The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog

Plan Colombia Up for a Vote: Take the Opportunity to Say No to a Forgotten, Senseless War
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0623-29.htm

Published on Thursday, June 23, 2005 by Working for Change

Plan Colombia Up for a Vote: Take the Opportunity to Say No to a Forgotten, Senseless War

by Geov Parrish

Amidst the disaster that is Iraq, the Pentagon has been fighting a smaller but no less ugly war. Next week, Congress will decide whether to continue sending military aid to Colombia, a country with one of the worst human rights records in the western hemisphere. The focus of the aid is Plan Colombia, a five-year-old plan that has poured billions of U.S. dollars into drug crop fumigation and military aid. The plan expires this year, and needs Congressional approval to continue. It's a rare opportunity to impact U.S. warmaking -- yet, in part because of the subsequent, problematic invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, there has been virtually no U.S. media attention on what our tax dollars are assisting in Colombia. One of the most troubling incidents there happened in February, when eight members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó were massacred, including four children. One of the victims was community leader and founder Luis Eduardo Guerra. Evidence points to the Colombian army as the authors of this crime. The San Jose de Apartado massacre is consistent with past years, when human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have relentlessly accused the Colombia Army of having extensive links to right wing paramilitary death squads. Those death squads have primarily attacked civilians rather than the government's civil war opponents, the leftist guerillas of FAR C. Those guerrillas are the main reason Plan Colombia's aid has steadily shifted from drug-interdictment to the even messier business of being directly involved in Colombia's long running, 45-year-old civil war. Next week's vote will be the first time Plan Colombia itself, rather than budgetary allocations for it, will come up for a Congressional vote -- and the first time that Plan Colombia will have come up for a vote in the context of the War on Terror. To that end, the Bush administration has actually been painting FARC as a terrorist threat to the U.S. -- even though no evidence for such outlandish claims exists, and FARC has had 45 years to declare that the U.S. is a target. Instead, they are very much focused on the urban areas of Colombia, being concentrated in the jungle areas of Colombia's south and east. There are a lot of good arguments for Congress to consider as to why involving the U.S. in yet another war, this one in Colombia, is a bad idea. In the midst of a War on Terror, the U.S. can little afford, in terms of either money, military aid, or troop strength, to get involved in yet another war. Colombia has nothing to do with the war on terror -- militarily. But it does have something to do with swaying hearts and minds in the Muslim world. Every time that the U.S. is caught acting like a bully in the world, especially among the world's poorest, that fact is noted by Muslims from Morocco to the Philippines.. In order to shift the catastrophic momentum in Iraq, the U.S. must first convince the Iraq people -- and the rest of the Muslim world -- that the U.S. is sincere in its protestations that it is a force for justice and good. That's a hard case to make if Congress is cozying up to paramilitary thugs in Colombia. This vote also presents a rare chance for constituents to contact members of Congress and urge a stop to the Pentagon's war by prosy. Call your Representative at 202-224-3121 and urge them to support any amendments to the FY2006 Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill that cut military aid to Colombia and continue to support additional humanitarian assistance and a negotiated path toward peace. The Colombian military does not either deserve or merit U.S. military support. It's time to stop our blind allegiance to war as a way to solve political problems, particularly in countries where we have an interest in promoting democracy -- not more needless bloodshed. Say no to Plan Colombia. This week is your chance. Geov Parrish is a Seattle-based columnist and reporter for Seattle Weekly, In These Times and Eat the State! He writes the daily Straight Shot for WorkingForChange. © 2005 Working Assets

Action Alert from "Sojourners"
Cut military aid to Colombia!

Time is up for Plan Colombia. This U.S./Colombia policy expires in 2005, but the administration is asking Congress to approve an additional $742 million to renew the failed plan. Until there is a plan that can bring hope for Colombia, we reject additional funding for futile military strategies.

Before the June 27 vote, urge members of Congress to create an opening for peace in Colombia by supporting an amendment to cut military spending.

http://go.sojo.net/campaign/peaceincolombia/

Dominion active on import scene as it rounds up coal for new plants
Some people have been wondering recently whether the new owners of the power plant, Dominion, will continue to burn large amounts of Colombian coal there. See below for an update--the answer is YES!

Avi

Copyright 2005 Energy Publishing, LLC
All Rights Reserved
The U.S. Coal Review

February 4, 2005

SECTION: No. 1528

LENGTH: 615 words

HEADLINE: Dominion active on import scene as it rounds up coal for new plants

BODY:

Dominion active on import scene as it rounds up coal for new plants

Dominion is active on the import scene, according to various sources, its attention on the Brayton Point and Salem Harbor stations, which it acquired only recently.

Dominion is focused on compliance and super-compliance coals, including some of what you’d expect – Colombian – and some that’s a bit different: Russian coal, which is available to the utility market in the U.S. on an economic basis occasionally and w hich suits Dominion’s current needs.

Dominion is “trying to stockpile SO2 allowances,” according to one source, and Russian coal containing 0.3% sulfur is an attractive option. Glencore probably is supplying some of the coal.

But the most recent “volume” buy for the Massachusetts generating stations was from Colombia, sources said – maybe 300,000 metric tonnes or more, recently. CMC is the likely supplier.

Of course, Brayton Point and Salem Harbor must deal with among the strictest sulfur emissions limitations in the U.S.

“I heard they bought some Russian,” a source with international connections said. “My understanding is that they’re going to try to bring some Russian into Massachusetts.”

South African coal, which is now $15/metric tonne or so lower in price than its Colombian counterpart, also could be an attractive option for Dominion. South African coal might also allow Dominion to “save a little bit on SO2 allowances” in comparison to available Colombian tonnage, a source said.

In relation to the $15 difference in the price of the coal, “the freight difference is not that great,” the source said.

Coal exported out of Richards Bay is “being offered in the mid-$40s a metric tonne with no buying interest in Europe,” a source said.

Frankly, reports concerning Dominion have been somewhat contrdictory.

One reliable source said he is aware of Dominion buying some coal, “rebound coal,” from European consumers that have excess because of the mild winter across the drink.

“I’ve heard those prices are a lot lower than that $60 number” utilities have paid recently for Colombian coal, the source said. “I have been told that some vessels have changed hands.”

“I think that’s a rumor,” another source, who is also quite reliable, countered. “I don’t see how that could work,” he said, citing logistics. “It seems a little odd to me.”

The second source did say that Dominion has “bought a lot of coal, but still has coal to buy.”

Most of the coal Dominion has purchased for Brayton Point and Salem Harbor in the recent past has been supplied by Glencore from the new Calenturitas mine in Colombia that was opened in July 2004, perhaps in concert with La Jagua coal, which is high i n calorific content.

“A lot of that was done before the actual changeover” in ownership of the Massachusetts plants, according to a source.

Colombian coal prices aren’t likely to dive soon, it seems, despite the anemic winter demand for steam coal in Europe and the fact that South African prices have plummeted to 11-month lows.

“Some consumers in Europe are selling cargoes, but they’re all non-South American cargoes,” a source said. “There may be some cheap South African tonnage available. Constellation has been trying to buy some cargoes that were sold to National Coal Supp ly Corporation in Israel and has been rejected.”

“I don’t see the Europeans giving up a lot of tons,” a source said.

And one source who recently tried to purchase some Colombian coal for re-sale into the U.S. said “a major buyer in Europe said recently, ‘No more the first half.”

“Unlike everything else in Europe, it’s the one that people won’t let go of,” another source said.

Utilities looking for South American tonnage?

“Best of luck always is what we used to write in our yearbooks,” a source said.

Column: Colombia provides a case study for evils of corporate globalization
Salem Evening News, May 10, 2005
Opinion

By Brian T. Watson

When Ross Perot ran for president in 1992 and 1996, he warned that Americans were unaware of what market globalization and "free trade" had in store for us.

Who can forget his startling pie charts and his pitch-perfect evocation of "the giant sucking sound" that would be made by all of the jobs rushing out of America?

Today, Tony Judt, public intellectual at New York University and a frequent foreign affairs essayist for the New York Review of Books, opines that most people still don't know how the world works.

Judt is concerned especially by our inadequate grasp of the workings of corporate globalization and its troubling effects on national sovereignty, democracy, and a slew of areas such as the economy, the environment, jobs, human rights and military obligations.

Slowly, however, we are learning about the new economic order. We're aware of the proliferation of Third World sweatshops, the stripping of natural resources in developing countries, and the many poor nations saddled with debt.

We are hearing more about the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization, whose policies usually benefit wealthy interests and corporate powers while damaging small entrepreneurs and the Third World. The imposition of austerity programs, the reduction of public services, the privatization of state-owned enterprises and resources, the erosion of democratic accountability, and a missionary belief in the absolute supremacy of "unregulated" (but actually, rigged) markets, all are accompanying the ongoing spread of corporate globalization across the nations of the world.

Although the transnational companies that help drive globalization are loyal to no nation, their interests are being well served by the policies of the United States. The Bush administration — filled with former business lobbyists and chief executive officers — promotes an aggressively corporate agenda at home and abroad that distorts large parts of the economies of many countries.

Our disgraceful involvement in Colombia illustrates that point.

Colombia, a mostly poor and struggling oligarchy afflicted with serious civil violence for the past 57 years, possesses valuable mineral resources and oil, coal and gas deposits. U.S. and multinational corporations — taking advantage of the weakness, lawlessness and desperation of the country — have been maneuvering themselves into powerful positions in the Colombian economy.

Since 1999, the United States has been sending substantial military aid to Colombia. Ostensibly for the purposes of fighting guerrillas and terrorists and for eradicating illegal drug crops, the aid also substantially funds the paramilitaries and security forces that protect corporate interests and infrastructure.

Because the partially corrupt Colombian military actually includes some of the paramilitaries, U.S. dollars often pay for violence against innocent peasants who are simply living in the way of expanding corporate enterprises. Three million people have been forcibly displaced in Colombia since 1985. As corporations — with the complicity of crooked officials — enlarge mines, build pipelines, divert water and log forests, their paramilitaries and mercenaries threaten, torture, kill and abduct the local inhabitants as needed to clear an area.

Similarly, paramilitaries often intimidate or murder journalists, clergymen and women, union organizers, judges and any other activists who attempt to resist or point out the abuses being perpetrated.

The corporate connections to violence appear so blatant that they are precipitating lawsuits. Occidental Petroleum stands accused of sponsoring attacks on a peasant village and killing many adults and children.

Drummond coal company is in court on charges of assassinating union officers. Coca-Cola is being sued for alleged involvement in the deaths of eight labor leaders. Legal action has been brought against Exxon and Conquistador Mines for human rights abuses.

A new book by Francisco Ramirez Cuellar, "The Profits of Extermination," explains how corporate power is harming Colombia and how Plan Colombia (the name of the U.S. aid program) "achieves a huge military cover for the positioning of paramilitaries, who are ultimately in charge of protecting the interests of the U.S. companies."

Ramirez, president of the Colombian mining workers union, also describes how perverted laws, toothless tax codes, and the giveaway privatization of Colombia's industries are allowing multinationals to absolutely loot the resources and wealth of the country.

The long-standing misery in Colombia is being made worse by the ruthless character of corporate globalization. The operation of the global marketplace today is more biased than ever toward big, mobile capital and unaccountable megacorporations. Colombia — victim of a runaway economic model that values profits way above people and communities — is a vivid illustration of how the Third World subsidizes the affluence of the powerful.

The Bush administration employs a subterfuge when it uses the drug war and Colombia's substantial cocaine and heroin production to rationalize America's growing involvement in the country's civil war. Actually, our intervention mostly supports a lot of counterproductive and repressive violence.

And worst of all, our actions in Colombia are in service to corporate globalization, a phenomenon that is increasingly being revealed as a multipronged assault on the environment, labor, diverse cultures, indigenous peoples, democracy, and the very notions of justice, equality and healthy living.

Brian T. Watson, a Salem architect, is a regular Viewpoint columnist.

http://www.salemnews.com/

Take Action! House IR Committee Hearing on Colombia- May 11th
I forward the following from Elanor Starmer of the Latin America Working Group, which keeps many of us informed as to what's going on in the Congress--

Avi

Calling all advocates from: AZ; AK; CA; CO; FL; IL; IN; IA; KY; MA; MI; MN; NE; NV; NJ; NY; OH; OR; SC; TX; VA; WA; WI
Take Action! House IR Committee Hearing on Colombia- May 11th
Tell the Committee We Want a New Policy!

May 5, 2005
Dear Colombia Advocates,

We've just learned that the House International Relations Committee will be holding a hearing on Colombia next Wednesday, May 11th. They'll be hearing from the usual suspects, including John Walters, the U.S. Drug Czar, about the "successes" of Plan Colombia. We need to show them that there is another side to the story. If you live in the district of one of the members of Congress listed below, we need your help!

A quick phone call or e-mail to their office will help balance the "stacked deck"-- and may result in members of the committee asking some tough questions of the witnesses. Let's not let this opportunity slip by! If the committee members don't hear from us, they'll be hearing mainly from people who believe that Plan Colombia has worked, and that we need more of the same. We need to voice a strong call for change.

*A sample phone call script, which can also be used as the basis for an e-mail, can be found below.* Here are the members of the IR Committee. If you don't know who your member of Congress is, see http://www.house.gov/writerep. You can reach your member's office by calling the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121. It's best to ask to speak with the foreign policy staffer when you call.

Arizona:
Flake (R-AZ)

Arkansas:
Boozman (R-AR)

California:
Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Berman (D-CA)
Gallegly (R-CA)
Royce (R-CA)
Sherman (D-CA)
Issa (R-CA)
Lee (D-CA)
Watson (D-CA)
Schiff (D-CA)
Napolitano (D-CA)
Cardoza (D-CA)

Colorado:
Tancredo (R-CO)

Florida:
Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
Wexler (D-FL)
Harris (R-FL)
Mack (R-FL)

Illinois:
Hyde (R-IL)
Weller (R-IL)

Indiana:
Burton (R-IN)
Pence (R-IN)

Iowa:
Leach (R-IA)

Kentucky:
Chandler (D-KY)

Massachusetts:
Delahunt (D-MA)

Michigan:
McCotter (R-MI)

Minnesota:
McCollum (D-MN)

Nebraska:
Fortenberry (R-NE)
Nevada:
Berkley (D-NV)

New Jersey:
Menendez (D-NJ)
Chris Smith (R-NJ)
Payne (D-NJ)

New York:
Ackerman (D-NY)
King (R-NY)
Engel (D-NY)
Meeks (D-NY)
Crowley (D-NY)

Ohio:
Brown (D-OH)
Chabot (R-OH)

Oregon:
Blumenauer (D-OR)

South Carolina:
Barrett (R-SC)
Wilson (R-SC)

Texas:
Paul (R-TX)
McCaul (R-TX)
Poe (R-TX)

Virginia:
Davis (R-VA)

Washington:
Smith (D-WA)

Wisconsin:
Green (R-WI)

Sample call script (calls are best, but this script can be revised to send as an e-mail): "I'm a constituent from ____ calling with regards to the upcoming hearing on Plan Colombia. I know that Rep. ____ will be hearing from a number of witnesses on Wednesday who will express support for the current policy of military aid and fumigation. I'd like my representative to challenge the witnesses on that point, because the current policy hasn't worked. The Office of National Drug Control Policy recently came out with a report that showed that drug production in Colombia didn't budge last year, even though a record number of acres of coca were sprayed. The price of cocaine on our streets hasn't changed, either. Fumigation is an ineffective and inhumane policy, and a waste of our money. I'm also disturbed that human rights violations by the Colombian military have increased since U.S. aid began. I would like ___ (member of Congress) to voice [his/her] concern over this policy during the hearing-- and when Colombia aid comes up for a vote, I'd like [him/her] to vote for a change, and prioritize social assistance instead of military aid."

It's up to us to show the IR Committee that there is more than one perspective on Colombia policy. Together, we can make change! Thank you, as always, for your hard work and dedication. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions or concerns.

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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

International Working-Class Holiday/"The Labor Struggles in Colombia"
Sunday, May 1, 2005
10:45a
International Working-Class Holiday/
Prof. Aviva Chomsky
SUNDAY FORUMS 2005 AT 10:45 AM
Community Church of Boston
565 Boylston Street - Boston
http://www.commchurch.org/sundayforums.htm


May 1 -International Working-Class Holiday
Prof. AVIVA CHOMSKY
"The Labor Struggles in Colombia"

Six power plants in the United States along with others in eastern Canada import Colombian coal to fuel their operations. Colombian miners unions face not only the challenge of organizing workers for better pay and working conditions, but must struggle with others to defend basic human rights. Labor historian Prof. Avi Chomsky of Salem State College, who recently translated a book on Colombian unions, will address neoliberalism, multinational corporations, the mining and energy sectors in the Colombian economy, and working-class internationalism.

Music by PATRICK KEANEY and JONATHAN DORSETT
---
565 Boylston Street - Boston, MA 02116 / 617 266-6710
By car:
Via Mass Pike or Storrow Drive take the Copley Square exits. Turn left, 2 blocks to Boylston Street.

By Public Transportation:
Take any T Green Line train to the Copley Stop
Orange Line, exit at the Back Bay station, walk 3 blocks down to Boylston Street.
39 MBTA Bus from Forest Hills (Get off at Boston Public Library)

Parking
Public parking is available on Sunday mornings at the Back Bay Garage. Entrances are on Clarendon Street and St. James Ave. A red coupon is available at the church for discounted parking ($3 until 1:30 p.m.).

Salem Harbor and Coal
Avi Chomsky
achomsky@salemstate.edu
To: North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee

Hello, Colombia list members,

I wanted to update you on a few things.

Many of you have heard about the human rights issues in Colombia caused by the two huge coal mines, El Cerrejon--responsible for the takeover of indigenous Wayuu territory, the destruction of villages like Tabaco--and Drummond, where paramilitaries openly patrol and four union leaders have been killed in recent years. We knew that the Salem Harbor Power Station received coal from Colombia, but we didn't know exactly how much.

Now we do know at least part of the picture. Salem is one of only six ports in the U.S. that receives Colombian coal (another is Brayton Point, in Somerset). In the first five months of 2003 Salem received 76,000 tons of coal from El Cerrejon and 50,122 tons from Drummond; in the first five months of 2004 it received 42,504 tons from El Cerrejon and 46,210 from Drummond. Those of us who live nearby can see the ships unloading Colombian coal every few weeks.

Conditions at the mines have not improved since we heard Remedios Fajardo and Armando Perez talk about the impact of El Cerrejon on the Wayuu back in May 2002, or Francisco Ruiz talk about the 2001 murders at Drummond, when he was here in the fall of 2003. In the past two years there has been a growing paramilitary presence in the area around El Cerrejon. Last April there was a massacre at Bahia Portete, close to where our coal ships from, of 12 Wayuu indigenous people. 30 others were "disappeared" and are presumed dead as well. The village was completely displaced, with most of its inhabitants fleeing across the border to Venezuela.

Some of us have been working with a new solidarity organization in Canada, the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network. Nova Scotia is another major recipient of Colombian coal from these two mines, and Garry Leech (who some of you also met here a couple of years ago) has been working there to create a network around the power plants that use Colombian coal. See their website, www.arsn.ca, for a lot more information.

Another great site is www.drummondwatch.org, which tracks events at the Drummond mine. Drummondwatch has called for an "urgent action" this weekend regarding the company's violation of security measures for union leaders. You can go to the drummondwatch website and send the message below to Garry Drummond by clicking on "take action."

Also check out the newly updated North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee website! Thanks to Alan...

http://home.comcast.net/~nscolombia/index.htm

Avi


Message to Garry Drummond:
I am writing to express my deep concern regarding news that you and your company have violated security agreements that protect union workers in Colombia. I urge you to meet your obligations under those agreements, and to take commonsense precautions to protect the lives of your workers.

As you know, union leaders representing workers at your Colombian facilities have been tortured and murdered in the past. Paramilitaries responsible for these crimes continue to operate freely in the vicinity of the mine and are often present near the entrance to the mine.

You agreed that all searches of union representatives would be conducted inside the mine, a commonsense precaution that has provided a thin margin of safety for union leaders. Now you have violated this agreement by requiring that searches be conducted outside the mine entrance, creating opportunities for security guards to identify union leaders to paramilitary forces. It is unconscionable that you have broken your promise to the workers and exposed union leaders to a heightened risk of paramilitary violence.

It is imperative that you meet your obligations under the agreement and take steps to protect, rather than endanger, union leaders. I urge you in the strongest terms to meet your obligations under the security agreement and to take concrete and sustained action to protect the workers and their union leadership.

Mother’s Day Peace Vigils
Join peace advocates across the United States non-violently protesting U.S. support for Colombia's military despite its continued violations of human rights. Your public witness will help prevent the San José case from ending in impunity like the vast majority of violent deaths in Colombia.

Take a stand for accountability and justice! Mother’s Day Peace Vigils: April 26 - May 6.

Witness for Peace/Colombia

New Book Available from Common Courage Press
The Profits of Extermination:

How U.S. Corporate Power is Destroying Colombia

by Francisco Ramírez Cuellar

translated by Aviva Chomsky







Published to acclaim—and death threats against its author and bombings of his union’s offices—in Colombia in 2003, The Profits of Extermination uncovers the role of multinational mining and energy companies in Colombia’s violence. Through legal maneuvers, corruption, and direct use of paramilitary violence, companies like Occidental Petroleum, Harken Energy, and many others, have taken over Colombia’s resources, displacing and murdering those who have tried to challenge them.





This book gives the lie to the claim that the “drug wars” are the main factor behind Colombia’s violence, and explains the role that the U.S. and Canadian governments and their corporations have played in the war against Colombia’s peasants, indigenous, and Afro-Colombian populations.



Francisco Ramírez Cuellar is president of Sintraminercol, the Union of Colombian Mining Workers.

Aviva Chomsky is Professor of Latin American History at Salem State College and active in Colombia solidarity work.



Common Courage Press

March 2005

$14.95



To order, call 800-497-3207.



"With icy precision, The Profits of Extermination makes real the meaning behind the terms FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas), globalization and neo-liberalism."



--Cecilia Zarate-Laun, Program Director, Colombia Support Network



"Francisco Ramírez, focusing on the mining industry in which he is involved as a unionist, recounts in detail the struggles of his fellow workers and the violent response by the mining corporations and the U.S. and Colombian military which protect them. We should be grateful for real heroes like Francisco Ramírez."



--Daniel M. Kovalik, Assistant General Counsel, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO-CLC



"Francisco Ramírez provides startling information about how the government and corporations like Coca Cola are actively involved in suppressing social movements of any kind in Colombia."



--Ray Rogers, Director, Campaign to Stop Killer Coke/Corporate Campaign, Inc.



"This investigation makes the vital connections between the exploitative interests of global companies and investors, in concert with the U.S. and Canadian governments, and the dire poverty and exploitation combined with repression carried out by Colombian State and paramilitary forces."



--Grahame Russell, co-director, RightsAction



"The Profits of Extermination vividly illustrates how both blood and electricity flow when North Americans flick on their light switches."



--Garry Leech, editor of Colombia Journal and author of Killing Peace: Colombia's Conflict and the Failure of U.S. Intervention

An initial Achievement Won Through Our Hard-Fought Struggle -- A Boost to help us fight on.
Dear Friends,

I am writing to let you know that, while the struggle is not yet over, there is a positive achievement from our efforts which we can point to. As the article below indicates, Coke has created a $10 million social fund to aid victims of the war in Colombia. As the article also makes clear, this was done in the midst of (and clearly because of) the Coke campaign. While we have not yet achieved everything we want to through the campaign, you should be very proud that your efforts have obtained something real and good for people in Colombia. Many times in the movement, we cannot point to such concrete gains. So, it is important to recognize them when we do; this is such an occasion.

At the same time, we have not yet obtained the key demands of our struggle -- an affirmative commitment on the part of Coca-Cola and its bottlers to take steps to prevent such violence in the future and compensation for the victims of the violence against the Coca-Cola workers in Colombia. For this, we fight on! I am confident that we will achieve victory.

Best wishes and keep up the great work.

Yours,

Dan Kovalik

Assistant General Counsel

United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO/CLC

http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/13/news/fortune500/coke_colombia.reut/

Coca-Cola: Destroying Lives, Livelihoods & Communities
From: Avi Chomsky

Many of you will remember when Luis Adolfo Cardona spoke at Salem State a couple of years ago---

Coca-Cola: Destroying Lives, Livelihoods & Communities Wednesday, April 13, 2005, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. 33 Harrison Ave, 3rd Floor, UNITEHERE! Building, Boston, MA 02111 (see below for directions)

Join Amit Srivastava (India Resource Center) and Luis Adolfo Cardona (former Coke employee and unionist from Colombia) in an evening of sharing knowledge and organizing to hold Coca-Cola accountable. Meeting facilitator: Celina Lee, other presentations by Myriam Ortiz and Kim Foltz.

In India Coca-Cola: => Causes severe water shortages in communities across the country => Pollutes groundwater and soil around its bottling facilities => Distributes its toxic waste as 'fertilizer' to farmers => Sells drinks with high levels of pesticides, including DDT- sometimes 30 times higher than European standards

In Colombia: => Union leaders at Coke's bottling plants have be murdered => Hundreds of union workers have been tortured, kidnaped and illegally detained => Family members of trade unionists have been targeted => All while Coke leaders launch a $250 million advertising blitz keyed to the theme, "Coca-Cola.Real."

The meeting will help launch a New England-wide network of organizations concerned about Coca-Cola's abusive practice both in the United States and abroad.

Sponsoring Organizations: Mass Global Action, Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia, NAFFE, Jobs with Justice, Project Voice/AFSC, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, MA Chapter, United for Justice with Peace, Boston Mobilization, Tellus Institute, TecsChange, Asian American Resource Workshop, South Asian Center, and BankBusters.

Dinner and refreshments provided, admission free, but suggested donation $5.

To download the flyer: http://www.massglobalaction.org/docs/cocacola.pdf

For more information and to co-sponsor the event: contact stopcoke [at]

http://massglobalaction.org/

Directions: The UNITEHERE! Building is located on Harrison Street at the corner with Beach Street. It is two blocks south of the Red Line/Downtown Crossing's Chauncy Street exit; one block east and one south from the Orange Line/Chinatown stop; two blocks east and one block south from the Green Line/Boylston street stop.

Pay parking is available next to the building on Harrison Street and also under the Boston Common.

Ariana Flores Jobs With Justice 3353 Washington St. Boston, MA 02130 w: 617-524-8270 c: 857-928-2677

DRUMMOND WATCH

Buyers of Drummond coal may not be aware of the company's deadly practices in Colombia. Help us educate them!

Article on Common Dreams website that mentions the Wayu
Published on Tuesday, April 5, 2005 by the Inter Press Service

Venezuelan Indigenous Peoples Protest Coal Mining

by Humberto Márquez

CARACAS -- Bare-chested, clad in traditional dress and wielding bows and arrows, hundreds of representatives of the Bar, Yukpa and Wayu indigenous peoples from the westernmost region of Venezuela marched on the capital to demand a halt to coal mining near their lands in the Sierra de Perij mountain range.

Coal mining operations bring pollution and disease. They are destroying our farming practices, they are going to destroy our water, and they will end up destroying our lives, Cesreo Panapaera, the leader of 32 Yukpa communities in Tokuko, some 600 kilometers from Caracas, told IPS.

Scores of environmentalists and leftist political activists joined the indigenous protestors in their march through downtown Caracas last Thursday. Their destination was the federal government headquarters, but they were stopped 150 meters from its gates by anti-riot police.

We want to tell compaero President Hugo Chavez that he can't continue granting land concessions in the Sierra and in Guajira (a neighboring region along the Venezuelan-Colombian border) without consulting us first, as required by the constitution. He speaks very nicely about us, but they haven't demarcated our lands, said Wayu community leader Angela Gonzalez.

The indigenous protestors are staunch supporters of the left-wing Chavez Most were wearing red headbands with pro-government slogans, which date back to the presidential recall referendum last August, when a majority voted to keep the president in office. Others sported red berets, symbolic of the governing Fifth Republic Movement party.

Compaero Chavez, support our cause, read one protest sign, while another declared, Vito bar ataoo yiroo oshishibain (We don't want coal mining). Yet another was a copy of the No signs used by the pro-government side during the referendum (meaning no to Chavez's removal from the presidency), but altered to read No Coal.

The Sierra de Perij mountain range, which marks a section of the border between Venezuela and Colombia and has suffered severe deforestation in the latter, along with the neighboring Guajira peninsula, also straddling both nations, are home to significant coal deposits.

Colombia produces around 40 million tons of coal a year, mainly from two mines in this region, Cerrejn and La Loma.

In 1987, coal operations started up in the Guasare mines of northwestern Venezuela. Last year, production totaled eight million tons. According to estimates, the Sierra-Guajira region contains coal reserves of at least 400 million tons, which means that current production levels could be sustained for another 50 years.

Coal production operations are directed through consortiums formed between the Venezuelan state-owned company Carbozulia and a number of transnational corporations: the British-South African firm Anglo American; Ruhrkohle of Germany; Inter-American Coal of the Netherlands; Chevron-Texaco of the United States; and British-Dutch energy giant Shell.

Last year, Carbozulia and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce of Brazil established a new consortium, Carbosuramrica, to undertake additional mining operations in the region. According to the president of the Brazilian corporation, Roger Agnelli, the goal is to raise annual output to 10 million tons within a decade from now.

All of the coal is currently transported by truck to the port in the regional capital, Maracaibo. However, there are plans to build both a railway line and a deep sea port off the western coast of the Gulf of Venezuela, in order to facilitate coal exports from both Venezuela and Colombia.

Venezuela is becoming an exit platform to the Caribbean Sea, through the building of ports, bridges, highways and railways which serve the interests of the countries and transnationals that need to get their products out, but which sacrifice the environment and the rights of the people living in the area, said environmentalist Lusbi Portillo from the Homo et Natura Society, a non-governmental group.

As a result, we are opposed to these mining-ports projects that form part of the IIRSA (Initiative for South American Regional Infrastructure Integration, promoted by the nascent South American Community of Nations), which will serve to take our energy, mining, forestry and biodiversity resources to Europe and the United States, added Portillo.

Along the route used to transport the coal for export, the water is polluted, waterways are obstructed, the air breathed by humans, animals and plants is contaminated, the habitat of the aboriginal peoples is disturbed and peasants and indigenous peoples are forced off the land they have traditionally farmed, Jorge Hinestroza of the Front for the Defense of Water and Life told IPS.

Jess Palmar, a Wayu activist, commented to IPS that 17 years ago, the Carbones del Guasare mining consortium purchased the land occupied by his community, a 36-hectare lot in the Matera Nueva area, for under 2,500 dollars. As additional compensation, the indigenous inhabitants were promised employment, a new road and other services.

We made a mistake. It was all lies. They just forgot about us and now we are living two kilometers from the company's gates. In January there was a gas-oil leak of around 120,000 liters in the Paso del Diablo stream, which killed fish, iguanas and squirrels. We used to sow, harvest, and live off of the land, but now we are being driven to the brink of death, said Palmar.

Hinestroza maintained that for years the rivers and streams have been polluted with chemical wastes, detergents and coal residue. The communities near the coal operations breathe smoke. Animals are being born with defects, he added, showing a photograph of deformed goats, and human health is at risk.

The Guasare, Socuy and Cachuir rivers feed into the Limn River, which is the largest north of the Maracaibo lake watershed and supplies the regional aqueduct system.

Another local environmentalist, Alexander Luzardo, told IPS that the coal mining conflict intersects with another debt owed by the Venezuelan government, because according to the 1999 constitution, a law was supposed to be established to demarcate indigenous territory, and this hasn't happened.

Ezequiel Anare, a Yukpa community leader, reported that some company officials have offered us money to keep quiet. But we won't. We are calling on the president to get these companies off of our territory. We want to demarcate our lands, where we live, farm and dream. We are the guardians of the Sierra, he declared to IPS.

The march in Caracas brought together environmental and human rights activists who have voiced opposition to the Chavez administration and enthusiastic supporters of the president, like the representatives of the community media network. Mixed in with the crowd was Douglas Bravo, perhaps the best-known communist guerrilla leader in Venezuela in the 1960s and 1970s.

This is a manifestation of an autonomous and independent revival of the popular movement, said Bravo, who now devotes his efforts to promoting environmental groups. At the same time, it is the beginning of a new stage in the independent environmental movement, against globalization and the multinationals, he said in an interview with IPS.

Environmental activists maintain that Venezuela is following a mistaken policy in pursuing coal production, which contradicts its commitments as a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, the international instrument aimed at curbing carbon dioxide emissions.

We want the government to hear us: we don't want coal, stressed indigenous leader Panapaera, who added, Here are our bows and arrows, and we will use them against the miners if they come to our lands. And if we have to die fighting for our lands, we will die.

Copyright © 2005 IPS-Inter Press Service

(the article on the Common Dreams website)

Coal article that mentions Salem
The Chronicle-Herald
Opinion, Saturday, March 26, 2005, p. A11
Ralph Surette

The dirty story of where we get our coal

NOVA SCOTIA POWER gets the best quality coal it can at the cheapest price
on the international market. Always sensitive to the price of electricity
and, increasingly, to pollution, Nova Scotians would blame it if it did
any less.

But there's an underside to the story. NSP gets that coal from the El
Cerrejon Norte coal mine in northern Colombia, a notoriously dirty piece
of business in that unfortunate country where it's hard to tell which is
worse: the army and its paramilitary killers, the armed narco-traffickers,
the rebel insurgents or the foreign corporations backed by the World Bank.

El Cerrejon Norte, one of the world's largest open-pit mines - occupying
an original area 50 kilometres long and eight wide, and expanding
constantly - is a continuing horror story of forced relocations of
indigenous people, human rights violations, environmental destruction and
other assorted injustices that one human rights group calls "a perfect
example of globalization gone horribly wrong."

The subject comes up because Francisco Ramirez, president of the National
Coal Miners Union of Colombia, was in Halifax this week trying to make a
point. The most remarkable thing about Ramirez, apart from his immense
courage, is that he's still alive. A total of 74 unionists were killed in
Colombia last year alone and Ramirez says he has dodged seven
assassination attempts.

He wants NSP and anyone else with clout to pressure the multinationals and
the Colombian government to respect human rights. Despite the
reasonableness of this request, he doesn't appear to have received much of
a hearing at NSP. What should we think, then, since our demand for coal is
part of the problem?

First, here's more of the story. The mine began as a joint venture between
the Colombian government and Exxon Corporation 25 years ago intended to
supply cheap, high-quality coal to North America and Europe.

It bordered on and partly covered reservation land of the indigenous Wayuu
people, whose way of life has been largely shattered.

In 2000, as a result of pressure to privatize from the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund, the Colombian government sold its half to an
international consortium. In 2002, Exxon (now Exxon-Mobil) sold its half
to the consortium as well - but not before the community of Tabaco (pop.
700) was bulldozed flat to expand the mine.

It was done so quickly and without notice that residents, pushed out by
500 soldiers and 200 police who accompanied the mine operator, didn't even
have time to retrieve their personal effects. When the job was complete,
the village's school and clinic were also razed and the cemetery
desecrated. There was no compensation. Critics accused Exxon of doing this
as part of the deal, before it bowed out.

If such corporate degeneracy, done in our name as First World consumers,
shock us, what can we in fact do?

Here's one thing. In 2002, representatives of the Wayuu visited Salem,
Mass., where the power plant imports coal from the mine. Salem city
council promptly passed a resolution supporting their struggle, and the
power plant manager called the El Cerrejon Norte operators telling them
the town expected them to negotiate with the Wayuu and find a just
settlement.

Since our electrical system in Nova Scotia (80 per cent coal) functions on
these people's misery, don't we owe them as much? If we are indeed a moral
people, why wouldn't our legislature pass a similar resolution and NSP
similarly convey its expectation that justice be done?

The Wayuu representatives, in their U.S. tour, went on to the Exxon-Mobil
shareholders' meeting where their story caused some embarrassment.
International support has been growing. Meanwhile, the Colombian supreme
court has ruled that the residents of Tabaco be compensated - although
collecting has proved elusive.

Nevertheless, a half dozen communities beyond Tabaco that were expected to
suffer the same fate by now - their names are Tamaquitos, Guamachito,
Provincial, Roche, Patilla and Chancleta - haven't yet. Meanwhile, the
company's publication, which I found on the Internet, is bragging about
supporting a couple of medical clinics in the area. Maybe even they are
having twinges of conscience. Can we do any less?

Ralph Surette is a veteran Nova Scotia journalist living in Yarmouth
County.

C 2005 The Chronicle-Herald - Halifax. All rights reserved.

No Sweat CT Student Summit, Feb. 26! Come and Spread the Word!!!
From: Avi Chomsky

FYI, in case anybody is interested. I can send you the flyer individually if you want it; it's too big to send out to the whole list. Avi

Bring your friends and spread the word!

Come join students from throughout CT as we organize to pass the most progressive anti-sweatshop law ever!!!

No Sweat CT Student Summit

Saturday, February 26

12:30 - 5pm

Marcus White Living Room,

Central CT State University

Dear CT student organizers and friends,

In the past month, unions, students, and socially conscious people throughout CT have united in a flurry of excitement to mobilize to pass the most progressive anti-sweatshop legislation in the nation yet. The CT legislature is currently considering a bill to ensure that all uniforms (and possibly other items) purchased by the state would be produced in factories and washed in laundries where workers earn a living wage and their rights are respected.

This law would build upon years of organizing by students and the global movement in support of workers and against sweatshops. Students have a crucial role to play in passing this legislation. Please come join students throughout the state at this important gathering of students from throughout CT. This will not be a typical lecture-centered workshop, but rather an opportunity for students to interact and discuss the ways in which students can play a key role in fighting for the most progressive anti-sweatshop law in the nation.

There will be refreshments. A flyer is attached to help you spread the word.

Please invite any and all CT students you know who might be interested.

Bring your friends!!! (And bring your calendar :).

It is now our time to join the global movement against sweatshops!!!

In solidarity, Kath Golub.

And if you have any questions, feel free to contact me by email or at (860) 349-6925.

Directions to Central:

From I-84, take Exit 39A to Rt. 9 South. Take Exit 29 off of Rt. 9 to Ella Grasso Boulevard and take a right turn to the university.

From I-91, North to Exit 22 North to Rt. 9 North. Follow Rt. 9 to Exit 29, Cedar Street (Rt. 175).

From I-95 South, take Rt. 9 North to Exit 29, Cedar Street (Rt. 175). Go through the intersection. Take your first left, Ella Grasso Blvd. Follow until you reach the university.

The Marcus White building (building #3) is the building across from the building with the clock tower. We will have signs to help you out. Please also check out this map:

http://www.ccsu.edu/campus_map/Default.htm

Letter for signon re: Coal mine expansion in Colombia, human rights etc
ecn_ngo_letter_051404.pdf

Report on Salem Harbor Power Station for Healthlink (Avi Chomsky)

In the first six months of 2003, the Salem Harbor Power Station received 76,574 tonnes of coal from the Cerrej¿n Zona Norte mine in northern Colombia, and 51,122 tonnes from the La Loma mine, operated by the Drummond Company. In the first half of 2004, it received 42,504 tonnes from Cerrej¿n Zona Norte, and 46,210 tonnes from Drummond.

Like other U.S. coal-fired power plant operators, PG&E Energy Trading Company and US-Gen New England Power turned to Colombian coal in the 1980s and 1990s for a combination of reasons: the high-quality, low-sulfur coal from Colombia's mines burned cleaner, allowing power plants to comply with environmental standards without investing in costly equipment, the price was low, and consumers didn't know or care where their coal came from.

Some U.S. coal mining companies, like Exxon and Drummond, were closing their U.S. mines to move production to Colombia where they could pay lower wages and taxes, enjoy profit repatriation and lax environmental standards--and rely on paramilitary death squads to keep their workers and local villagers from protesting poor working conditions, environmental destruction, and forced displacement.

Cerrej¿n Zona Norte, the largest open-pit coal mine in the world, began as a joint venture between Exxon and the Colombian government in the 1980s; in the early 2000s it was sold to a consortium of three multinational mining companies: BHP Billiton (British/Australian), Anglo-American (South African), and Glencore, S.A. (Swiss). In 1995, El Cerrej¿n's workers were earning about $3.32 per hour, and 14 workers were killed due to unsafe conditions in the mine during its first 11 years of operations. A representative of the indigenous Wayuu people who inhabited the area surrounding the mine visited Salem in the spring of 2002 and told us that the coal burned in our power plant "has its origins in violence. Our communities have suffered greatly. Their human rights have been violated, their territory has been usurped, their houses destroyed and demolished, and they have had to shed their blood in order for this coal to arrive in Salem."

The story of the Drummond mine in Colombia is no better. Union miners in Alabama earn approximately $3000 a month; in Colombia, Drummond pays between $500 and $1000 a month to its workers. Clearly, it was more cost-effective for the family-owned Drummond Company to close its Alabama mines and shift production to Colombia, particularly because paramilitary troops controlled the region around the mine. In 2000, union leaders requested permission to sleep in the mine facility between their shifts because of increasing threats from the paramilitaries who were emboldened by Company flyers equating the union with left-wing guerrilla groups. The mine owners refused, and in February 2001 paramilitary troops stopped a company bus taking workers out of the mine, shot and killed the union president, and dragged the vice president away. His body was found a day later with clear signs of torture. They went to the home of the secretary-treasurer, Francisco Ruiz, and finding him not there, killed his younger brother. Ruiz fled the country; he also came to Salem to tell his story to citizens who were unknowingly consuming Drummond's Colombian coal in the fall of 2003.

All of the union and community leaders who have come from Colombia's coal mines to Salem have brought a similar message. They are not against foreign investment, and they are not against coal mining. But they want foreign investment, and coal mining, to respect human rights and the environment. The companies that buy their coal, and the citizens that benefit from it, need to demand that these conditions be met.

Witness for Peace Action Alert: Say No to Free Trade with Colombia while Violence and Impunity continue!
From: Witness for Peace NE wfpne@witnessforpeace.org

Witness for Peace Action Alert: Say No to Free Trade with Colombia while Violence and Impunity continue! January 10th, 2005

Please act now- we have an extension on this important letter circulating in the U.S. House of Representatives. This action relates directly to both the WFP campaign on Economic Justice and our work on stopping U.S. Military Aid to Colombia. It is important that you ask your member of Congress to sign this letter to end unfair trade with Colombia in the midst of severe violence against those seeking fair wages and decent working conditions. Call today- our time is limited! Thank you for your continued work towards peace and justice in Latin America,

Holly Miller: National Grassroots Organizer / Economic Justice Janna Bowman : National Grassroots Organizer / Military Aid - Colombia Joanne Ranney: New England Regional Coordinator

Note: Apologies for duplicate mailings, but if you do not receive this message twice we have not received your contact information for updating our WFP database. In order to be more effective in our organizing efforts we would greatly appreciate receiving your updated contact information (name, address, phone, email address). Thanks in advance.

Say No to Free Trade with Colombia while Violence and Impunity continue! Action needed by Jan. 12th

Contact your House Representative before Wednesday January 12th, asking him/her to sign-on to a Congressional letter to the U.S. Trade Representative asking for an end to the violence against Colombian trade unionists before the U.S. considers a free trade agreement with the Andean region.

The most basic worker right, the right to life, has been denied to thousands of trade unionists in Colombia. Over 50 Colombian trade unionists were assassinated in 2004, bringing the total to well over 2,000 Colombian trade unionists murdered since 1991. In Colombia impunity has remained near total for those who murder trade unionists, with only a handle of these cases ever making it to the courts.

Despite the horrific levels of violence against Colombian trade unionists, the U.S. initiated negotiations for a free trade agreement with Colombia (and other Andean countries) earlier this year. The proposed free trade agreement would weaken current U.S. protections for worker rights and accelerate the race to the bottom for labor standards.

We ask that you take a moment today to contact your House Representative, asking her/him to sign-on to the Evans-Lynch Congressional letter to the U.S. Trade Representative, sending the message that the U.S. should not enter into free trade agreements with governments that fail to address violence against workers.

To call your member of Congress call: 202-224-3121 and ask for the foreign policy aide. To find your member of Congress visit: www.house.gov See below for the full text of the Congressional sign-on letter.

Here's a sample message:

"My name is ___________ and I'm calling from ___________.

"I'm calling today to ask Representative ___________ to sign a Dear Colleague letter being circulated by Representatives Evans and Lynch on the continuing violence and impunity in Colombia.

"This letter will be sent to the U.S. Trade Representative asking him to use the Andean Free Trade Agreement negotiations as an opportunity to urge Colombia to protect its union leaders and end impunity.

"Colombia continues to be the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist, with over 2,000 trade unionists assassinated since 1991. The Colombian government has permitted this violence to continue by failing to prosecute over 99% of these murders.

"I'd like to urge Representative __________ to sign on to this Dear Colleague letter, sending the strong message that the U.S. should not enter into free trade agreements with countries that fail to address violence against workers.

"For more information or to sign the letter, please contact Stephanie Krenich in Representative Evan's office at 5-5905 by close of business on Wednesday January 12th. Thank you."

Tell U.S. Trade Representative: No Free Trade with Colombia Until Violence and Impunity End "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." --from "Assassination is an Issue in Trade Talks" by Juan Forero in the New York Times, 11/18/04

Dear Colleague: Last week, the United States, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru wrapped up their sixth round of negotiations for the Andean Free Trade Agreement, a new set of bilateral trade agreements. We urge you to join us in sending a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick asking him to use the negotiations between the United States and the Andean countries as an opportunity to compel Colombia to protect its union leaders, prosecute those who attack unionists, and reform the labor code to bring it into compliance with international standards.

Colombia continues to be the most dangerous place in the world for union leaders; in the last 13 years, over 2,000 Colombian trade unionists were murdered, and thousands more were threatened, displaced, or forced to relocate. Most of this violence has been attributed to the country's right-wing paramilitaries, who have been embroiled in a 40-year civil war with leftist guerillas.

According to the State Department's Colombia Country Report on Human Rights Practices released in February 2004, "impunity remained at the core of the country's human rights problem." The report testifies that "freedom of association was limited in practice by threats and acts of violence committed by illegal armed groups against labor unions and NGOs." Further, "paramilitaries threatened--and sometimes killed--union members who refused to renounce collective bargaining agreements." The U.S. should not enter into free trade agreements with countries that foster an atmosphere of fear and repression.

While these conditions are tragic for Colombian workers, they also affect workers in the United States. We have already seen the loss of many manufacturing and other jobs as companies move jobs to nations where labor is the cheapest and labor rights are not enforced. Colombia's failure to protect union leaders and enforce labor standards encourages businesses to relocate there, furthering an already widespread "race to the bottom." As we have seen with NAFTA, this will deteriorate, not improve, the employment situation for workers in the United States and throughout the Americas. According to the Trade Promotion Act of 2002, the U.S. is required to negotiate language that ensures that a party "does not fail to effectively enforce its own labor laws." Please join us in relaying our concerns about conditions in Colombia to Ambassador Zoellick. This letter asks him to ensure that progress is made on these issues before the U.S. enters into a free trade agreement with the Andean region, and to include enforceable labor rights provisions in the agreement itself.

For more information or to sign onto the letter, please contact Stephanie Krenrich in Rep. Evans' office via email or at 5-5905. Sincerely, LANE EVANS STEPHEN F. LYNCH Member of Congress Member of Congress Witness for Peace 707 8th Street SE Washington DC 20003 Phone 202.547.6112 Fax 202.547.6103

-----

Joanne Ranney, Coord.

Witness For Peace, New England Region

Phone: 802-434-2980

wfpne@witnessforpeace.org

www.witnessforpeace.org/newengland

collect signatures on the following petition asking for the release of one of the witnesses

Dan Kovalik (of the United Steelworkers and the International Labor Rights Fund), who is working on the Drummond, Occidental Petroleum, and Coca Cola lawsuits here in the U.S., asked me to URGENTLY collect signatures on the following petition asking for the release of one of the witnesses in a case being brought against Occidental Petroleum for the bombing of the village of Santo Domingo near their oil pipeline. Dr. Pena has been unjustly detained because his autopsy report confirmed that the villagers were killed by cluster bombs.

Avi ChomskyPlease "reply" to me via email, with your complete name and affiliation as you'd like it to appear on the petition. I will send all of the names to Dan, and he will fax them to the relevant parties in the U.S. and Colombia.

Thanks!

Avi

December 13, 2004

Via Facsimile Transmission (011 57 1 570-2022)

Dr. Luis Camilo Osorio

Fiscal General de la Naci¿n

Fiscal¿a General de la Naci¿n

Diagonal 22B 52-01 (Ciudad Salite)

Bogot¿, Colombia

Re: Dr. Ciro Alejandro Pe¿a Lopez

Estimado Dr. Osorio:

I am writing on behalf of Dr. Ciro Pe¿a who has wrongfully been placed under house arrest and is now awaiting criminal trial. As we all know, despite other scurrilous charges being brought by the Colombian state, the only real offense for which Dr. Pe¿a is being charged is his truthfully reporting upon the cause of the deaths of the bombing victims of Santo Domingo in 1998. And, it should be noted that Dr. Pe¿a's autopsy report on these victims -- a report which shows that they were indeed killed by a cluster bomb dropped upon the village -- was later corroborated by the U.S Federal Bureau of Investigation.

I just learned that his trial has now been postponed, seemingly indefinitely, most likely because the Colombian state has absolutely no credible evidence of any wrongdoing on his part. The detention of Dr. Pe¿a remains an affront to justice, to the medical community, and to those concerned with human rights world-wide.

I hereby demand the immediate release of Dr. Pe¿a, the dropping of all charges against him and the public exoneration of Dr. Pe¿a by the Colombian state.

cc: Presidente Dr. Alvaro Uribe Velez

c/o Embassy of Colombia (By Fax (202) 232-8643)

Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State (By Fax 202 647-1722)

Hon. William Wood, U.S. Ambassador to Colombia (By Fax 011 57 1 315 2163)

Craig Conway, U.S. Embassy (By Fax 011 57 1 315 2163)

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