Edgar Paéz and his co-workers at the Coca-Cola bottling factory in Carepa, Colombia, tried for more than four years to get their government to take action against the responsible parties. Instead, some of the workers themselves wound up behind bars, while the murderers went free.

Convinced that Colombian officials were unable or unwilling to bring the perpetrators to justice, they decided to go abroad for help. Accordingly, last July, the Colombian union Sinaltrainal, together with the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF), filed a lawsuit in the Florida courts against Coca-Cola, Panamerican Beverages (the largest soft-drink bottler in Latin America), and Bebidas y Alimentos (owned by Richard Kirby of Key Biscayne, Florida), which operates the Carepa plant. The suit charges the three companies with complicity in the assassination of the union leader Isídro Segundo Gil.

The case has become the centerpiece in a new strategy devised by Colombia's labor movement to stop a wave of murders of union activists that's lasted over a decade. International labor cooperation, the unions believe, is the only means left to them to counter the power of the corporations that they think are the instigators and beneficiaries of the repression.

Increasingly, U.S.-based unions have been willing to help. On November 19, Paéz was joined by Teamsters President James P. Hoffa in front of the World of Coca-Cola Museum in Atlanta, where Hoffa proclaimed: "As the union that represents the most Coca-Cola workers in the world, we demand that Coke stop the violence against workers."

The level of violence against Colombian unionists is staggering: In 2000, assassinations took the lives of 153 of the nation's trade-union leaders. In 2001, the figure had reached 143 by the end of November. According to Héctor Fajardo, general secretary of the United Confederation of Workers (CUT), Colombia's largest union federation, 3,800 trade unionists have been assassinated in Colombia since 1986. In the year 2000, three out of every five trade unionists killed in the world were Colombian, according to a recent report by the United Steelworkers.

Last spring, two leaders of a union at the U.S.-owned Drummond coal mine, Valmore Locarno Rodríguez and Victor Hugo Orcasíta, were killed in an incident that eventually drew worldwide condemnation. Media attention, however, didn't prevent the subsequent murder of Gustavo Soler Mora, another leader of the union in the same area in October.

Unionists and human-rights activists hold Colombia's paramilitary forces responsible for almost all the trade-union assassinations--though those forces aren't working simply for themselves. Robin Kirk, who monitors abuses in Colombia for Human Rights Watch, says that there are strong ties between the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), the nation's leading paramilitary grouping, and the Colombian military. "The Colombian military and intelligence apparatus has been virulently anticommunist since the 1950s," she says, "and they look at trade unionists as subversives--as a very real and potential threat." Roberto Molino of the Colombian Commission of Jurists contends that "in the case of the paramilitaries, you cannot underestimate the collaboration of government forces." Those forces, says Samuel Morales of the CUT, "believe it's a crime to try to present any option for social change."

The AUC is also quietly backed by elements of the nation's business and economic elite. "There are powerful economic interests that support the paramilitaries," Kirk says, "and they attack union leaders again and again." Morales concurs: "The paramilitaries are an armed wing of the same military forces and government structures that have historically taken positions against us. In Colombia, they're called the army's 'sixth division.'"

According to the complaint in the Florida case, here's what happened: At 8:30 a.m. on December 5, 1996, a right-wing paramilitary squad of the AUC showed up at the gate of the Coke bottling plant in Carepa. Gil, a member of the union's executive board, went to see what they wanted. The paras opened fire on Gil and he dropped to the ground, mortally wounded. An hour after he was assassinated, paramilitary forces kidnapped another leader of the union at his home; he managed to escape, however, and fled to Bogotá. At 8:00 p.m., paras broke into the union's offices, destroyed the equipment there, and burned down the entire house, destroying all the union's records.

The next day, the heavily armed group went inside the bottling plant, called the workers together, and gave them until 4:00 p.m. to resign from the union. "They said that if they didn't resign, the same thing would happen to them that happened to Gil--they would be killed," recalls Paéz, who visited the United States in November to ask union members here to support the suit. Not surprisingly, union members resigned en masse. A number of workers also quit their jobs outright, undoubtedly fearing that they would be killed simply for showing up.

The companies, meanwhile, disclaim all responsibility for the violence and coercion. Coca-Cola spokesperson Rafael Fernández asserts that Coke has a code of conduct requiring respect for human rights. Coke's Colombia mouthpiece, Pablo Largacha, insists that "bottlers in Colombia are completely independent of the Coca-Cola Company." The bottler, Bebidas y Alimentos, says it had no way to stop the paramilitaries from doing whatever they wanted--after all, they had guns. "You don't use them, they use you," owner Kirby told a reporter. "Nobody tells the paramilitaries what to do."

But the suit charges that plant manager Ariosto Milán Mosquera claimed that "he had given an order to the paramilitaries to carry out the task of destroying the union." Workers believed him because he had a history of partying with the paramilitaries.

Paéz says not only that the plant's managers were responsible for what happened but that Coke clearly benefited from it. "At the time of Gil's death, we were involved in negotiations with the company [Bebidas], presenting proposals to them," he says. "The company never negotiated with the union after that. Twenty-seven workers in 12 departments left the plant and the area. All the workers had to quit the union to save their own lives, and the union was completely destroyed. For two months, the paramilitaries camped just outside the plant gate. Coca-Cola never complained to the authorities." The experienced workers who left the plant, who'd been earning between $380 and $400 a month, were replaced by new employees at minimum wage--$130 a month.

During a subsequent investigation by the Colombian Justice Ministry, the plant's director and production manager were detained, along with a local paramilitary leader. All three were later released, with no charges filed against them.

The assassinations were neither the first nor the last targeted at union leaders in Colombian Coke plants. In 1994, two other union activists, José Davíd and Luís Granado, were also murdered in Carepa, and at that time as well, paramilitaries demanded that workers quit the union. In 1989, unionist José Avelino Chicano was killed in Coca-Cola's Pasto plant. This year, again during negotiations, a union leader at the Bucaramanga plant, Oscar Dario Soto Polo, was murdered. When the union denounced the killings, the plant's chief of security charged its leaders with terrorism and rebellion. Five were arrested and jailed for six months.

The paramilitary war on unionists is escalating at a time when U.S. aid to Colombia's official armed forces has also grown rapidly. Under Plan Colombia, the U.S. effort to reduce the flow of illegal drugs from Colombia, the United States has funneled $1.3 billion into the country, almost entirely in military assistance. Colombia is the third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the world, and several members of Congress have tried to call attention to the possibility that some of our aid may be funding the anti-union bloodbath. "Deaths due to political violence [have] roughly doubled from previous years," Massachusetts Democrat John F. Tierney told fellow House members in early July. "These are innocent people trying to make Colombia a safer and more prosperous place." Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky of Illinois concluded that "cutting funds from the Colombian military makes sense. This is a military that has repeatedly been implicated in the brutalization and murder of the very people that it is supposed to protect."

The Colombian government views union activity as a threat because it challenges its basic economic policies. The administration of President Andrés Pastrana is under intense pressure from the International Monetary Fund to cut its public-sector budget, in part through privatizing public services. Union leaders who oppose privatization have also been targeted for extinction. After leading a fight to maintain public service in the city of Calí, Carlos Elíecer Prado, a public-sector union leader, was murdered in May.

This spring, the United Steelworkers sent a formal delegation to Colombia in the wake of the murders of the union leaders at the Drummond mine. The delegation met with leaders of the CUT, after which the two unions joined with the ILRF to file the complaint against Coca-Cola and its bottlers.

One stated objective of the suit is to build pressure on the Colombian and U.S. governments to comply with rights guaranteed unions and workers under the conventions of the International Labor Organization and the Geneva Accords on human rights. But Colombian unions would also like to see those responsible for the murders brought to justice.

"We want to strip off the mask hiding the involvement of transnational corporations in our internal conflict," Paéz explains. "To do this, we need a judicial forum outside the country, since within Colombia those guilty of these crimes are treated with impunity. In this particular case, those responsible include Coca-Cola. But they're not the only company pursuing policies that violate human rights. By strengthening our ties with the Steelworkers and the AFL-CIO, we're creating our own global answer to the globalization of the corporations."

“If you're gonna eat your crackers in bed, you're gonna have to sleep with crumbs."

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SUERTE GRINGO says on Oct 2, 2008, 15:37:

Who murders more innocent people in Colombia the military their friends the paramilitaries or the farc?

“If you're gonna eat your crackers in bed, you're gonna have to sleep with crumbs."

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quantum says on Oct 2, 2008, 17:34:

Lots of very important information there suerte. Very revelating, very depressing. Lets see who has the stamina to read it here and respond to it. Most of the dialogue here is very superficial and irrelevant. This information is not. If it doesnt stimulate lots of dialogue and debate, Im out of here........

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turnmeon says on Oct 2, 2008, 19:53:

"putting Colombia on course to far exceed its rate of 40 trade unionists killed last year."

40-13= 27 with only 3 months left of this year it seems to me that it went down a 60% instead of increasing as you said, also where is the proof that that guy was killed by the military? he could have been killed by the farc using army uniforms, also there have been military personal in Colombian sent to jail for false postives and illing civilians, so its not like Uribe is allowing this to happen

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romy says on Oct 2, 2008, 22:34:

turnmeon that was back in March... in mid-september there was already 41 (http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/09/17/message-to-colombia-no-trade-deal-un...)

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turnmeon says on Oct 3, 2008, 08:37:

prove they were killed by the goverment and not the farc, eln or the paras using military uniforms

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romy says on Oct 3, 2008, 08:55:

read the articles Suerte Gringo put up...

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pobrecito says on Oct 3, 2008, 12:14:

bump

De que vale la vida si cuando la tenemos parece muerta. La vida es para sentirla, para vibrar, para luchar, para combatir. Eso justifica nuestro paso por la tierra........Jaime Pardo Leal

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Tinto (Moderator) says on Oct 3, 2008, 12:23:

Some of those articles are ancient and some of the cases have already proceeded through the judicial system and are closed. You should link to the source and add a date of publication.

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turnmeon says on Oct 3, 2008, 20:55:

"Former Colombian Naval Petty Officer Extradited to United States for Selling Naval Positioning Charts to Cocaine Traffickers"

i can clearly see the word EXTRADITED, so justice is being done, that is something we all owe to Uribe, ty ByronKostner1969 to prove once again that Uribe is doing things right

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turnmeon says on Oct 3, 2008, 20:57:

"A former paramilitary fighter testified in special judicial proceedings that Colombia's armed forces chief, Gen. Mario Montoya, delivered weapons to a paramilitary death squad when he was a commander in Medellín, and the Colombian prosecutor general has opened an investigation into the charges"

see they are being taken care of, if it wasnt for Uribe they will be out there commiting their crimes just like when Pastrana was the president

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pobrecito says on Oct 4, 2008, 00:55:

Montoya in jail?
I shall drink Champagne when it happens !

De que vale la vida si cuando la tenemos parece muerta. La vida es para sentirla, para vibrar, para luchar, para combatir. Eso justifica nuestro paso por la tierra........Jaime Pardo Leal

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billyb says on Oct 4, 2008, 14:00:

The good Napa Valley stuff? Or that cheap french sh!t?

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romy says on Oct 4, 2008, 18:25:

Champagne is only produced in one region of the world...

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billyb says on Oct 4, 2008, 19:19:

They'd like you think that, so they pass laws to protect them from others using the name, that way they can charge you double, but it is all made with the same methode champagnoise.

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pobrecito says on Oct 4, 2008, 19:21:

I see you never drank true Champagne.

And good Californian wines are not cheap ...

De que vale la vida si cuando la tenemos parece muerta. La vida es para sentirla, para vibrar, para luchar, para combatir. Eso justifica nuestro paso por la tierra........Jaime Pardo Leal

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billyb says on Oct 4, 2008, 19:21:

Oh, did we hurt your little gallic feelings, jaja?

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pobrecito says on Oct 4, 2008, 19:23:

better gallic than yankee

De que vale la vida si cuando la tenemos parece muerta. La vida es para sentirla, para vibrar, para luchar, para combatir. Eso justifica nuestro paso por la tierra........Jaime Pardo Leal

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billyb says on Oct 4, 2008, 19:27:

jaja, that shitty champagne you are drinking is going to your head, better go to bed or you'll be whining in the morning.

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pobrecito says on Oct 4, 2008, 19:29:

very intelligent pieces of writing

De que vale la vida si cuando la tenemos parece muerta. La vida es para sentirla, para vibrar, para luchar, para combatir. Eso justifica nuestro paso por la tierra........Jaime Pardo Leal

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ujay says on Oct 4, 2008, 19:35:

its got to be good ,the germans rushed in to drink it.

http://www.jukelightning.com

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billyb says on Oct 4, 2008, 19:37:

You might be right ujay, since they rushed in TWICE.

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ujay says on Oct 4, 2008, 19:42:

you know ,this is not to up set any one ,but its true
The French invented perfume ,because they don't shower,
They wear like a hand glove ,just wipe them self's over.

http://www.jukelightning.com

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pobrecito says on Oct 4, 2008, 19:56:

And you even with perfume stink.

De que vale la vida si cuando la tenemos parece muerta. La vida es para sentirla, para vibrar, para luchar, para combatir. Eso justifica nuestro paso por la tierra........Jaime Pardo Leal

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Robert Jorge says on Oct 5, 2008, 02:21:

I thought the first cologne came from Germany, ie: perfume.

He who farts in church, sits in his own pew.

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