The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog
See our home page.(Our old blog on tripod.com is still active, but it is now also appended to the archives of this blog.)
Thursday, October 26, 2006
I thought you would like to see the question Richard Solly asked at the BHP Billiton shareholders meeting in London earlier today.
Avi
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BHPBilliton plc AGM, London, 26 October 2006
Question from Richard Solly, shareholder
My question concerns the Cerrejon mine in northern Colombia, of which BHPBilliton owns a one-third share. I would like to know the company’s response to a number of recent and planned events concerning the mine and some of its customers. I am sure that the Board is well aware of all of them.
A Witness for Peace delegation from the US and Canada which in August visited communities displaced, or about to be displaced, by the Cerrejon mine, found that many people there had urgent health needs which were not being addressed, which seems odd if the mine is bringing prosperity to the region. A further delegation from US and Canada will visit the area again next week, taking health supplies, visiting communities affected by the mine, meeting with mine management and with workers’ union SINTRACARBON.
Contract negotiations between SINTRACARBON and the company will begin next month. The union is expected to include the demands of displaced communities, and communities facing displacement, in its own bargaining position. Community demands will include collective negotiation, collective relocation and reparations.
There have been protests in recent weeks in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Canada because local power companies buy coal from the Cerrejon mine. Protesters in New Brunswick called for the power company to pressure the mine to respect the rights of displaced communities. In Nova Scotia they called for the closure of the Trenton power plant. The power plant in Salem, Massachusetts, buys coal from Cerrejon, and both the plant owner and the City Council have called on Cerrejon Coal to respect the rights of displaced communities. In August, the Danish Government announced that further coal purchases from another Colombian coal mine would be suspended until the company involved, US-based Drummond Coal, had established its innocence in the matter of human rights abuses at its operations. At some stage, Cerrejon Coal’s failure to accept the reasonable demands of displaced communities and those facing displacement may affect sales.
Numerous organizations and prominent individuals are calling on the company to honour the rights of both workers and communities, to accept their demands, to ensure that their lives and liberty are respected during and after negotiations, and that in the event of a dispute there will be no military occupation of the mine as there was several times in the 1990s, before BHPBilliton became involved. The list of those supporting worker and community demands and pledging to continue monitoring conditions around the mine includes the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the United Steelworkers union in the USA, the Mayor and City Council of Salem, Massachusetts, members of the Massachusetts State Legislature and the US House of Representatives, electoral candidates and members of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, the Colombia Solidarity Campaign in Britain, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents BHPBilliton workers at the Ekati diamond mine in the Northwest Territories, who have had their own experience of pressure from company management and seem keen to forge bonds with workers and communities in Colombia. Letters from these people will be presented to mine management next week by the delegation from North America and I have copies to give to the Board today.
What is the company’s response?�
North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee: http://home.comcast.net/
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Salem State professor fights for justice at Colombian coal mine
By Tom Dalton
Staff writer
SALEM - Avi Chomsky is trying to connect the dots between the Salem Harbor Station power plant and coal mines in Colombia where human rights violations have been alleged.
Over the past few years, the Salem State history professor, working with others, brought the South American country right to Salem. She hosted union officials and villagers, who met with two Salem mayors and left with City Council resolutions supporting their struggle.
Last summer, Chomsky, 49, was part of a group that made a fact-finding trip to Colombia to collect information on an open-pit mine that supplied coal to the Salem plant and its impact on villagers who were forced to move when the mine expanded. Those indigenous farmers still have not been relocated or compensated for their losses, she said.
On Halloween day, Chomsky will leave for Colombia with medical personnel and a representative from Amnesty International, the worldwide human rights movement. They will observe the start of contract negotiations at the Cerrejon coal mine, a producer of low-sulphur coal that has been burned at the Salem power plant.
Cerrejon, which is 30 miles long and 5 miles wide, is located on a remote peninsula in a northeast corner of Colombia and is one of the world's largest open-pit mines. Dust from the plant has caused health problems in the area, according to Chomsky.
"We want to raise our voices to protest some of the conditions under which the coal is being produced," she said.
For its part, Dominion, the Virginia owner of the Salem plant, says it used to buy Cerrejon coal for the Salem plant, but doesn't any longer.
"We have not burned any coal from that mine since we did a test burn back in 2005," said Dan Genest, a Dominion spokesman in Virginia. That coal, he said. "does not allow us to meet our emission standards" in Massachusetts, which has strict regulations.
Dominion, however, said it buys coal from other Colombian mines for the Salem plant, and did send six shipments this year from Cerrejon to its Brayton Point power plant in Somerset. Those shipments, though, have stopped.
"We do not have any contracts at that mine for any of our New England facilities," Genest said.
Chomsky, a Salem resident, and the other activists are arriving at the Cerrejon mine right before the start of negotiations, which can be a tense time. The talks include a union demand to improve conditions for displaced villagers, who are largely poor indigenous people and Afro-Colombians.
"Being a union activist in Colombia is a very dangerous profession," said Chomsky, who heads the Latino and Caribbean Studies program at Salem State and has written extensively about the region. "Colombia has the highest level of assassinations and disappearances among unionists around the world. The danger is always heightened during the negotiations period."
In 2001, two union officials were killed at another Colombian mine where Dominion buys coal for Salem, Chomsky said.
The group of about a dozen human rights activists will meet with the president of the Cerrejon mine, attend union meetings and conduct health assessments of children and adults in the area.
They have asked Dominion to sign a letter of support for mine workers and to send a representative to investigate conditions.
"We're not asking them to stop purchasing Colombian coal," said Chomsky. "We're asking them to take a stand for human rights."
Repeating a statement it made earlier this year, Dominion called for a "just resolution" of the dispute.
www.HealthLink.org
781-598-1115
HealthLink's mission is to protect public health by reducing and eliminating environmental toxins through education, research and community action.
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North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee: http://home.comcast.net/
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS ON OUR SOUTHERN BORDER
Hundreds of poor people—men, women and children—are dying in our desert each year.
What is happening? Why?
Wednesday October 25
6:00 pm
Sullivan Building 209
Salem State College
Lois Martin, professor emerita, will share what she has learned living on the Arizona border and participating in efforts to save lives of migrants crossing the desert.
Sponsored by the Peace Institute and the Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies Program
North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee: http://home.comcast.net/
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Reply-To: Lynnnadeau@aol.com
What is more important to get what we want than to have an informed public? In October 20, 2006 Jewish Journal, there appears the following article:
To get Avi's picture with it, go to http://www.jewishjournal.org/
hit the button for 'news'
then scroll to the bottom
There are other articles in the works, if only the Boston papers would take an interest!
A Local Link to a Colombian Coal Mine
Susan Jacobs Jewish Journal Staff
Salem State College history professor Avi Chomsky (above) wants people to become aware of the link between coal burned in the Salem Harbor Power Station, and the plight of indigenous people displaced by the El Cerrejon mine in Colombia.
Standing on the porch of her Salem home, history professor Aviva “Avi” Chomsky can see a large mountain of coal piled up outside the nearby Salem Harbor Power Station. For Chomsky, a social activist committed to improving the lives of indigenous people in Latin America, the coal serves as a daily reminder of work yet to be done.
An undetermined percentage of the coal in the pyramid-shaped pile comes from El Cerrejon, the world’s largest open pit coal mine. Located on Colombia’s Guarjira pennisula, the three-mile wide and 30-mile long mine sends one third of its coal to power plants located in Northeastern United States.
El Cerrejon is operated by Carbones del Cerrejón, a multi-national consortium owned by Anglo American, BHP Billiton, and Glencore (XStrata.) Although the company claims otherwise, environmentalists charge that the mega mine has severely contaminated the air and water — causing harm to local villagers, as well as those who work in the mine. In addition, human rights advocates accuse Carbones del Cerrejón of forcibly displacing the Wayuu, the indigenous people of the region, and confiscating their homes and farms.
In August, Chomsky led a Witness for Peace delegation to El Cerrejon to assess the allegations and report on what was found. The group found the conditions appalling. Despite laws enacted to protect the native people, Carbones del Cerrejón has bulldozed entire villages to expand the mine. Approximately 150 families remain in the region, but they are isolated and have no access to education, supplies or medicine. Many of the residents are sick as a result of dust from the mine.
The delegation met with local villagers, as well as representatives from Sintracarbon, the national coal union in Colombia. They learned that villagers do not want the mine to be shut down, but want to be compensated for their losses and relocated to another area where they can resume their traditional lives, which revolved around hunting, fishing, farming and weaving.
Chomsky plans to return to the region in November with a coalition to distribute much-needed medical supplies, and assess the ongoing health needs of the people. In the States, she and others are rallying to put international pressure on Carbones del Cerrejón to re-evaluate and alter its practices.
Chomsky stresses that she and her cohorts are not calling for action against Dominion Power, which operates the Salem Harbor Power Station, nor are they calling upon the United States government to follow in Denmark’s footsteps and suspend the importation of all coal from Colombia.
“We’re targeting the mine, not Dominion. But Dominion is buying the coal. They have a moral responsibility to take a stand on how it is mined,” she says.
Dan Weekley, Director of Northeast Government Affairs at Dominion, claims the energy supplier purchases very little coal from El Cerrejon. He issued a statement that read, “Dominion is sympathetic to the problems this village faces. We expect all of our suppliers — domestic and foreign — to adhere to all rules and regulations governing their operations. Dominion would like to see a just resolution to these issues.”
Chomsky, who is a member of the North Shore environmental group HealthLink, wants to clarify exactly how much coal Dominion imports from El Cerrejon, and what percentage of that winds up at the Salem Harbor Power Plant.
The conflict has attracted the attention of Salem politicians. Although the elected officials have not taken a public stand in regard to Dominion, Mayor Kim Driscoll has signed an official proclamation recognizing and supporting the efforts of the villagers in the Guarjira region, and the Salem City Council passed a resolution condemning the violation of human and democratic rights in Colombia, and expressing solidarity with Colombians working for nonviolent solutions to the conflict.
Chomsky has long been sympathetic to the plight of impoverished Latin Americans. The 49-year-old attended college at U.C. Berkeley during the era of Cesar Chavez’s grape boycotts. Through her work with the United Farm Workers, Chomsky discovered “how intertwined our lives are with the people who produce our things.”
Her awareness of Latin Ameri-can politics, and American inter-vention in the region grew as she helped resettle refugees from Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador in the 1980s. She also spent two years in Barcelona perfecting her Spanish and working in a bilingual school.
An intellectual with a Ph.D. in Latin American History, the divorced mother of two teens has been a professor at Salem State College since 1997. Prior to that, she taught at Bates College.
When she is not teaching or doing volunteer work on behalf of Latin Americans, Chomsky enjoys writing. She is currently working on two books. The tentatively titled “They Take Our Jobs and 20 Other Major Myths About Immigration” will be published by Beacon in July 2007. The other, still in manuscript form, deals with the linked labor histories of New England and Colombia.
Chomsky, who grew up in Lexington, is the daughter of renowned author/scholar Noam Chomsky. Extremely guarded about her personal life, she is unwilling to share personal details about her father except to say that she “grew up in a very political family where relatives on both sides were involved in Jewish organizing.”
Since religion was not a primary concern in her family, Chomsky recalls having to convince her parents to join a temple so she could attend Hebrew school and become a bat mitzvah. Although her Jewish identity was important to her as a teen, she admits that it has less meaning to her today. Chomsky describes herself as “culturally Jewish, but non-observant.”
www.HealthLink.org
781-598-1115
HealthLink's mission is to protect public health by reducing and eliminating environmental toxins through education, research and community action.
------------------------------
North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee: http://home.comcast.net/
Friday, October 20, 2006
Nova Scotia protest
Reply-To: Avi Chomsky
http://thechronicleherald.ca
NSP coal-use protesters march on Trenton plant
By MONICA GRAHAM
TRENTON - A horn blaring from an engine shunting coal at the Nova Scotia
Power generating plant Thursday almost drowned out the speeches.
But protesters were able to get their point across: They don't want the
power company to burn coal in its generating plants anymore.
About 50 people marched down Power Plant Road at noon, waving or wearing
signs saying the company must find other ways of generating power.
"We're not going away," said Peter Boyles, spokesman for the
Hillside-Trenton Environmental Watch Association, which is fighting against
pollution from the generating plant that the group says is damaging people's
health and property.
Mr. Boyles said his group has proved its case "time after time," to no
avail.
"It don't matter to them guys who dies or who lives," he said.
About 15 members of Cape Breton Citizens Against Strip Mining drove to
Trenton for the protest and to speak against the proposed open-face coal
mine on Boularderie Island.
They said the project will permanently damage the aquifer and eliminate 19
hectares of wetlands, and they argued there are cleaner ways to produce
energy than burning the site's sulphurous coal.
Strip mine proponent John Chisholm has obtained the necessary permits,
agreed Allan Nicholson.
"He can buy the politicians and he can buy the bureaucrats, but I'm a lawyer
and I'm telling you he can't buy the court," Mr. Nicholson said, to cheers.
Another Cape Breton man, Eskasoni Mi'kmaq elder Albert Marshall, said
halting the use of coal will protect Mother Earth and so sustain future
generations.
Members of the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network argued that using coal
from Colombia promotes human-rights violations in the South American
country. Because Nova Scotia Power buys Columbian "blood coal," it is
responsible for atrocities ranging from the murder of union leaders to
moving whole villages from their homes without compensation.
The Ecology Action Centre offered a reminder that turning on the lights
sends more pollution out the stacks from coal-burning generators, while
another suggested everyone get politically involved at every level to get
their message across more widely.
New Democrat MLAs Charlie Parker (Pictou West) and Clarrie MacKinnon (Pictou
East) pledged support for clean energy projects and promised to raise the
subject in the legislature.
Mr. MacKinnon said Nova Scotia Power has earmarked $22 million to extend the
life of an old Trenton generator blamed for much of the local pollution.
That amount would go a long way to tap other energy sources like tidal or
wind power, he said.
North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee: http://home.comcast.net/
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Letter from United Steel to Cerrejon Mine
New Brunswick solidarity
http://www.canadaeast.com/dg
Protesters decry use of 'blood coal'
By STEPHEN LLEWELLYN
dgleg@nb.aibn.com
As published on page A3 on October 18, 2006
GLEANER/STEPHEN MACGILLIVRAY PHOTO
A group of protesters put on a play in front of the NB Power building on
King Street on Tuesday to depict what they claim is how Colombians are
being displaced for coal that is used to produce electricity for NB Power.
Above, protester Asaf Rashid, playing someone from the coal-mining company,
pretends to kick protester Graham Squires, playing a local land owner, out
of the company's way
Social activists demonstrating over the use of Colombia's so-called "blood
coal" protested in front of NB Power's headquarters in Fredericton on
Tuesday.
About 10 protesters held a large sign reading "Villages gone to turn our
lights on."
They also scattered coal on the sidewalk and performed a skit on the
sidewalk about how poor Colombians are driven out of their villages to make
way for a giant coal mine.
"A lot of people in New Brunswick have no idea where their coal comes from
or what happens along the way," said Asaf Rashid of the UNB/STU Social
Justice Society. "We want to expose this issue."
Rashid said that 16 per cent of the electricity generated by NB Power comes
from what he calls "blood coal" from Colombia.
"Paramilitary forces were used to remove the people from their villages,"
he said. "There was brutality. It was a bloody operation ... I think it is
fair to call it blood coal."
There were unconfirmed reports of some villagers being killed, he said.
If the group can get enough publicity, it will put pressure on NB Power to
act and demand that Colombia treat its workers properly and compensate the
villagers who were relocated, said Rashid. People could even delay paying
their power bill, he suggested.
While the demonstration played out on the sidewalk and protesters handed
out information pamphlets, other activists were meeting with NB Power
executives inside the building.
Brian Duplessis, NB Power vice-president of corporate communications, said
the meeting was informative.
"They presented to us what they saw as the social and economic situation in
Colombia," he said.
"They asked us to consider writing letters to the owners of the mine we do
buy coal from and several other parties ... They have not asked us to not
buy coal from Colombia."
He said the social-justice representatives were told NB Power officials
would discuss the situation and get back to them by the end of the month.
Duplessis said NB Power has been burning Colombian coal along with other
coal in its Belledune plant for about 15 years. The plant is designed to
burn that specific coal, he said.
That plant burns up to one million tonnes of coal a year, he said.
He confirmed that 10 to 16 per cent of electricity generated by NB Power
comes from the Colombia coal.
NB Power doesn't have a written policy on human rights at companies that
supply fuel, he said.
Tracy Glynn of the Fredericton Peace Coalition attended the meeting with NB
Power.
"There was no commitment made by NB Power but they seemed open to hear
everything we had to present to them," she said. "We want NB Power to
basically write a letter to the coal mining company and the Colombian
government to respect and uphold international labour rights and local
communities."
In November the mine workers' union in Colombia is negotiating with the
company for compensation for displaced villagers, said Glynn.
"We want NB Power to write this letter before the negotiations start," she
said.
Glynn said every letter has an impact and let's the company know the world
is watching.
She also said the coalition is collecting medical supplies to take to small
Colombian villages when a delegation travels there at the end of the month.
Donations can be dropped off at the Underground Café in Fredericton.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Immigration Event at Salem State College
Friday, October 13, 2006
Urgent Action-Francisco Ramirez
COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT PRESSURISED BY MINING MULTINATIONALS DECIDES TO SUSPEND THE PROTECTIVE MEASURES GIVEN TO THE PRESIDENT OF SINTRAMINERCOL, FRANCISCO RAMIREZ CUELLAR.
THE UNDERSIGNED TRADE UNIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ORGANISATIONS REJECT THE SUSPENSION OF THE SECURITY MEASURES AGREED WITH THE COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CAUTIONARY MEASURES DECREED BY THE INTER-AMERICAN COMISSION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE PHYSICAL INTEGRITY AND LIFE OF THE PRESIDENT OF SINTRAMINERCOL.
FACTS:
- Sintraminercol is a company based union affiliated to the CUT which has lead the fight for 16 years in defence of the mining resources of Colombia, carrying out activities in support of the small scale mining communities, black, indigenous and white communities that live off the small and medium scale mining in their regions. It has also denounced the imposition of a mining – energy model under the auspices of multi lateral organisations, transnationals, the Colombian government and the governments of the so called developed countries whose application has left behind the violation of national sovereignty, human rights violations ( selective killings, massacres, forced displacement), hunger and misery for the people who inhabit these regions.
- The government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez ordered the liquidation of the state mining company MINERCOL LTDA through decree 2554 of 28th of January 2004 in appliance of the Mining Code, which was drawn up by the lawyers of the multinationals HOLCM, CEMEX and Ladrillera Santafé, the latter being a company owned by the family of the ex president of Colombia Andrés Pastrana.
- At the same time as the liquidation there was an increase in the tailing, filming, taping and harassments of the members of the National Ctte, a bomb attack on the union headquarters and also an attack on the life of the president of Sintraminercol. Also the Fuero Sindicales were removed (a legal protection which prevents trade union representatives from being sacked), workers were fired and the workers who opposed the liquidation of the company were threatened.
- The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights decreed cautionary measures to be taken in favour of Francisco Ramírez Cuellar due to high risks related to his trade union activity; the attack he suffered in October 2004 and the ongoing threats against his life and physical integrity. The protective measures accorded with the Colombian government consisted of a hard protection scheme with two bodyguards, radio communication, automatic weapons (which were never handed over), bulletproof vests and an armour-plated car.
In 2000 the company Minercol Ltda in accordance with the collective agreement handed over a car to transport Francisco Ramírez in.
5. In the months of April and May 2006 Francisco Ramírez Cuellar in his capacity as an advisor to Funtraminergetica took part in the negotiations around the strike by the workers in Drummond; at the same time he has played an important role in suing this multinational in the USA and was behind the decision by the Danish government to suspend the importation of coal until the murder of three trade unionists affiliated to Sintraminergetica-Funtraminerge
When the strike was over in the two mining companies, the reprisals weren’t long in coming.
a) Attacks and threats against the leaders of Sintraminergética in the city of Valledupar (dept of Cesar).
b) A further increase in threats, tailings, harassments, spying on the union office and the house of Francisco Ramírez.
c) The management of Minercol Ltda represented by Eduardo Arce Caicedo – Liquidator – and Mrs Monica Illigde – Administrative Coordinator withdrew the protective vehicle and the petrol that they had supplied weekly to Francisco Ramírez.
d) The radio service of the bodyguards was suspended.
e) On the 5th of October 2006 the Administrative Department of Security (DAS) through a written letter signed by Omar Quintero informed Francisco Ramírez Cuellar of the decision by the Colombian government to withdraw his armour plated vehicle and give him a vehicle without armour plating leaving him at the mercy of any attack.
In is noteworthy that recently the DAS carried out a ten minute “security study” which concluded that level of risk was low. Furthermore such studies which have concluded that the risk was medium or low level have been carried out on trade unionists who were murdered days after their security measures were withdrawn or denied.
Requests:
That the Colombian State comply with the protective measures awarded in favour of Francisco Ramírez Cuellar in compliance with the cautionary measures conceded by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and consequently order that:
a) The armour-plated vehicle assigned to Francisco Ramírez for his security in his capacity as president of Sintraminercol be maintained.
b) The bodyguards be given automatic weapons and radio communication.
c) Order the company Minercol Ltda to return the vehicle assigned in compliance with the collective agreement signed between the workers and the workers union Sintraminercol.
d) Afford the necessary guarantees to Francisco Ramírez Cuellar to carry out his trade union activity freely.
e) Stop any order to carry out an attack on the life of Francisco Ramírez Cuellar, president of Sintraminercol.
To the representatives of the multinational companies that exploit the mining resources of Colombia, the “Aid Agencies” of the governments of Canada and the USA that they bring and end to their policy of aggression against the trade unions and their policy of destroying the social fabric of our nation.
To the International Community; that it demand of the Colombian government and the multinationals that they stop their genocide of the trade union movement, end the impunity in which these crimes remain and that they respect workers rights.
Signed
Sintraminercol, Sintramin, UNEB, USO, Human Rights Department CUT (national), Sintraminergética Branch El Paso, Fenaltrase, Fenasintrap, Funtraminergética, CUT (Bogotá and Cundinamarca region), Sintraelecol (Atlantic Coast), ECATE, NOMADESC, ACAVEVA, Sintraentemdiccol, Campaign Prohibido Olvidar, Organización WAYUU MUNSURAT, Sintradepartamento Antioquia,
Colombia, Bogota 4th of October 2006
Please send communiqués to the Colombian Authorities and the Swiss, Canadian and US Embassies with a copy to Sintraminercol.
US Ambassador in Colombia
Mr William Wood, C/ 22D Bis, No. 47-51 Bogotá Ph. 00 57 1 3152112 Fax 00 57 1 3152163
President of the Republic
Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Cra 8 No. 7-26, Palacio de Nariño, Bogotá.
Fax 00 57 1 5662071 Email auribe@presidencia.gov.co
Vicepresident of the Republic
Francisco Santos
Email fsantos@presidencia.gov.co
Minister of Mines and Energy
Hernán Martínez Torres, Avda El Dorado, CAN, Bogotá
Ph 00 57 1 3245262 Fax 00 57 1 3425207 Email minas.energia@minminas.gov.co
Minister of Social Protection.
Diego Palacio Betancourt. Cra 13 No. 32-76 Piso 22 Bogotá
Ph. 00 57 1 3365066 Fax 00 57 1 3360182 Email Dpalacio@minproteccionsocial
Procurator General of the Nation
Edgar José Maya Villazón Cra 5 No. 15-80. Bogotá
Fax 00 57 1 42 9723 Email reygon@procuraduria.gov.co anticorrupcion@presidencia.gov
Public Defenders Office
Volmar Antonio Pérez Ortiz, C/ 55 No. 10-32 Bogotá.
Fax 00 57 1 6400491 Email secretaria_privada@hotmail.com
Permanent Mission of Colombia To The United Nations in Geneva.
Chemin de Champ d’Arnier 17-19, 1209 Geneva Fax 00 41 22 7910787, 00 41 22 7984555 Email mission.colombia@ties.itu.int
Sintraminercol
C/ 32 No. 13-07 Bogotá Ph. 00 57 1 2456581 Fax 00 57 1 5612829
Email sintrami@telecom.com.co
North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee: http://home.comcast.net/
Monday, October 09, 2006
SAFE and HealthLink Present
SAFE and HealthLink Present
Coal Destroying Lives: Focus on Colombia
Salem's connection to the people of Colombia
Coal burned in the Salem power plant is imported increasingly from Colombia. El Cerrejón is the world’s largest open-pit coal - four times the size of Manhattan. Expansion of the mine has destroyed several small communities. On the expanding edge of the pit, villagers are being asphyxiated by the dust, their water sources poisoned, and roads to the remaining homes blocked.
Salem State College History Professor Avi Chomsky will show slides, describe and analyse what was learned on a trip to this coal-mining region of Colombia in August, 2006.
Thursday, October 12 at 7pm
at the First Church in Salem 316 Essex Street
How can you help these victims of our energy policies?
Buy a colorful handwoven bag or hat made by the women of Guajira. Give back something to the communities that have suffered so in providing energy for our homes and businesses.
Bring medical supplies to the talk. Avi is leading another delegation to Colombia in late October including medical professionals who will assess the health needs of the people affected by the coal mine and will deliver desperately needed medical supplies.
www.HealthLink.org
www.salemsafe.org
North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee: http://home.comcast.net/
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Tour by Wayuu leader
It Seems Impossible To Believe: A Survivor Describes the Massacre that Destroyed Her Wayuu Community
December 15, 2004 | Cultural Survival Quarterly | Issue 28.4
After living with paramilitaries for several months, one morning in April the village of Bahía Portete, in Colombia’s northern Guajira peninsula, suffered a massacre that left 12 people dead, 20 missing, and 300 displaced, according to the National Indigenous Organization in Colombia (ONIC). On August 4, Francisco Ramírez Cuellar, president of Colombia’s Sindicato de Trabajadores Mineros (Union of Mine Workers), interviewed Débora Barros Fince, a Wayuu indigenous woman who survived the massacre.
Who lives in your community?
Two families live there: The Fince Epinayuu family and the Fince Uriana family.1 They have been there for over 500 years.
What work do you do there?
For a long time our families have lived from fishing and artisanry. Mostly from fishing. We live along the sea coast. People come from Riohacha, and other places, to buy our fish. Or sometimes we trade in the stores.
What kind of trade?
For example, we take our fish to Uribia, and we exchange it for food, to buy rice, oil, sugar, corn. So if we sell 100 kilos of fish, and that’s worth 100,000 pesos, we would bring back 100,000 pesos worth of goods.
Besides the traditional fishing economy, there have also been outside influences in this zone: shipping, multinational corporations. What else is going on there?
In Bahía Portete itself, there are several natural harbors. Boats used to come there from Panama, Aruba, and Curaçao, bringing merchandise. But two years ago the government decided to crack down on this trade, because they said it was illegal. So the only people shipping there now are the Medellín public enterprises, like the Parque Eólico,2 and the Cerrejón Zona Norte coal mine. There were also studies done in the community over 10 years ago showing that there are natural gas deposits there. These are the three elements that are really destroying us.
How did the paramilitary groups begin to come to the area?
They began to arrive in civilian dress, in groups of three or four. We used to see them with a group called the POLFA, which works with the DIAN.3 But we never imagined that they were paramilitaries.
But a few months later, they began to identify themselves as paramilitaries. Especially at night, they would put on their uniforms and say that they were paramilitaries. That was when they began to disrespect the community, to take things. For example, they would come to the stores and ask for things and refuse to pay. People would say, “But why aren’t you paying?” They would respond, “Because we’re paramilitaries, so shut up, because if you don’t we’ll kill you.” They did the same thing if someone had a gas station, and with animals. They would come to the corrals and get on an animal and just ride away, and because it was them, nobody could say anything. And if you did say something, they would abuse you.
Did they work with the police or the army?
It’s a very serious thing to say this, but we are sure that they worked with the police. The police were there, and the paramilitaries were there too. The police knew that they were paramilitaries, because the groups would walk around saying that they were paramilitaries. None of the police said a thing.
It seems impossible to believe. Two Wayuu compañeros were tired of having their animals taken away. They couldn’t stand it any more. So they innocently went to Uribia, which is the municipal headquarters for our area. They went to the police station and lodged a complaint, saying that there were some people in Bahía Portete who claimed to be paramilitaries, who were abusing people and taking their animals.
A half hour later, they were driving their car back to the community, and there was a white Toyota waiting for them. The men in the Toyota took the two of them, and knew exactly who they were. The men said: “Hey you, informer! Why did you go to lodge a complaint against us?” The men from the Toyota tied the Wayuu men up, and killed them right there in the community. This happened last year [2003], at the end of September.
Who were these paramilitaries?
They were from the interior. They talked like paisas [people from Antioquia]. They were white.
After those murders, what else did the paramilitaries do, before the massacre?
Last September [2003], I think it was the 21st, they killed two officers of the POLFA. Those two officers were in front of our house. There was a generator in the house, and the officers said “turn off the generator” so that the lights would go out and it would be dark. So my family followed the orders, and went inside to turn off the generator, and then they heard shots. And the paramilitaries killed one of the officers and dragged him away. And since it was night, nobody said anything. They left the other officer in the doorway of the house.
The two corpses were taken to Bogotá. I remember that the officers’ names didn’t appear in the papers or anything, because they had been killed by the paramilitaries. Nobody said anything. Even the deaths weren’t registered, they just took the bodies away.
So what happened next? One of my brothers, and a cousin, were called to give testimony in the prosecutor’s office in Maicao. Well, the paramilitaries, because they were in touch with people in the prosecutor’s office, knew that the case was coming up. This was February. A lawyer came to my brother and cousin, and said, “No, you don’t have anything to tell, you haven’t seen anything. You know, don’t you, that you haven’t seen anything?” And my brother said, “Right, it doesn’t matter to us, we haven’t seen anything.”
But what happened? The paramilitaries came on February 2 and killed my two brothers. They killed one of them at 6:30 in Portonuevo. They said “give me a pack of cigarettes,” and they shot him in the back. He was 18. Then they went to Portete, to our house. My other brother, who was 24 was a truck driver. He came home to eat at around 7 o’clock at night. They came there, and killed him in front of my mother. Ten men grabbed him and all of them shot him in the face. It was lucky they didn’t kill my mother!
Tell me about what happened when a person lodged a complaint with the army.
That happened a few days before the massacre, around the 15th of April, because the massacre was on the 18th. People were getting nervous because the paramilitaries were saying that they were going to kill people, that they were going to finish up this job because it wasn’t much; there were only two families. They could kill them and the land would be freed up. But I, in particular, didn’t pay much attention. I said to myself, “it’s just talk.”
One of my uncles, though, was getting desperate. My mother and my sister refused to leave the house, and he said, “There is no reason you can’t go out, this is ours, you don’t have to give them anything. We haven’t done anything to them.”
He called up the Cartagena Battalion in Riohacha on his cell phone. It’s almost impossible to believe. He told them, “There are some men here who are paramilitaries, and they are threatening to kill everyone, to destroy the community. We need you to send some troops here.”
And they said “Yes, we know. We are preparing to send some troops over.”
So what happened? A half hour later he got a call on his cell phone. The paramilitaries told him they were going to kill him, that they were going to cut him to pieces. They said a whole lot of things to him. We were just paralyzed when we found out they had called him like that.
What happened in the days before the massacre? Where were you? And what happened during the massacre itself?
I was in Uribia. I was the police inspector for the municipio. The massacre happened on a Sunday. I personally had received threats a week before, saying they were going to kill my family. It happened that they were in the house of an aunt of mine, and my aunt could not stand it any more, and she said, “But why do you have to come here to abuse me?” She was serving lunch, and one of the paramilitaries came and kicked the food. She spoke rudely to him, she said, “I’m going to leave here, I’m going to go somewhere and lodge a protest against you.” Because of what she said, the guy mistreated her.
So they called me, and they said, “Tell her to keep her mouth shut, because if she doesn’t, we’re going to finish her off. And we’re going to kill you too.” And I guess they carried out their threat because they cut all of the women’s heads off, they put a grenade in one woman’s head. All of that … It was a Sunday.
I’ll tell you what happened, quickly. At 6:30 in the morning on the 18th of April, 150 men came down from the Macuira mountain. There is a military base there. A lot of people saw them. My grandmother said that she saw men in uniform, and that she did not pay much attention. I said, “Why not?” My aunt, who was one of those killed, in front of my little cousin, said, “Why should we be afraid? It’s the police, it isn’t those sons-of-bitches who come around here sometimes, it’s the police. We should stay where we are, because it’s the army.” And it was true, it was the army. So they let themselves be grabbed. The men took my aunts by the arms and they pushed my grandmother; she had fractures in her legs when we found her.
People began to run. The children ran because people said, “Go tell so-and-so to watch out, that these are bad people, that they are killing people.” That’s why there are a lot of children missing. The houses aren’t close together, they are far apart. People began to realize what was happening when they began to drag Rubén away.
Rubén Epinayuu. He was 18 years old. They tied him with a chain to a Toyota, and began to drag him. That’s when everybody started running. The majority, practically everybody who escaped, fled to the mangrove swamps. People were also running for the sea. People preferred to drown.
The uniformed men did not kill the women right away. Instead they turned them over to 30 men in civilian clothes, who were the same ones that the community already knew [the paramilitaries]. They are the ones who carried out these massacres.
Do you have the names of the people who were killed, and of the children who are missing?
Yes, I have the names. There is Rosa Fince Uriana, there is Diana Fince Uriana, there is Reina Fince Pushaina, there is Rubén Epinayuu, there is Graciela, a six-year-old girl, there is Vicki, who is seven years old, there is Rolán Fince Eber, Eliso Eber Fince, Nicolás Ballesteros Barros, and Rubén Epinayuu, another Rubén Epinayuu, who is a Fince, Rubén Epinayuu Pushaina.
The children who are missing, whose children are they?
The children who are missing are my cousins. I have a girl cousin, two little boy cousins, they are children of relatives of ours who are from the same community as us.
How old are the children?
They are seven, eight, and nine years old.
What happened after the massacre ended. Did you file any report? Did you go back?
It’s sad to have to tell this, what happened to us. We called the army, we called everybody. It seems impossible to believe. And the army said, everybody said, “No, this is just a conflict between two families, they’ll have to work it out.” That’s what they said, and so we went to get the corpses on April 21, three days after the massacre. We decided that if we were going to die, we were going to die, but we were going to go in, just us women, to pick up the bodies. At first we thought that they had killed the whole community, because nobody was coming out.
It turned out that all of the children, and some of the women, were in the mangrove swamps. They were there for almost three days, drinking salt water, with nothing to eat. That’s why many of the people, when we arrived, were dehydrated.
You said earlier that the paramilitaries wanted to take over the land in Bahía Portete?
Yes, they wanted to be able to use it without interference for drug trafficking. And to bring in arms and export whatever they want through the port. That’s why they wanted to do away with the community.
More or less how far is the area where the massacre took place from the army headquarters?
The army base in Uribia is an hour and 10 minutes away. The other base is a bit further, about two and a half hours away.
What is happening to you now? Where are the people who survived the massacre?
All of us who survived the massacre decided to go to Maracaibo [Venezuela]. Why Maracaibo? Because we don’t trust the Colombian government, we don’t trust the army. It was the army that captured the women so they could be killed. That’s why we made the decision to go to Maracaibo, and ask the Venezuelan government to help us. That’s where we reported the massacre. Because we were afraid that if they realized we were still in the area, they would come and finish us off.
What do you think of Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos’ statement to the press on August 1 that the communities have returned to Bahía Portete?
What the vice president said was a bad joke. How could he possibly talk about the return of the community to Bahía Portete, when the community of Bahía Portete is in Maracaibo? There are 320 people there!
What he said is a lie. Maybe some people have returned to the surrounding areas. But the community of Bahía Portete has not returned, and will not return until we have guarantees for our safety. We will wait until the government gets the paramilitaries out, because they are still there.
Look what they did. Four months have passed, and they put a new military base in Portete. All of the houses are empty, and the paramilitaries are still there. With the army on one side, and the paramilitaries on the other, how could the government think that we would return? What they did was gather some people from the surrounding areas. They brought them to Portete for a few minutes. They distributed a lot of food.
We want to return to our territories, and we are going to return. But we will not return until the government gets the paramilitaries out. The government is using the strategy of not getting rid of the paramilitaries because it does not want us to return. We know that they have an interest in taking over the land.
1. These are not nuclear families, but large extended families or matrilineal clans, which are the main units of Wayuu social organization.
2. An energy-producing windmill project.
3. Policía Fiscal y Aduanera, the Judicial and Customs Police; Dirección de Impuestos y Aduanas Nacionales, the National Tax and Customs Directorate.
This interview was translated by Aviva Chomsky.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Response from John Tierney
Template for letters of support for SINTRACARBON negotiations
1. We (in the U.S. and Canada) receive coal from the Cerrejon mine
2. The union at the mine, Sintracarbon, will begin contract negotiations on November 1.
3. The union has taken a courageous and unprecedented step in including in its bargaining proposal a demand that the collective rights of the Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities affected and/or displaced by the mine be recognized and addressed.
4. The communities are asking for COLLECTIVE NEGOTIATIONS; COLLECTIVE RELOCATION; AND REPARATIONS
5. The labor movement in Colombia has been the target of all-out assault in the past 20 years. Several thousand union leaders and activists have been killed. Not a single one of these murders has been resolved. Assassinations often occur during contract negotiations. In 2001, three union leaders at another U.S.-owned coal mine in the neighboring province were murdered.
6. The government of Denmark has suspended coal purchases from the Drummond mine (where union leaders were killed) until the court case in the U.S. charging Drummond with complicity in the murders is resolved.
We demand:
1. Absolute respect for international labor norms and human rights and the lives and integrity of Sintracarbon members and all Cerrejon workers during the bargaining process and beyond. No military involvement in any labor dispute that might arise. (In the 1990s the mine was occupied by the army on several occasions during labor negotiations.)
2. That the mine recognize the collective rights of the communities and the union’s demand that these rights be recognized
3. That Dominion Energy and other coal purchasers urge the mine to negotiate in good faith with the union, not militarize any labor dispute, and acknowledge the collective rights of the communities.
We affirm:
1. Our support for the unions, workers and peasants of Colombia who are struggling peacefully for a more just distribution of the country’s resources
2. Our support for the rights of the communities of Tabaco, Tamaquito, Chancleta, Roche and Patilla to collective negotiation, collective relocation, and reparations
3. Our support for Sintracarbon in its struggle for the rights of unionized workers, contract workers, and communities in the mining region.
HEALTHLINK TO HOST AVI CHOMSKY
SWAMPSCOTT, MA., October 3, 2006 – HealthLink, a North Shore environmental nonprofit group, today announced it will host a presentation October 12 by Salem State College History Professor Avi Chomsky, who will show slides and discuss her recent trip to El Cerrejon, the world’s largest open pit coal mine and an increasing source of coal for the Salem Power Station.
HealthLink supports Professor Chomsky’s mission to help improve the lives of Colombian villagers who have been sickened and displaced by the mine, which currently supplies one third of its coal to Northeastern U.S. power plants. “HealthLink has been working on cleaning up Salem Power Station. We’ve been working on getting the word out about alternative forms of clean, renewable energy such as wind and solar power. And we’re also quite concerned about the plight of people whose lives have been devastated by this mine that supplies much of the coal to Salem,” said Lynn Nadeau, a founding HealthLink member. “Supporting Professor Chomsky and her delegation is part and parcel of HealthLink’s mission.”
The El Cerrejon mine is three miles wide, 30 miles long, and produces 15 million tons of coal a year. Because of its enormity, dust from the mine constantly blows from the site, polluting the land, air, and water of the surrounding region and destroying the health and livelihoods of indigenous farmers, hunters, and villagers. Land-taking to expand the mine has also resulted in the eviction of numerous villagers, and promises to put as many as 5,000 more at risk in coming years.
“We really saw first hand how the political and energy choices we make in this country can devastate people in other parts of the world,” said Chomsky.
Chomsky’s talk will be held at 7 pm at the First Church in Salem on 316 Essex Street. The delegation is currently planning a return trip to Colombia in November to further analyze the villagers’ plight and assist with solutions.
Separately, Salem Mayor Kimberly Driscoll recently met with Jose Julio Perez, an activist working on behalf of his fellow villagers in Colombia, after which the Mayor signed a proclamation to honor, recognize, and support Mr. Perez in his efforts to fight for the environment, public health, employee rights and social awareness of his fellow villagers.
HealthLink’s mission is to protect and improve public health by reducing and eliminating pollutants and toxic substances from our environment through research, education, and community service.
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HealthLink Linking Health and the Environment
CONTACT: HealthLink 781-598-1115 or Lynn Nadeau 631-6288
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