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Note:
This is an interview with a Colombian Human Rights
worker released through the web-site Anncol,
I am sure your readers would like to know what life
is like for the people of Colombia. - Sean Smyth,
Secretary Colombian Trade Unionists Solidarity Campaign
"If
the people of the US knew what their government was
really doing here in Colombia there would be outrage,”
says a veteran human rights worker from Bolivar department
in an exclusive interview with ANNCOL. Due to the
fact that paramilitary forces in Colombia have assassinated
hundreds of human rights workers in recent years this
courageous activist's real name cannot be used. Suffice
it to say that Gloria has worked in the many regions
of Bolivar department over a long period of time and
intends to continue trying to do so for the foreseeable
future.
ANNCOL:
Can you give us a little background first and tell
us why there are so many problems in the department
and what the main types of human rights abuses are?
Gloria:
Well, we have all sorts of abuses in Bolivar including
massacres, assassinations, disappearances, rapes and
kidnapping. There are also abuses of another sort
in that people are illegally evicted from their land
and have their homes and possessions taken. The history
of these abuses and the reasons for them are more
complicated but I will try and give you a brief background.
For many years most of the regions in the south and
centre of Bolivar, which is where I have worked mostly
and which is a rural and mountainous region, were
to a great extent peaceful places where the civilian
population could get on with their lives without fear
of any of the things that I just mentioned.
There
were guerrillas about but they didn’t bother
anyone and their relationship with local people was
always quite good. Then in the early 1990s the paramilitaries
started appearing in certain areas in the south of
Bolivar. Many of them had crossed over the river Magdalena
from the city of Barrancabermeja where they were working
with the military in trying to gain control of the
city from the guerrillas who at that time almost controlled
the whole place. By 1999 they were strong enough to
launch a full scale offensive into southern Bolivar
and from the start this was coordinated with the army.
I guess the paramilitaries had about a thousand fighters
for the push into Bolivar at this time and this was
partly through recruiting poor kids in Barrancabermeja,
because unlike the guerrillas who pay no salary to
their members the paramilitaries pay a lot of money
if you join them, but also because they were keen
to prevent the establishment of a peace talks zone
for the ELN in the south which was being talked about
at that time.
Anyway
when it started it was awful. The paramilitaries first
went into the region around San Pablo and Simiti where
they and the army killed hundreds of people, burnt
down homes and forced thousands to leave. They said
that everybody was a guerrilla and if you complained
you were shot. This carried on throughout 2000 and
they moved into more and more communities.The advance
was a shock to everyone as although the guerrillas
did try to fight them off the army gave them such
a lot of support that the guerrillas were forced to
head into the mountains. By 2001 they were all over
the south of Bolivar except for in a few communities
in the mountains where the guerrillas remain. Once
they had control the paramilitaries did two things.
Firstly they set up front organisations like ASOCIPAZ
and Movimiento No al Despeja that they used to campaign
against the proposed peace zone. People were told
that if they didn't participate in anti-peace zone
demonstrations then they'd be killed and although
the TV showed a lot about the protests they never
told the truth about why the people were there. The
other thing that they did was to start pushing the
small miners and farmers out of areas that the multinationals
wanted. Then those great companies came in and now
there are only a few jobs left for miserable wages.
Before many families lived here and survived off the
land but now the multinationals take all the materials
and the profits for themselves so this too forces
others to leave. And this is still going on. Just
a few weeks ago the army forced hundreds of people
to leave a group of communities around Tiquisio.
ANNCOL: I heard you mention Barrancabermeja
briefly and I know that the city has suffered from
horrendous violations the past couple of years. Can
you give a brief update of what has been going on
there more recently?
Gloria:
Although Barrancabermeja is near to Bolivar it is
not actually in this department - it is in neighbouring
Santander. I myself have not been in the city recently
as it is really very dangerous although I have many
colleagues there and know that they have been having
problems in recent weeks. Just last month for example
the remarkable community leader Manuel Navarro was
taken away by the death squads and we have heard nothing
from him since. To give you an idea of the gravity
of the crises in Barrancabermeja, last year, in a
city of 200,000, around 600 people were assassinated
or disappeared and a further 1,400 forced to leave
their homes in the city after being threatened and
then refused protection by the security forces. It
is also, and I believe that this is no coincidence,
the most heavily militarised city in Colombia and
is home to three army battalions plus a naval base.
Paramilitary death squads, which moved in with help
from the army in the early 1990s, circulate openly
in Barrancabermeja and work especially closely with
the Nueva Grenada Battalion that is based there. They
are also able to set up roadblocks and detain people
in the city and have several important and well-known
bases within the city limits including at Miraflores
and Punta del Palo. For some time now then the human
rights situation in the city has been really very
bad and to give you just one example of how bad in
1998 paramilitaries and troops from the Grenada Battalion
murdered 36 civilians from a poor neighbourhood in
just one night whilst other military units and the
police did nothing. Last year after much international
pressure the government agreed to send 150 elite Special
Forces troops into Barrancabermeja to stop the killings.
But they got worse. The new troops simply joined with
those already stationed there and the paramilitaries
and continued to attack people. In the weeks after
the new arrivals CREDHOS, OFP, the Social Solidarity
Network and ASFADDES, all of which are good human
rights and social organisations were all threatened
and harassed and within a few days of the new forces
beginning their patrols 20 people were assassinated.
The new forces did nothing despite pleas from these
people to help and it seems that it was all a propaganda
exercise to show that the government was doing something.
More recently, on February 20th this year, paramilitaries,
despite the many police and army patrolling the streets,
were able to force many residents of one neighbourhood
to assemble on a local games field where they were
told that the paramilitaries are soon to launch a
series of attacks against important social and union
leaders in the city. One person named was Francisco
Campos the director of CREDHOS which is the most important
human rights organisation in the whole region and
which has numerous international contacts. CREDHOS,
which has constantly denounced paramilitary crimes
against the civilian population and against other
NGOs and human rights defenders in Barrancabermeja
and the entire region, has already suffered the assassination
of seven of its leaders and another 19 of its activists
have been forced to leave the area. I fear that with
the latest paramilitary announcement we may soon see
more bloodshed. And the security forces will do nothing
- senior officers of the Neuva Grenada Battalion have
also directly threatened CREDHOS workers.
ANNCOL:
Earlier you mentioned the relationship of the multinationals
to displacement. Can you tell me a little more about
the displacement of civilians in general and specifically
the connections with the multinationals?
Gloria:
We have been really hit hard by forced displacement
in Bolivar and although it is extremely difficult
to give exact figures because many people move away
to live with family in other regions or go to find
work in the capital rather than go to the displaced
communities where they can be easily counted I can
tell you that during every year recently displacement
in the department can be counted in the tens of thousands.
There are various ways that the paramilitaries will
displace people. Firstly is through fear. Maybe they
will come to a community and kill a few people to
show that they are serious and then tell the others
that they will return in a few days and kill the rest.
This obviously forces people to leave and when this
happens over and over again in different communities
in a region it will in many cases provoke mass fear
and subsequent mass displacement. Another way is that
they will prevent supplies of food and medicine from
entering certain communities whilst at the same time
preventing peasants in those areas from leaving to
sell their produce. They also destroy harvests and
kill livestock. Essentially what they are doing is
starving the communities off their land. Both this
phenomenon and the mass fear method were utilized
widely in 2000 and 2001 in the south of Bolivar in
particular and they continue to be used today in certain
regions such as the Cimitarra Valley and in other
departments such as Norte de Santander, Choco, Cauca
and Valle de Cauca.
ANNCOL:
And the relationship that multinational corporations
have with the displacement?
Gloria:
Yes, as there is lots of gold, oil, marble and other
raw materials here in Bolivar the land is obviously
very valuable in some places. Before the multinationals
can get their hands on what is in the land they need
to own the land itself and this becomes very expensive
if they have to buy it from all the individual small
farming families. It is cheaper, and therefore the
end profits for the people in New York, Washington
and places like that are greater, to just expel the
people from the land and then take it for themselves.
Therefore the paramilitaries force thousands from
their land and the multinationals then take possession
of it. We have companies from Spain, Canada, the US
and Britain among others that have all benefited from
this method - the mining companies are probably the
worst culprits here although various oil companies
also have very bad records. The fact that the paramilitaries
also target the people who represent the communities
also benefits the multinationals, as when all the
leaders and peasant associations are gone there will
be nobody left to represent the people and help them
fight for their rights. Then it will be even easier
for the multinationals to grab the land, force people
to work for low wages, etc.
ANNCOL:
You keep mentioning the paramilitaries. Are
they responsible for all of the abuses or do the guerrillas
also commit human rights violations?
Gloria:
I don't know about the rest of the country but where
I work in Bolivar over 99% of all the violations are
carried out by the paramilitaries, many times working
with the army. Most abuses are simply ignored by the
press as they do not like to report negatively about
the paramilitaries although sometimes they and the
authorities will blame the guerrillas if they feel
that it is beneficial. However, upon further investigation
we find that the accusations are almost always false
and were made for propaganda purposes. There are many
examples of this but the one I remember best was in
February last year when the paramilitaries massacred
seven people in La Cristalina and it was blamed on
the ELN. ASOCIPAZ, the paramilitary front group that
I mentioned earlier, even put out a press release
denouncing the ELN for their violating of human rights
yet when human rights groups looked at it closely
we found that it had in fact been a paramilitary crime.
What the guerrillas do is kidnap people and that is
an attack against people's liberty and I believe it
is wrong. Again though in many cases the government
will blame the guerrillas for a kidnapping when it
isn't actually them. In other cases when the guerrillas
take a paramilitary away the authorities will claim
that he is a civilian. In mid-January this year for
example the paramilitaries kidnapped a woman from
the town of Calamar and the authorities blamed the
FARC even though everyone knew it had been the paramilitaries.
When six men went looking for her on the paramilitaries
got them too and shot them all in the heads and again
the authorities blamed the guerrillas.
But if you go to Codazzi, or ask one of the human
rights groups that document these things, and ask
what happened to Carlos Bermejo, Jair Robles Mendez,
Luis Sanchez, Deivis Martinez, Ricardo Arias and Julio
Yobaldis they will all tell you it was the paramilitaries.
The truth is that the guerrillas obviously target
wealthy people for kidnapping as that is who can pay
the ransoms but here in Bolivar we don't have that
many rich people, we are mainly peasants. But to answer
your question, here in Bolivar, it is the paramilitaries
that assassinate people, displace hundreds of families
and go into towns and massacre civilians. The people
that the guerrillas kidnap come from the small percentage
of wealthy people that we have, including drug traffickers.
I myself do not know of any cases where the guerrillas
have actually massacred civilians in Bolivar.
ANNCOL:
Can you explain what the paramilitaries do when they
enter a town?
Gloria:
Let me tell you about what happened in February 2000
in a small town called El Salado that is in northern
part of Bolivar. It will give you an idea of how the
paramilitaries operate. For some days the marines
and the army had been patrolling in and around the
town and then suddenly one evening they all withdrew.
Then, the following morning, I think it was a Friday,
the people awoke to find the town surrounded by about
300 paramilitaries who then came down into the central
square and rounded up all the residents. The boss
then sat at a table and chair in the basketball court
that was in the square and began to call out names
from a list that he had. Some people stepped forward
but others, who had stayed in their homes out of fear
were not present and so some of the paramilitaries
went searching for them house to house before dragging
them out of their homes to the square. Other paramilitaries
ordered restaurants and cafes in the town to bring
all their whiskey and rum as well as their radios
for music to the square and local musicians were made
to play their instruments. The paramilitaries held
a party and then the killing started. People were
tortured, killed and raped whilst the paramilitaries
were dancing and singing. People were sliced up with
machetes, had their throats and stomachs cut open
and others were beheaded or strangled with metal wires
whilst being tortured. A young waitress from a café
on the square was ordered to serve the liquor and
when they became drunk they repeatedly raped her along
with various other women. They also took one person
into the town church and murdered him in there after
having tortured him on the table at the basketball
court. Of course by this time people in other towns
in the area had heard what was going on and they went
to the army and the police and asked them to intervene.
They were ignored and told not to worry as it was
only the guerrillas and the paramilitaries fighting
high up in the hills. There were police and soldiers
only a few miles from the town and they could easily
have stopped it but they did nothing. Later it was
agreed to send in human rights workers and relief
groups to try and rescue the residents although the
police and army set up roadblocks and prevented them
from entering the region. They still claimed it was
combat between guerrillas and paramilitaries and that
they could do nothing. All day Saturday was the same
with people being tortured and killed. Some were shot
after being tortured, others were stabbed, beaten
or strangled to death and all the time music was playing
and the paramilitaries were having a party. The paramilitaries
left on Sunday afternoon by which time they had killed
about 50 innocent civilians’ people including
young children and old people. After the massacre
nearly 3,000 residents fled the area, including about
1,500 people from El Salado itself, to camps and shantytowns
in the cities. When human rights groups went to talk
to witnesses many of the people who spoke to them
were later killed or disappeared by the same group
of paramilitaries. Now people are too scared to talk
about it at all. What happened in El Salado is typical
of their behaviour. They are animals with no respect
for human life although if you read the media here
you wouldn't know it. El Tiempo, our biggest newspaper
here in Colombia, reported on what happened in El
Salado. They claimed that local people had invited
the paramilitaries to come in and they implied that
those killed were guerrillas! The press here normally
ignore paramilitary massacres and I have heard that
it is because the families that own all the media,
people like the Santos and Santo Domigo families,
actually make financial donations to Carlos Castano
who is the head of the death squads.
ANNCOL:
Do the paramilitaries target everyone or specific
people?
Gloria:
It is a hard question as they always go for people
like community leaders, unionists and human rights
activists but they also sometimes seem to kill randomly.
On many occasions, like in El Salado, they will come
with a list of who to kill but then someone else will
catch their eye for whatever reason and they will
murder him or her too with apparently no reason. The
paramilitaries claim that their victims are guerrilla
supporters but many of the people they kill are really
actually apolitical. A lot of people in Bolivar do
support the guerrillas, especially the ELN, but they
are still civilians and ought to be able to support
whom they want. The bottom line is that they themselves
are not involved in violence so why should they suffer.
ANNCOL:
You keep mentioning the cooperation between the armed
forces and the death squads what evidence do you and
your colleagues have that shows these links?
Gloria:
I have already spoken about the case of Barrancabermeja
but let me give you some more specific examples here
in Bolivar. First El Salado, which we already talked
about, and where the armed forces were deeply involved
although in this case it was specifically the marines.
As I said the army and police there refused to intervene
during a three day long massacre despite the pleas
of local people and relatives of those actually inside
the town. To add to this the security forces then
prevented humanitarian organisations from entering
the area where the massacre was taking place. They
claimed all along that in fact what was going on was
combat between guerrillas and paramilitaries and that
those who were claiming it was a massacre were being
coerced by the guerrillas into saying so. In fact
they were obviously covering up for the paramilitaries
and the whole incident had been planned in advance
as the withdrawal of troops from the town the previous
day and the subsequent roadblocks demonstrate. We
also know exactly who was responsible for this coordination
with the paramilitaries. Firstly is Colonel Harold
Mantilla who at the time was commander of the 5th
Marine Battalion and who had a base full of troops
within an hour of El Salado but who refused to help.
And, secondly, Colonel Rodrigo Quinonez Cardenas the
commander of the 1st Navy Brigade and who in February
2000 had direct responsibility for defending the area
from such attacks. We know that it was Colonel Quinonez
that liaised with the paramilitaries yet when a witness
was found who was willing to testify the government
placed him in a maximum security prison where he was
assassinated. The government know all about this as
not only have Colombian human rights organisations
told them but international groups too have put pressure
on them to punish Colonel Quinonez. Yet what did they
do? Four months after the massacre they promoted the
Colonel and made him General Rodrigo Quinonez Cardenas
in charge of naval aviation in the city of Cartagena,
which has aerial responsibility for the whole region.
And General Quinonez can not only be linked to the
massacre at El Salado but also to one in Chengue the
month before where over 34 innocent civilians were
killed when the paramilitaries smashed their heads
open with sledgehammers and chopped them up with chainsaws.
The paramilitaries decapitated one victim there and
played football with his head so as to warn the survivors
what would happen to them if they didn't give support
to the paramilitaries. Quinonez could have stopped
this too but didn't. There is also evidence that both
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have
brought to the attention of the US and Colombian governments
that General Quinonez, whilst based in Barrancabermeja
earlier in his carrer, worked closely with local death
squads to selectively assassinate 57 individual trade
unionists, human rights workers and community activists
in that city. Yet he was still promoted over and over
again and is currently a serving general. The second
example I want to give you of the cooperation is here
in the south of Bolivar, rather than in the north
where El Salado is, with what has been going on in
the Cimitarra Valley in the past year or so. In this
Valley, which is right near the southern border of
Bolivar with Antioquia department, there has been
a long running series of joint army/death squad operations.
In late 2000 there was a huge increase in paramilitary
activity in the Valley and large numbers of people
were being displaced from their land. The paramilitaries
were targeting especially members of the Cimitarra
River Valley Peasant Farmers' Association, who the
army have labelled as subversives, and I remember
that around the middle of December a big group of
paramilitaries raided more than 10 villages in the
valley whilst army helicopters, together with a paramilitary
helicopter, kept watch for any guerrilla units that
might try to intervene. Soon after this the military
bombed 4 villages in the valley killing various civilians
and when they had finished the paramilitaries moved
into the settlements and made everyone else leave
and disappeared those who resisted. The idea was to
destroy the civilian support network that both the
FARC and the ELN enjoyed in that region. By the end
of the year both the army and the paramilitaries were
firmly established in the area and both had checkpoints
and bases and were terrorising the people. I remember
that on December 30th or 31st they had a joint roadblock
at a place known as La Rompida where they tortured
and murdered Libardo Taburete for no reason at all.
Then in January the FARC and ELN launched a huge joint
attack on the five main paramilitary bases in the
Cimitarra Valley and killed hundreds of paramilitaries
the people still talk about it. During the attack
an army helicopter came to aid the paramilitaries
and we know that the same helicopter had been supplying
those bases with food and equipment. We also know
that some of the people killed in those camps during
the guerrilla attack were regular army troops. After
the fighting had ended the paramilitaries that survived
moved to a place known as Cuartro Bocas where the
army had a heavy presence and by February 2001 they
had a base there under the protection of units of
the 4th Brigade of the army. Again the two forces
engaged in attacks against both the guerrillas and
the civilian population and in late February the military
launched heavy bombing in the area that killed and
displaced many people. I can't remember the names
of the individual army officers who were coordinating
all this but various human rights organisations could
give you the information and anyone in the Cimitarra
Valley would be able to tell you because those officers
are still there and are still doing these kinds of
things. One whose name I do remember is Colonel Juan
Bautista of the 45th Battalion of the army who was
seen meeting openly with a group of paramilitaries
last year in May just before they went into the community
of El Paraiso near San Pablo and set fire to 26 homes
and displaced 1,500 people. More recently, in January
of this year in the Villanueva region of Bolivar,
paramilitaries that were operating out of two nearby
military bases and wearing army-issue uniforms assassinated
at least six people whilst military spotter planes
circled above keeping watch for guerrilla units. It
is General Martin Orlando Carreno of the 2nd Division
of the army who is responsible for this. Peasant groups
in the area have repeatedly appealed to General Carreno
to intervene when there are warnings of death squads
approaching and he has always ignored their pleas.
And when human rights groups have requested that he
orderhis tr oops to act against two well known paramilitary
bases near the towns of Monterrey and San Blas, which
are both in the south of Bolivar, he has also refused
us. In fact, those two bases are still there today
as we are talking. And there are many more examples
like this and not just here in Bolivar. All over Colombia
you can go into towns and see local paramilitaries
drinking in bars with the police, living in military
bases and manning joint roadblocks with soldiers.
I've only told you a little about the areas that I
am familiar with in Bolivar and it is just the tip
of the ice-berg.
ANNCOL:
Why do you think that the armed forces engage in this
cooperation?
Gloria: The government knows all about the
links between the paramilitaries and the army as not
only have Colombian human rights groups told them
but people like Human Rights Watch have also said
it. The problem is that the paramilitaries are part
of a state policy to keep the people down. For many
years a small group of families, we call them the
oligarchy, have controlled Colombia and these people
are desperate to defend their privileges. They do
not want to share any of Colombia's wealth with the
Colombian people and as a result of this attitude
they have had willing collaboration from the multinationals
and in turn the US government. This is why the US
gives the military so much aid despite of the human
rights abuses - to defend the interests of the multinational
corporations. The main function of the army is to
defend the elite and their interests and if that means
that they have to work with the death squads then
that is a price worth paying so far as the wealthy
elite, the multinationals, the military high command
and the US government are concerned. Again of course,
as I think I mentioned before, the mass media are
complicit in this and that is why the fact that the
paramilitaries and army are the real violators here
is hidden.
ANNCOL:
What contact have you had with the government authorities
to try and lessen the human rights crises in Bolivar
and have they been helpful?
Gloria:
For the reasons I have just mentioned the government
in general are not interested in defending the human
rights of the vast majority of Colombian citizens.
Unless they are willing to reform the security forces
and put an end
to their relationship with the paramilitaries there
is very little they can do to improve the situation.
Here in Bolivar in August last year when the International
Caravan for Life came to the south of Bolivar to express
solidarity with the peasant communities they were
threatened not just by paramilitary front organisations
like ASOCIPAZ and Movimiento No al Despeja which set
up roadblocks near San Pablo to prevent them from
visiting the communities and seeing the truth, but
also by the local authorities who called them "terrorist
guerrilla supporters". A group of international
volunteers who were supported by both the United Nations
and the Red Cross and who should have been welcomed
by the local mayors and other dignitaries were instead
called terrorists by those people!
ANNCOL:
Have you ever met with the paramilitaries or the guerrillas
to talk about human rights?
Gloria:
Human rights workers can never meet with the paramilitaries.
They are always trying to kill us and we'd make it
too easy for them if we went to them. The guerrillas
are a bit different and most human rights activists
have had some contact with them as part of their work.
Many of us for example have enquired after kidnap
victims and I know that other people have been invited
to guerrilla camps to give talks on human rights principles
and similar questions. Pastor Alape and Commander
Bertulfo, two FARC commanders in this region have
both issued invitations for various people to go and
talk to them about their human rights concerns although
I have no specific information about that. In the
past there was a lot more contact with the guerrillas
as they used to be all over the south of Bolivar in
particular. They used to call the community together
and discuss issues of how to improve living standards
and such and they used to have rules about not hitting
your wife, not littering and helping older people
who lived alone in the communities. The ELN especially
was very involved with many activists through their
environmental protection program in the south of Bolivar
and although this was mostly environmental and land
reform activists the human rights groups also had
some input. Now though, since the army and paramilitaries
have come, this has all changed as the guerrillas
are up in the mountains and quite far away so there
is less contact. The environmental policies are gone
too.
ANNCOL: With regards to human rights in the
rest of Colombia how bad is the situation compared
to Bolivar department?
Gloria:
Colombia as a whole certainly has the worst human
rights record in the Western hemisphere and easily
one of the worst in the world. Last year we had around
75 violent deaths a day nationally and I am sorry
to say that in some places in the country the local
situation is even worse than here in Bolivar. I've
already mentioned Barrancabermeja which is horrendous
although the departments of Antioquia and those on
the Pacific coast are suffering enormously too - probably
worse than here right now. The departments to the
east of Bolivar too have been having problems. What
the paramilitaries are doing in Norte de Santander
has been quite well reported on but Magdalena and
Cesar departments are also suffering and this is being
ignored. Only last month the paramilitaries killed
four peasants in the community of Llerasca in Cesar
and in Magdalena there was a massacre of eight people
who were all shot outside of a restaurant by the paramilitaries
in the town of Aracatac at the beginning of February.
None of this was reported on and in Arauca it is even
worse and nothing has been said about that yet either.
ANNCOL:
Thank-you for taking the time to do this interview.
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Gloria:
There are two brief things that I would like to say.
One is an appeal and the other an aspiration, though
it is an aspiration not just of mine but of the Colombian
people too. Firstly we are in desperate need of international
solidarity in Colombia. In the field not just of human
rights but also in the trade union movement, the student
movement, the land reform and community organisations
and all the other popular sectors that the state is
trying to destroy. We need people to support our struggles.
We need people to come here and see for themselves
what is really going on. I believe, that with the
US in particular, that if their people knew what their
government was really doing here in Colombia that
there would be outrage and it would be much more difficult
for the US to give our military, and therefore the
paramilitaries too, all this military aid. It is aid
that is harming the people and only with the support
of international solidarity organisations will we
be able to put an end to it. Whatever they say in
the US government it is simply impossible to believe
that more guns, helicopters, bullets and bombs will
lead to peace in Colombia. The aspiration that I have,
and that as I said I believe most Colombian's have,
is that of peace, but not just peace on its own where
there continues to be unemployment, poverty and discrimination.
What we want and need is peace with social justice.
And that, ultimately, is what we in the popular organisations
are all fighting for here in Colombia.
The
Colombian Trade Unionists Solidarity Campaign meets
on the first Friday of the month in the Duke of York
at 4.30PM. For details phone: 07900 212 934.
UNIONIST
WHO FILED LAW SUIT AGAINST COCA-COLA SHOT DEAD
06.09.2002
By Maria Engqvist, ANNCOL Stockholm.
The Coca-Cola killings in Colombia continue. Last
week union activist Adolfo de Jesus Munera was murdered
shortly after he received notice that a lawsuit filed
by him against Coca-Cola was accepted by Colombia’s
Constitutional Court. Adolfo de Jesus Munera was a
regional leader of the Sinaltrainal food industry
workers’ union and a former employee of the Coca-Cola
plant Embotelladora Roman in the town of Barranquilla.
Before Munera, seven other union leaders from Coca-Cola
plants in Colombia have been murdered and others have
been abducted and tortured. The attacks against the
union activists are usually accompanied by threats
to all Coca-Cola employees to quit their union, Coca-Cola
had a long history of controversy with Adolfo de Jesus
Munera. In April 1997 the company’s plant chief
Emilio Hernandez secretly requested the Colombian
authorities to take action against Munera accusing
him of being a rebel sympathizer. After an army unit
raided Munera’s home in Barranquilla, he fled
out of town afraid of being targeted by right-wing
death squads. The following month he received a letter
from Coca-Cola saying that he was dismissed for not
showing up at his workplace. Supported by his union
Munera filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola demanding
to be reinstated in his job. Munera won in the first
instance, but at a higher level the judge accepted
the company’s arguments. Munera, however, appealed
and on August 22nd he received a letter from the Colombian
Constitutional Court saying that his case had been
accepted. On August 31st unknown gunmen where waiting
for him outside his mother’s house and shot him
dead on the doorsteps.
Sinaltrainal
leadership blamed the Colombian state for the killing
of Munera and was backed up by the Director of the
Human Rights department of the national union federation
CUT, Domingo Tovar. In a statement received by ANNCOL,
Tovar said that the killing of Munera once again illustrates
“the price that union leaders are paying for
demanding social justice”.
Almost 4.000 CUT union activists have been assassinated
since 1986, without the Colombian authorities taking
serious steps to prosecute the killers. The Sinaltrainal
union has previously filed another lawsuit in Atlanta,
USA against Coca-Cola saying that the company has
contracted death squads to carry out a campaign to
destroy the union. The Sinaltrainal leadership says
that there is no possibility to bring those responsible
for the killings to justice in Colombia, because powerful
members of the elite and senior police and army commanders
are running the death squads.
Earlier
this year, Sinaltrainal attorney Pedro Mahecha Avila
told US media that: “the evidence of state complicity
includes not only the impunity with which crimes are
committed, but also the use of the military and courts
to harass the union with unwarranted searches and
false charges.”
News
Agency New Colombia
Associated member of FELAP - Latin American Federation
of Journalists
redaccion@anncol.com;
www.anncol.com
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