The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog

news update on coal mining in Colombia
Dear friends,

After a long silence, I am sending you an update on the situation of the communities displaced by coal mining in La Guajira, Colombia. I apologise for its length. As soon as the company has responded to concerns which we raised at the recent shareholders' meeting of BHPBilliton, I will send out a short urgent action request asking you to email the company. You will be able to use the current email as background information.

Thanks for your interest.

Richard Solly,
Colombia Solidarity Campaign/Mines and Communities Network

Update on coal mining at El Cerrejon, Colombia, December 2004



Communities around the massive Cerrejon Norte coal strip mine in the northern province of La Guajira, Colombia, are still waiting for justice from the Colombian government and the multinational mining companies who own the mine.



The mine is operated by Carbones del Cerrejon SA, owned by Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Glencore.



Mines and Communities member group Yanama has supported a number of the communities affected by the mine and the Mines and Communities website (www.minesandcommunities.org) has reported on the struggles of two of them: Tabaco and Tamaquitos. London-based Mines and Communities associate Richard Solly visited the area in October 2004 and subsequently attended the annual shareholders' meeting of BHPBilliton plc in London on 25 November. Here he reports on the current situation of these two displaced communities.


Tabaco



The settlement of Tabaco was demolished and its remaining inhabitants evicted by armed force in August 2001; what little remained of the village after that date was finally destroyed in January 2002. This was when Intercor, a 100% owned subsidiary of US multinational ExxonMobil, operated the mine. Intercor, however, only owned 50% of the mine: the other 50% was owned by the same three-company consortium which now fully owns and operates it.



In May 2002 the Colombian Supreme Court ordered the local authority (the municipality of Hatonuevo) to reconstruct a viable settlement for the now displaced community, in a new location acceptable to the people of Tabaco, beginning immediately. This has still not been done. The Alcalde (Mayor) of Hatonuevo claims that it is impossible for the municipality to comply with the court's decision for lack of money. He is adamant that the mining company should finance the reconstruction. The national Procurator's Office insists that the municipality comply with the Supreme Court decision using its own resources; but it does not enforce the decision. A meeting was scheduled at the Alcaldia (municipal offices) in Hatonuevo on 13 October between community representatives, a representative of the national Procurator's Office, and the Mayor. The Mayor, citing `personal business', failed to attend. Meanwhile, the community has found a suitable location for reconstruction of an agricultural settlement at La Cruz, a rural property of 450 hectares whose owner is very happy to sell.



The multinational mining consortium is eager to put the matter of Tabaco behind it because it damages its international image. Both Anglo American and BHPBilliton have repeatedly stated that they were not responsible for the 2001 demolitions, even though their consortium owned 50% of the mine at that time. Carbones del Cerrejon has increased its offer of individual financial compensation to community members still holding out for a community relocation agreement - though not to a level adequate to compensate them for the destruction of their agricultural livelihood and the disruption to community life.



The company has insisted that 95% of Tabaco's original community members opted for individual financial compensation rather than community relocation. It has not, of course, described the intense pressure to which community members were subjected, including being told by representatives of the mine operator that they had better settle quickly or they would get nothing, and this at a time when some of them were already finding it impossible to make a living because of the amount of agricultural land that had been swallowed up by the mine.



The mine's owners are keen to ensure that dissident shareholders visiting Colombia should meet with local mine management. One of the cardinal principles of Mines and Communities is that nobody has the right to represent any mine-affected community without the explicit authorisation of that community; and experience teaches that any meetings with mine management should be in the public domain. So when the President of Carbones del Cerrejon, Alberto Calderon, offered to meet me when I was in Colombia, I consulted with representatives of the Tabaco community. They decided that it may be useful if community representatives could meet Mr Calderon with me there as an international observer.



The meeting took place on 5 October in the Alcaldia de Albania (the Municipal Offices in Albania, one of the towns closest to the mine workings). Mr Calderon did not seem particularly happy to have had to travel from his office in the coastal city of Barranquilla to Albania and community representatives present were certain that had it not been for the presence of an observer from Europe he would not have attended. Mr Calderon himself told me that he was disappointed that I had not taken up his offer of a private meeting and expressed the hope that I might do so in the future, so that I could hear the company's point of view.



Of course, it is quite easy to learn the company's point of view since it is extensively publicised on the company's website and in its publications, as well as in sympathetic coverage in the local and regional press. Mr Calderon was concerned that I may be hearing only one side of the story. He reminded everyone at the 5 October meeting of the company's largesse towards displaced residents of Tabaco, using the example of a community member whom the company had moved to a big city so that her children could receive a better education. This particular example was also being trumpeted in the company's magazine, as proof that the lives of former residents of Tabaco had improved with the company's help. The company had bought her a house and was paying for the children's education. It had also paid for an ophthalmic operation for her daughter.



What neither the magazine nor Mr Calderon mentioned was that the community member in question had resisted relocation until the company's bulldozers destroyed the house that she had built in Tabaco, where I had visited her in 2000, and of which she had been very proud; a simple house, to be sure, but a symbol of independence. There was no mention either of the video of the destruction of Tabaco, in which she is filmed weeping over the ruins of that house. I interviewed her after the 5 October meeting with Mr Calderon and she told me that after the destruction of Tabaco she certainly felt that it would be better to move away and that she was grateful to the company for giving her children the opportunity for a good education - this was extremely important to her. She was also grateful to the company for the help it had given for her daughter's operation. But she admitted that the company gave no other support, not even help with emergency medical care, and that, since she had been unable to find steady work in the city, she was dependent on friends from the displaced community of Tabaco to send her money for food for herself and her children. Without that continued community solidarity, they would go hungry. So perhaps the company's largesse is not quite so large as it wishes people to believe, and perhaps those who want a balanced understanding of the impacts of the company's activities do need to talk directly with those who have been displaced.



At the 5 October Alberto Calderon said that the company had deposited money in the Bank of the Republic to settle the cases of the remaining nine former residents of Tabaco who had not yet come to agreements with the company. He said that the company was willing to listen to their concerns.



The community's legal representatives, Armando Perez, said that he did not agree that the issue was simply about the nine remaining unsettled cases. He explained the history of the case of Tabaco. He spoke of the use of servidumbres: these enable a mining company to gain legal access to private property which it does not own for the purposes of facilitating its mining operations. By law, compensation must be offered, but not at a level equal to the purchase price of the property, since it is only a question of access. In the case of El Cerrejon, these servidumbres had involved the destruction of people's houses and evictions from people's own private property, while compensation had been offered only at a level appropriate for access; in other words, servidumbres had been used as a cheap method of clearing land of its inhabitants.



Jose Julio Perez, President of the community's Relocation Committee (Junta de Reubicacion) spoke about the census which the company had used to determine who was a member of the community for purposes of compensation. Not only did it exclude people who were members of the community but it also included people who had nothing to do with the community. Jose Julio explained that those who carried out the census were in the pay of the company. He explained that a Junta de Accion Comunal had been set up by the company supposedly to represent the community's interests in negotiations with the company. It had been formed from members of the community who were willing to co-operate with the company. Jose Julio had himself been a member of this Junta until he realised that it was simply a creature of the company. He also spoke about the physical attacks on members of the community during the evictions and demolitions of August 2001. Jose Julio said that the community was not against the company and that they wanted to be friends with the company but that company employees had acted badly. Those who had negotiated with the company had done so because they were destitute and hungry.



Alberto Calderon reaffirmed that the company could only consider compensating people who had been `possessors' in the sense meant by the World Bank. People who lived in Tabaco outside this category constituted a problem for the company.



Mr Sarmiento, responsible for land purchase by the company, said that although the company had certainly brought about involuntary displacement, it had not brought about forced displacement as far as Colombian law was concerned. Armando Perez disagreed with this position. Both Colombian and international law included in the meaning of forced displacement the kind of displacement caused by large industrial projects when they were enforced by the authorities.



Alberto Calderon and other company representatives said that the company would be willing to reopen talks with the Junta de Reubicacion both on legal matters and on ways in which the company could help establish small-scale social and economic projects. Community representatives were clear that legal discussions about the righting of a grave injustice should precede talks about company-funded projects, because in their view the company had used the distribution of small amounts of money for such projects as a way of dividing communities and distracting them from the fundamental issue of legal redress. Jose Julio Perez said that any offers of assistance with social and economic projects should be made in writing to the Junta de Reubicacion so that the community could discuss them properly and come to a common mind on them.



Alberto Calderon then said that company lawyer Eduardo Lozano would speak with the community about legal matters. He had not been involved in earlier disputes with the community. They could even look again at the disputed census, even though the list of residents that it contained was of great importance to the company.



The meeting thus ended on a note of cautious hope. It did not last long.



Later in October, a meeting was held between the company's appointed representatives and the Junta de Reubicacion. Progress was made on agreeing a procedure for further discussions. The meeting was to reconvene to discuss what to do if the company and the community could not come to an agreement. But when it did reconvene, company representatives stated that there could be no further discussions for the time being on legal matters, only on the financing of social and economic projects, and that there could be no agreement on what to do in the event of a failure to agree. So it is clear that the company is back to business as usual.



Questioned at the 25 November BHPBilliton shareholders' meeting about the change in policy between 5 October and the follow-up meeting, BHPBilliton Chair Don Argus simply repeated that the company had settled with all but nine former residents of Tabaco and refused any further comment on the matter.



El Cerrejon's multinational owners must be pressured to return to the negotiating table to discuss legal redress for the way they have treated the whole community of Tabaco, and not simply to discuss a few smallscale projects to ameliorate the conditions of the nine property owners who have held out for a better deal for the whole community - especially as the poorest former residents, precisely those whom the company will not accept as legitimate property owners, have never received any compensation at all and are still not being offered any.



The Colombia Government must be pressured to finance the relocation of the community to La Cruz, in fulfilment of the Supreme Court decision of May 2002.


Tamaquitos



Tamaquitos is an Indigenous community consisting of 31 Wayuu families and a few non-Wayuu individuals who have married in. The community owns an area of around 14 hectares. The mining company has in the past claimed that the community is not Indigenous. When this manifestly absurd claim became unsustainable because foreign visitors to the community had noted the Wayuu appearance and language of the inhabitants, the company began claiming that although the community is Indigenous, it has not been in the area long and its member families originate in other nearby Wayuu communities.



However, the whole area around the mine was Indigenous territory, and Wayuu families have been in the area for generations, having migrated from further north in the province of La Guajira. It is ridiculous to suggest that because a particular village has not been in existence for hundreds of years it does not constitute part of the ancestral patrimony of the area's Indigenous inhabitants. Tamaquitos community leaders Enrique Epiayuu and Jose Manuel Epiayuu affirm that Tamaquitos was founded after many struggles by one family. All its inhabitants are related.



The company has until recently claimed that it owns no land adjacent to Tamaquitos. It now admits that it does own land to within a few hundred metres of the settlement, although its mining operations are several kilometres away, over a hill. Community leaders say that despite the distance of the mining operations, fugitive coal dust is a problem at times. They also say that the company owns most of the land close to the community and that as a result opportunities to work on surrounding farms have ceased. The company claims that it has leased land close to the community back to its original owners and that this should enable community members to find work. Community leaders explain that people from Tamaquitos have had to cross the border into nearby Venezuela to find sufficient waged farm work to make any kind of living.



Current road access to Tamaquitos is extremely difficult and may disappear altogether when the closest neighbouring community, Roche, is eventually swallowed up by the mine. In any case, lacking their own transport, community members usually have to rely on the chance passing of vehicles making for Hatonuevo in order to get to the nearest urban centre.



Anglo American and BHPBilliton both claim that Carbones del Cerrejon has no need for the land around Tamaquitos and that there is therefore no need for the community to be relocated. They deny that there is any pressure on the community to leave. But I was told that the fact that the company's land abuts the community means there are problems with private security personnel who have accused people at Tamaquitos of being guerrillas, thus making them potential targets for paramilitary death squads. Allegations were made that there is a surveillance house close to the community, put there by the company. Community members told me that company representatives, including foreigners, are always trying to speak to community leaders, but had so far not found them in, so nobody knows what they intend proposing. Community members have repeatedly told me that representatives of the company have been seeking to buy their land, and some have begun to feel that individual sale may be their only hope.



The community is desperate. Community leaders told me they want the company to talk to them about what the community wants and needs. They need land, work and tools. The community in general wants to be able to continue living as a community. If this is to work, then either the land around the community must be made available again for agricultural work and compensation paid for the disruption of their livelihood, or the community must be relocated to an alternative, adequate site acceptable to the community



Richard Solly,

11 December 2004
richardsolly@gn.apc.org

CRS AND U.S. CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS CALL ON PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES TO REFOCUS U.S. POLICY TOWARD COLOMBIA

October 15, 2004, Baltimore, MD - Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has joined a coalition of ecumenical organizations calling for President Bush and Senator Kerry to reassess their respective strategies toward Colombia. In a letter delivered to the Bush Administration and the Kerry campaign yesterday, the group called on both candidates to "envision a new strategy" in U.S.-Colombia relations.

The faith-based organizations call for a focus on a negotiated resolution of the country's violent conflict; a commitment to sustainable peace through greater investment in development, humanitarian aid and human rights; and increased attention to the drug treatment and prevention in the U.S. as more sustainable, humane and pragmatic alternatives to addressing real needs of both Colombian and U.S. communities.

The letter, signed by more than 700 representatives of faith communities across the United States-including the Presiding Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church, U.S.A.; the Presidents of Catholic Relief Services; Lutheran World Relief; the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the national Jesuit Conference, and Church World Services, notes that "strategies that rely primarily on military aid or fumigation, and provide only limited social investment in local communities, will not create lasting change."

This past Wednesday marked the kickoff of an international campaign for peace in Colombia by Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 162 Catholic humanitarian organizations around the world. The "Peace is Possible" campaign will last for three years and is based on the position of the Colombian Bishop's Conference that "peace can only be obtained through negotiations and peace can only be sustained through social justice." The campaign calls for greater involvement of the international community in supporting negotiations between the armed actors, international aid policies that contribute to social justice and the creation of an environment in which peace negotiations are possible, and national and international recognition of and response to the humanitarian crisis.

Colombia is experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis in the western hemisphere with the third highest rate of internally displaced persons in the world (three million Colombians have been internally displaced since 1985). Colombia has become one the most dangerous places for human rights workers, journalists, union leaders and church leaders. In the last decade 57 Catholic representatives including bishops, priests, nuns and seminarians have been killed; the number is even higher for Protestant pastors.

The current conflict in Colombia is rooted in a long history of economic inequality, a weak state presence in much of the country, political exclusion, impunity and social fragmentation. In recent years the conflict has intensified dramatically due in large part to the infusion of new resources-from both drug-related profits that many of the armed actors currently receive, and more recently from a significant infusion of U.S. military aid.

CRS has worked in Colombia since 1954. The agency's "In Solidarity with Colombia Program," launched in 2000, is a response to the request by the Colombian Church and social organizations, to work in partnership toward a peaceful, secure future for the people of Colombia. CRS/Colombia focuses activities on providing an integral humanitarian response to the victims of the conflict and natural disasters, and supporting church and civil society efforts to defend human rights and work for peace in the country.

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the U.S. Catholic community. The agency provides assistance to people in 94 countries and territories on the basis of need, not race, creed or nationality.

Photographs by Scott Dalton for The New York Times Francisco Ramírez, top, a union leader in Colombia, prayed in a small chapel at the Bogotá airport before boarding a flight to Miami, where he will seek temporary exile. Sixta Tulia Rojas with a poster of her husband and nine other union leaders, all killed.

Assassination Is an Issue in Trade Talks

By JUAN FORERO

Published: November 18, 2004

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Photographs by Scott Dalton for The New York Times Francisco Ramírez, top, a union leader in Colombia, prayed in a small chapel at the Bogotá airport before boarding a flight to Miami, where he will seek temporary exile. Sixta Tulia Rojas with a poster of her husband and nine other union leaders, all killed.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Nov. 17 - With tears in her eyes, 80-year-old Mercedes Cuéllar wrapped her arms around her son, one of Colombia's top union leaders, and said goodbye as he boarded a flight to Miami and temporary exile from the country's long conflict.

As the secretary general of the union that represents energy sector workers, Francisco Ramírez had survived seven assassination attempts, including one on Oct. 10. He was still alive, but hundreds of his compatriots, victims of the political assassinations that have been a scourge in this Andean country, have not been so lucky.

"I was so afraid for him that I wanted to see him go to another country," Ms. Cuéllar said, dabbing tears as Mr. Ramírez prepared to go through customs on a recent afternoon. "I'm much calmer that he's not here."

As union activists have fallen by the hundreds here, making Colombia the world's most dangerous country for union organizers, their families and those who have dodged assassins' bullets have had little recourse. Practically all killings of union leaders have gone unsolved.

Now, labor rights groups and some members of the United States Congress have promised to do something about the violence and the impunity, using free trade negotiations between Colombia and the Bush administration to prod the government of President Álvaro Uribe to do more to protect union activists and prosecute the killers.

The idea, say labor activists from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and senior Congressional aides, is to make the issue of violence and impunity as important a component in trade talks as the struggle over agriculture tariffs and intellectual property rights. Its failure to protect union members, the argument goes, gives Colombia an unfair edge over countries that do, like the United States.

"A country should not achieve an unfair comparative advantage by willful omission or noncompliance of labor standards," said Stan Gacek, assistant director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s international affairs department, which works with unions in other countries. "The issue of rights is not an obstruction to trade, it is absolutely essential to the success of trade."

An American trade official, who spoke on condition that he remain anonymous, says that Colombia is obligated to enforce its own labor laws, which guarantee freedom of association and other labor standards.

"And how do I know someone is denied freedom of association?" he said. The murder of trade unionists, the official said, is a violation of freedom of association. "So clearly violence against trade unionists or impunity for killers is an issue with Colombia, and we've told them that."

The pressure is already having an effect.

Trying to mitigate the damage, Vice President Francisco Santos in September traveled to the United States to meet with a bipartisan Congressional group and John J. Sweeney, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. "The government has a right to defend its record and that is the reason for my visit, and surely I'll return several times," Mr. Santos said in an interview.

Mr. Santos says that Mr. Uribe's government, which is widely credited with reducing violence since taking office in 2002, has made the country considerably safer for unionists. While 94 were slain last year, 58 had been assassinated as of Tuesday, according to the National Union School, a research and educational center in Medellín. The numbers are still staggering, Mr. Santos acknowledged, but they do represent a marked drop from 1996, when 222 were killed.

The vice president attributes the improvements to a new emphasis on prosecutions and a protection program that has received budget increases of 45 percent, to $13.8 million, since 2001.

Some rights officials, even those long critical of the Colombian government, said that the government had become more responsive to complaints from unionists fearful of being killed.

"I don't think this is a government where you have to make hundreds of phone calls and lobby them to make a serious case," said José Miguel Vivanco, who oversees the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, the rights monitoring organization based in New York.

But Mr. Vivanco, other rights leaders and the unionists say that impunity continues largely unabated, despite the government's assurances.

The vice president's figures show that the number of successful prosecutions of assassins - 19 - represents a small fraction of all the cases involving murders of union organizers. Nearly 2,100 union members have been slain since 1991, according to the National Union School.

Union advocates in the United States attribute the decline in violence to a cease-fire that Colombia's main paramilitary coalition, the United Self-Defense Forces, declared in December 2002 before embarking on disarmament talks with the government. The cease-fire has been violated numerous times.

Those paramilitary groups - right-wing, antiguerrilla militias financed by landowners and the cocaine trade - have long targeted unions, accusing their members of being rebels or working with Colombia's two leftist insurgent groups.

Asked about the murders of unionists, Rodrigo Tovar, one of the group's most feared leaders, was adamant about the need to ferret out guerrillas from unions.

"We have always acted against guerrillas, armed or not armed," Mr. Tovar, who commands 5,000 fighters, said last week in an interview on a ranch in northern Colombia. "Our war has been against the subversives, against communist guerrillas, however they are dressed."

Mr. Tovar denied that paramilitaries had worked with companies to eliminate union organizers. But few in Colombia dispute that union leaders have made enemies in the country's highly stratified society, both for their leftist declarations and for their harsh criticism of fiscally conservative governments bent on privatizing industries and holding down labor costs.

Indeed, Mr. Tovar, who was a wealthy landowner and businessman before joining the paramilitaries, could not contain his disdain for unions. He said that they had been "a disaster in Colombia for business" and that union activists were "the ones who sabotage, who hurt companies."

The deaths of union members here, particularly those who work for big foreign multinational companies, has become a thorny international problem for Colombia's establishment and the Bush administration.

Five lawsuits have been filed in American courts accusing companies like Drummond, a coal producer based in Birmingham, Ala., and two bottlers affiliated with Coca-Cola of using paramilitary gunmen to eliminate union organizers. The companies strenuously deny the allegations.

But the lawsuits, filed in American courts under a 215-year-old statute, have put an unwanted spotlight on Colombia's problems and irritated the Bush administration, which argues that they interfere with foreign policy and open multinational companies to sometimes frivolous grievances.

It is just the kind of pressure that union advocates in the United States want to increase, using the trade talks as a way of further prodding the two governments.

"They're looking for levers of pressure," said Michael Shifter, a senior policy analyst who closely follows Colombia for the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington group. "And it's not surprising as the United States begins negotiations with Colombia on a free trade deal that they're going to explore the possibility of using this as a way of increasing pressure."

Several recent incidents in Colombia have energized union activists in the United States.

In September, the attorney general's office charged three soldiers with having murdered three union activists, an account that sharply contrasted with the army's earlier claim that the unionists were guerrillas killed in a firefight. And earlier this month, an army major escaped - apparently with the help of other military officials - from a military prison where he was serving a 27-year term for the attempted assassination of a union leader.

Mr. Santos, the vice president, said the arrests of the soldiers showed that the government was serious about pursuing the killers of union organizers. The government also quickly fired four military officers at the prison from which the convicted major escaped.

But inaction, union advocates say, is mostly the norm when it comes to the murders of union organizers like Luis Obdulio Camacho, who once headed a cement workers' local in Antioquia province.

Mr. Camacho had lost a son, also a union member, to paramilitary gunmen in 1991. Then, in 1998, he himself was slain; two gunmen shot him in front of several witnesses.

Today, Mr. Camacho's widow, Sixta Tulia Rojas, 69, lives in a small house in Bogotá, where she fled to escape her husband's fate. She yearns for justice, but long ago gave up on the government ever making an arrest in the case.

"No one saw anything and that's what's so terrible - the silence," Ms. Rojas said. Pointing to a framed poster of 10 union leaders, including her husband, she said: "Look at that photo. All of them were killed and no one was arrested."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Workmen's Circle Annual

Children's Protest

Against Sweatshops

Sunday December 5th 2:00-3:00pm

Wal-Mart, 780 Lynnway in Lynn, MA

FACT: Today, the country's largest employer is Wal-Mart. In 2000, Wal-Mart's assets totaled more than the GDP of 155 of the 192 countries in the world, with annual sales of more than 137.6 billion. The Walton family is worth about $102 billion. Yet they produce more goods in sweatshops than any company in the world.

FACT: The National Labor Committee reports, "In country after country, factories that produce for Wal-Mart are the worst." Some of the abuses in foreign factories that produce goods for Wal-Mart include: forced overtime, locked bathrooms, starvation wages, and forced pregnancy tests.

Sponsors: Mass AFL-CIO, Mass Jobs With Justice, Mass NOW, North Shore Labor Council, Neighbor 2 Neighbor Lynn, IUE-CWA 201, UFCW 1445, Union of Needle Trades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE), New England Jewish Labor Committee, Dorshei Tsedek Jewish Labor Committee

Bring Your Kids Out To Show Them Democracy,

Bring Them To The Wal-Mart Protest!!!

Frida Berrigan's account of Situation in Colombia
From: Hope Benne

Dear Friends:

Frida Berrigan, recent graduate of Oberlin College and daughter of Philip Berrigan and Elizabeth McAlister (distinguished Catholic Worker and Plowshare 8 activists) now works for the Arms Trade Resource Center in New York City. She recently wrote a newsletter article about Colombia, and, while it's a story indeed familiar to us, I thought you might like to see it. Best wishes, Hope Benne

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

COLOMBIA'S OIL, OUR WEAPONS

Frida Berrigan

Mario Murillo, the host and producer of Wake Up Call Fridays on WBAI radio in New York City, says that if you really want to know what's going on, you have to read the "World Business" section of the New YorkTimes. He sure is right.

On Friday, October 22, on the front page of the "World Business": section, sandwiched between "Arts and Leisure" and "Real Estate" the following blaring headline is buried: "Safeguarding Colombia's Oil."

If the New York Times wanted to engage in real truth telling, it should actually read "Safeguarding America's Oil," because, as the article goes on to explicate, that is how the United States is treating Colombia's oil.

With a dateline: Puerto Vega, Colombia, reporter Juan Forero writes:

"In the biggest, most ambitious army offensive in Colombia's 40-year rebel war, 18,000 counterinsurgency troops have since January fanned out across four isolated southern states, a lawless swath that for years functioned as a de facto republic for Marxist rebels.

"Aided by American helicopters, planning and surveillance, Colombian forces have the stated goal of penetrating the historic heart of Colombia's largest rebel group to "strike a decisive blow to narco-terrorists," as Gen. James Hill, the commander of United States forces in Latin America, put it earlier this year.

"The Bush administration, meanwhile, reversed American policy and dispatched Special Forces trainers from Fort Bragg, NC to train Colombian soldiers to protect a 500 mile pipeline used by Occidental Petroleum."

The article goes on to talk about how this level of American intervention is helping Colombia attract new investment in its oil production: ExxonMobil has moved in, ChevronTexaco has extended contracts, Harken Energy Company, Bush's former company, has signed a new exploration contract.

As Major Pedro Sanchez, who is the second in command of the battalion protecting oil installations, says, "there's a feeling of safety, that we are keeping the peace. We provide confidence so companies can explore here."

But what about the Colombian people? Do they enjoy a feeling of safety? Do they have any confidence?

According to the Washington Office on Latin American, Colombia suffers the most dire human rights situation in the Western Hemisphere. Leftist guerrillas fight the state and officially outlawed right-wing paramilitary organizations, which are often allied with sectors of the Colombian armed forces. Civilians caught between the warring groups suffer the majority of the casualties, and 2.7 million Colombians live as internal refugees. The State Department's annual human rights report 2003, found that the Colombian military continued to collaborate with illegal paramilitary groups, and impunity remained a core problem

COLOMBIA RESOURCES: The Arms Trade Resource Center is tracking this issue carefully as we put the "finishing touches" on our long awaited WEAPONS AT WAR report, documenting U.S. weapons sales and military aid to regions of conflict. We will let you know when this report is available.

In the meantime, Center for International Policy, Latin America Working Group, and the Washington Office on Latin America have worked together on an important new report, "BLURRING THE LINES: Trends in U.S. Military Programs With Latin America," http://ciponline.org/facts/0410btl.pdf

In 2003, write the report's authors, U.S. military aid to Colombia came to $860 million dollars, just short of the $921 million spent on economic and humanitarian assistance in the same year. The report warns that, if recent trends hold, military aid may actually exceed economic assistance.

Mirian Olivas Jarquín

Campesina activist and leader in community development in El Regadío, Nicaragua

Collateral Damage Tour

Political, Economic and Social Fallout of the present Globalization Model and Prospects for Transformed U.S. Trade Relations

Thursday, October 21, 7:00 (come at 6:30 to enjoy a Dominican dinner!)

Heritage Room, Ellison Campus Center

Salem State College

* What is the "Collateral Damage" of globalization?

* What do we mean by the "cycles of military and economic violence"

* How does the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement threaten the livelihoods of rural communities in Central America

* What can you do to assure US policies are fair and sustainable for the "Seventh Generation"?

Witness for Peace speaker tour will host Mirian Olivas Jarquín a campesina activist and leader in community development in El Regadío, the farming community near Estelí, Nicaragua where she was born. She worked in the education system for 42 years, beginning teaching at age 15 in two rural, one-room schools. After going back to finish high school and teacher's college as a mother, she worked as the school's administrator. She also worked on the literacy campaign that attempted to eliminate illiteracy in Nicaragua in 1980. Despite IMF-forced cutbacks in education, she led the struggle to bring high school-level education to El Regadío, bringing new opportunities to the children of farming families.

Mirian has experienced many of the cycles of military and economic violence that have affected El Regadío. She participated in the Community Defense Committee during the insurrection that ended the US-backed Somoza dictatorship. And after the Sandinista government came into power, she watched as several of her children defended Nicaragua from US-back Contra rebels.

Mirian has never tired of working towards community development. During the 1980's she was a leader in the town council, and worked with national women's organizations to "get women out of the house and active in the community". Since 1990, she has worked on the community development board successfully bringing drinking water and electrification projects to El Regadío. After IMF-imposed reforms left small, family farmers "totally abandoned, without credit or access to technical assistence", she worked to organize local farmers into a cooperative to gain access to financing. Since 2000, the El Progreso "Progress" Cooperative has expanded from 120 to 274 members, including 145 women, and it serves 12 rural communities.

Now, the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement threatens the livelihoods of rural Nicaraguan communities. If ratified, CAFTA would increase competition between struggling Nicaraguan farmers and the farming industry in the United States, forcing even more Nicaraguans to leave the countryside for cities, or to leave Nicaragua altogether. New England WFP's Fall Speakers Tour 2004

For more information call 978-542-6389; leave a message! Or email achomsky@salemstate.edu.

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A quick report on yesterday's meeting
The highlight was hearing from Peter Knowlton of the UE and Raul Cisneros of SITESABES/FAT and professor of adult basic education in Mexico. Raul talked to us about the gap between Mexican labor law and reality, the corruption of Mexico's "official" unions, and the struggles of his teacher's union (affiliated with the dissident Frente Autentico de Trabajadores) in Guanajuato. Peter talked about the history of the UE as an independent union in the US and its cross-border solidarity with the FAT.

Avi gave a brief report on her trip to the Voces por la Vida human rights conference in Bogota at the end of August. The conference brought together international solidarity people, Colombian academics, activists in Colombia's social movements, and testimonies from victims of massacres, displacements, etc., especially from Colombia's "regions" where U.S. investments, military aid, and Plan Colombia are devastating communities. A Brazilian Workers Party speaker called Colombia "the Chile of the 2000s"--the place where the U.S. is trying to carry out its neoliberal experiment no matter how much violence it entails. As other countries in Latin America (Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil) are electing leftist parties and trying to find economic independence from the US and create more social equality, the US is using Colombia as its bastion.

Sep 20

11:00a NORTH SHORE-COLOMBIA SOLIDARITY GROUP'S FIRST MEETING OF FALL 2004

AGENDA INCLUDES:

REPORT ON AVI CHOMSKY'S RECENT TRIP TO COLOMBIA DISCUSSION OF COKE CAMPAIGN ON CAMPUS DISCUSSION OF UPCOMING SPEAKERS

MONDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 20, 11 AM

SALEM STATE COLLEGE, SULLIVAN BUILDING, ROOM 105-A From: Hope Benne

Peter Knowlton of UE District 2 (who we have collaborated with in organizing events for our Colombian speakers in the past) and Raul Cisneros Porras, member of the Authentic Workers Front (FAT) and professor of adult basic education in Mexico, will be coming to our meeting to speak about grassroots challenges to Mexico's "official" unions, cross-border collalboration, and similarities and differences in the philosphy (pedagogy?) and goals of worker education programs in Mexico and the US.

Twenty-three members of the U.S. Senate sent a letter to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe
July 26, 2004

Dear Colombia Advocates,
Great news! Yesterday, twenty-three members of the U.S. Senate-- including Senators John Kerry and John Edwards-- sent a letter to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe that expressed serious concerns about the human rights record of the Colombian military and the threats and attacks levied against union members and human rights workers. Members of Congress are asked to sign dozens of these types of letters each day; why would so many choose to sign this one? The answer is your hard work. The calls and letters that have been generated over the past few weeks helped educate, sway, and motivate our senators to speak out against human rights violations in Colombia and to back United Nations recommendations for change. We've helped send a strong message to the Colombian government and media, and backed up the voices of Colombians working for peace and justice. Thank you for your persistence and hard work!

Here's a quote from a front-page article that ran this morning in El Tiempo, Colombia's major daily newspaper:

"Through letters and chains of e-mails, [human rights groups in the US] supported hundreds of US citizens so that they, in turn, could send letters to their senators urging them to sign the letter to the Colombian president.

"The most significant aspect of the letter, aside from the obvious concern expressed by the senators, is that it is a window into the possible future of bilateral relations between the US and Colombia if the Kerry-Edwards ticket makes it to the presidency. Although both have supported the government of Colombia in Senate votes, it is clear that the issue of human rights figures prominently in their agenda."

For the rest of this article, in Spanish, please see

http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/poli/2004-07-28/ARTICULO-WEB-_NOTA_INTERIOR-1751232.html

Let's Use the Momentum! Many of the senators who signed the letter have never spoken out about Colombia before. We now have an excellent opportunity to engage them, thank them for signing, and ask them to do more. If your senator is on the list below, please give them a call and say thanks-- and let them know that you want to see them take a stronger stance against US military assistance to Colombia in the future. If your senator is not on the list, call and ask why. You can reach your senators by calling the congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121, or find their address at http://www.senate.gov . You can read a copy of the letter by going to http://www.lawg.org/docs/ColombiaUribe.pdf ..


Signers to the Feingold-Dodd letter on Colombia:

Russ Feingold (WI) (deserves a special thanks for organizing the letter)
Chris Dodd (CT) (deserves a special thanks for organizing the letter)
Murray (WA)
Leahy (VT)
Durbin (IL)
Kennedy (MA)
Boxer (CA)
Kerry (MA)
Cantwell (WA)
Harkin (IA)
Jeffords (VT)
Bingaman (NM)
Mikulski (MD)
Lautenberg (NJ)
Kohl (WI)
Landrieu (LA)
Sarbanes (MD)
Levin (MI)
Reed (RI)
Feinstein (CA)
Corzine (NJ)
Dayton (IL)
Edwards (NC)

The Senate has not had a meaningful debate over Colombia policy since 2001. We can build on the momentum generated by this letter and demand that senators keep US military involvement in Colombia limited this year, and then vote to change the policy during the foreign aid bill debate next year.

Next Steps:
August is a great time to communicate with your senators and representatives over Colombia policy. They'll be back in their district or state offices for the August recess, and constituent meetings, media activities, vigils, and other efforts to raise awareness can happen throughout the month. These types of activities are particularly important right now, because the House-Senate conference committee will probably meet in September to hammer out the final version of the 2005 defense authorization bill. Members of this conference committee will determine how many US troops and US military contractors will be allowed in Colombia.

Activists working on the upcoming elections also have an opportunity during this time to communicate with Senators Kerry and Edwards and help them establish a responsible platform on Colombia.

You'll be receiving another message next week with ideas for August activities and more information on pressuring the conference committee members to limit US military presence in Colombia. Please keep an eye out for that message! In the meantime, let's use this moment to push the Senate in the right direction. You can reach your senator's office through the congressional switchboard, 202-224-3121, or find his or her address at http://www.senate.gov . Together, we will demand that Congress support a US policy toward Colombia that reflects our values of peace, justice, sustainable development, and respect for human rights.

Thanks again for all of your efforts.

Best,
Elanor

--

Elanor Starmer
Associate for Colombia and Central America
Latin America Working Group
estarmer@lawg.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Latin America Working Group
Action at home for just policies abroad www.lawg.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Notes from presentation by Fabio Arias Giraldo
Notes from presentation by

Fabio Arias Giraldo

at IUE-CWA Local 201 Lynn, Massachusetts

Wednesday, July 21, 2004



The talk was given in Spanish with translations by Lyn Meza and Avi Chomsky.



Transcribed by Rebecca Ramsay.



Introduction: Fabio is Vice President of the CUT, the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores or Unified Workers Central, Colombia's main labor federation (comparable to the AFL-CIO) and Coordinator of the Gran Coalición Democrática (Grand Democratic Coalition).



Fabio started off by saying the situation for trade unionists in Colombia is still very bad.

The number of trade union leaders killed is the highest of any country.



Union situation in general:

Most people not working under a union contract. Collective bargaining is the exception. Work often goes to non-union cooperative job shops.

70% of workers have "flexible" contracts.

30% have a contract (many temporary employees).

5% of employed in trade unions.

70% of these are in public sector, e.g., education and health care.

Violations of labor rights are pervasive. Complaints to ILO go nowhere.

Protests against attempts at privatization: 248 USO (Union Sindical Obrera) workers at Ecopetrol and 47 public employees in Cali were fired..

The assaults on trade union leaders has seriously hurt the trade union movement.



To counteract Uribe's neo-liberal political policies, a new organization is developing that will channel social discontent: Gran Coalición Democrática. This coalition was instrumental in the October 25 defeat of Uribe's attempt to limit wages and pensions as a part of an IMF mandate. Only 23% of Colombians voted to support the referendum. (Uribe needed 25%.) Yet soon after, local elections brought out 52% of the voters. Shows that the population is not with Uribe.



Thursday July 22 is the start of a political and social summit. This will include disenfranchised Liberal Party members and new democratic forces in evidence during October referendum.

They will be responding to Uribe's speech given on Colombian Independence Day (7/20), when he announced new policies. He will be trying to push through congress the pension and wage restrictions that were defeated in the referendum. This is an illegal procedure, as there is supposed to be a two-year waiting period after a referendum. He announced tax reforms such as a 4% tax on staple food purchases, an extremely regressive tax that hurts the subsistence population the most. Uribe's disregard for constitutional procedures demonstrates his authoritarian approach.



The social and political summit will be responding with alternative policy proposals opposing Uribe's neo-liberal and authoritarian administration, in the hope that they can prevent him from being re-elected. Uribe goes along with whatever the U.S. wants, e.g., support for war in Iraq. The biggest problem in Colombia is pervasive U.S. interference. Uribe complies with directives from the U.S. southern command and the ambassador. Their control of the country is at the expense of Colombian sovereignty. The U.S. even dictates terms of the peace negotiations. The U.S. used to say they needed to intervene because of drug trafficking; now they say it's because of terrorism.



The FTAA pushed by the U.S. only benefits multinational corporations, while weakening the Colombian economic structure, causing more poverty, similar to the re-colonization of the 1990s. In 1990, the poverty rate was 50%; now it is 66% due to neo-liberal policies. Rather than emphasizing exports, the country needs to emphasize redistribution of wealth to create local markets, which will in turn stimulate production, but production for the benefit of the population.



Some responses to questions



Major exports are oil, coal, coffee and bananas. The $3.2 billion sent home by Colombians living abroad is actually the biggest source of revenue (including oil).



About Coca-Cola bottlers: There has been substantial international support from U.S. and European labor organizations. Organizers at Salem State College met extensively with the administration regarding unfair labor practices of Coca-Cola in Colombia. This resulted in the College's vote to not sign a new ten-year contract with the company.



September 15 - 18, one hundred trade union leaders from around the world will be gathering to support an SOS for trade union freedom in Colombia. Fabio hopes that, in addition to AFL-CIO national representatives, there will be some local reps from other U.S. unions. At a demonstration in Cartagena, two delegates from the U.S. AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, Elizabeth Drake and Rhett Doumitt, were among the protestors assaulted by gas dispersed from a helicopter. Fabio said this was the first instance in Colombia of gas being dispersed in this way to disrupt a political protest.



This is his first visit to the U.S., and although he has only been here for three days, he is favorably impressed with the North American people. Knowing that many of us do not support our current administration's policies offers hope for both countries.



The Gran Coalición Democrática is composed of 250 political, economic and social organizations. The four key points of their platform are:



1. Preventing Uribe from getting re-elected.



2. Opposing FTAA.



3. Blocking Uribe's legislative agenda, e.g. wage freeze and other neo-liberal reforms.



4. Demanding a negotiated settlement to armed struggle.



In general, they want to reaffirm a commitment to peace, that is, peace with sovereignty (no U.S. intervention). They hope to have a GDC presidential candidate who can defeat Uribe. There is speculation that Uribe may try to form a new party. The Liberal Party has been divided, but their broad-based support is progressive, i.e. not for Uribe.

Leader of National Labor Federation to Visit
Fabio Arias Giraldo, Vice President of the CUT (the national labor federation) in Colombia, will vist Local 201 at 3 pm Wednesday the 21st to talk with Local 201 leaders and other interested parties. Solidarity Committee members from the North Shore group are welcome to join the conversation. Mr. Arias is in Boston for 10 days for the Boston Social Forum. His visit was approved after a protracted dispute with the US authorities over his visa.

We also have the possibility of bringing him to Salem State on Tues. the 20th in the evening. Yes, that's tomorrow! He really wants to meet with members of our group to talk about our Coke campaign, and the work we've done around the coal mine issues.

Possible House vote on Colombia this week
Friends --
We have been specifically requested to make sure that Senators Kennedy and Kerry sign on to the Senate letter. It should be a no-brainer for them but they need to hear from us.
-- Cathy Crumbley (Colombia Vive)
--Avi Chomsky (North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee)

July 12, 2004
Take Action!

Senate Letter on protecting Human Rights Defenders, Labor Leaders needs signatures! Possible House vote on Colombia this week!

Help the Senate send a strong message on human rights to Colombian President Uribe. Please call your senators' offices (202-224-3121) before July 22nd and ask to speak with the foreign policy aide.
Sample message: "I am a constituent from ___ and I am calling to urge Senator ___ to sign the dear colleague letter on human rights in Colombia that is being circulated by Senators Feingold and Dodd. It is important for the US Congress to send a strong message to Colombia in support of human rights and the Colombian citizens who defend them. I hope Senator ___ can sign this important letter before it closes on July 22nd."



Dear Colombia Advocates,

We knew from the beginning that changing US policy toward Colombia would not be easy. We've worked hard, and there will be more to do through the end of July, when Congress leaves for the August recess. Keep up the great work! The foreign aid bill continues to move forward, and there may be an amendment offered on Colombia when the bill reaches the House floor later this week. There's also an important Colombia letter circulating in the Senate which closes next week, and we need your help urgently to send a strong message on human rights! Please take a few minutes this week for these important actions:


1. Senate Letter to President Uribe: Take Action by July 22nd!
Senators Feingold (D-WI) and Dodd (D-CT) are currently collecting signatures for a letter that will be sent to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. We need your help before July 22nd to ensure that this important letter gets a lot of signatures in the Senate! Even senators who usually support US policy in Colombia should be able to sign on. If you've been frustrated by your senator's record on Colombia, this is your chance to push him or her in the right direction. As of Monday, July 12, the following senators had already signed the letter: Feingold, Dodd, Leahy (D-VT), Murray (D-WA) and Durbin (D-IL).

The letter urges President Uribe to comply with UN recommendations on human rights, including breaking ties between the Colombian military and brutal paramilitary groups. It also expresses concerns over continued threats and attacks against union leaders, human rights and peace workers, and journalists. To see the full text of the letter, go to www.lawg.org/docs/colombiadearcolleague0630_1.pdf (this is a pdf document).

ACTION: Before July 22, please call your senators and urge them to sign the dear colleague letter on Colombia that is being circulated by Senators Feingold and Dodd . See above for a sample message. Most offices may never even see the letter if you don't bring it to their attention.

Contact Info: Call the congressional switchboard in Washington at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected, or find your senators' state office numbers by going to www.senate.gov. You should ask to speak with the foreign policy aide. Leaving a voice mail is fine-- remember to leave your phone number so they can return the call!

Why is this important? Votes are not the only way we can help change policy. A large number of signers on this letter will send a strong message in support of human rights to President Uribe and give badly needed support to our friends and colleagues in Colombia who are working each day for peace and justice. Please add your voice to this effort!

2. Update on House Foreign Aid Bill Debate: Another Possible Amendment This Week! Rep. Sam Farr offered an amendment last Friday, when the 2005 foreign aid bill was debated before the House Appropriations Committee, which would have limited US troop presence in Colombia. Reps. Farr (D-CA), Kennedy (D-RI), and Lowey (D-NY) all spoke in support of the amendment-- please thank them if you live in one of their districts! Reps. Kolbe (R-AZ) and Lewis (R-CA) spoke against it, but raised procedural issues with the amendment, rather than directly supporting an increase in US troops in Colombia. The amendment was voted on by voice vote only, and the chair declared that the nays had won-- the amendment was defeated. There was no vote count taken. But the process, as always, is not over yet: It is likely that another, similar amendment will be offered when the full House debates the foreign aid bill later this week or early next week. Please keep an eye out for another alert in the next few days. We may need your help mobilizing for a full House vote!

Thank you for everything you do in the name of a more just and humane US policy in Colombia-- and keep it up!

Best,
Elanor

From: Avi Chomsky
achomsky@salemstate.edu
To: North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 13:04:43 -0400
Subject: [colombia] Salem State signs with Pepsi!!!

We were just informed that Salem State will be signing a 10-year, exclusive pouring rights contract with Pepsi, NOT COKE!!!!!

Thanks and congratulations to everyone who participated in our STOP KILLER COKE campaign on campus over the past several months.

We hope to invite Luis Adolfo Cardona back to Salem State in the fall to celebrate.

Avi
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http://home.comcast.net/~nscolombia/
North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee