The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog

Barranquilla, Novembre 8, 2006

Compañera:

Avi Chomsky

Warm greetings:

All of us here in the Guajira would like to thank you and the members of your international delegation who we had the privilege of accompanying in the important task of bringing a voice of hope to the members of the communities surrounding the Cerrejón mining complex.

I particularly want to express my sincere gratitude to you for allowing us to share these life experiences with you. This kind of experience is what brings us the strength and conviction that we need to continue our struggle against the social inequalities in our country. Our experience with you allowed us to come close to these uprooted and displaced communities that are suffering from desperation and depression because of the way they are humiliated and assaulted by the strength of foreign capital, with the blessing of the Colombian state. Their fundamental rights have been violated. These communities lack the most minimal conditions necessary for a decent life. They seem to belong to the living dead.

Beginning now we as a union are proposing that just as the company has a social responsibility for the way it runs its business, our union has a moral and political responsibility before the destruction that the Guajira communities are suffering at the hands of Cerrejón. The company generates huge profits through the misery, poverty, and uprooting of these populations. The communities have to pay a very high price for the company’s profits.

Once more we sincerely thank you for your solidarity and your cooperation. We are convinced that only the unity among the different peoples of the world can allow us to confront these economically powerful and inhuman multinationals in the name of the communities that have the misfortune to be located in the path of the mine’s expansion.

To all of the members from the international delegation, we reiterate that only unity, organization, and struggle will allow us to bring about social justice.

Avi, please translate this document and share it with the rest of the delegation. Finally, I’d like to share some words by Che Guevara, which I think respond to a question that Tom asked, with respect to the meaning of the word “compañero.”

“We are not friends, we are not relatives, we don’t even know each other. But if you, as I, are outraged by any act of injustice committed in the world, then we are compañeros.” However, we also now consider you all to be our friends and our relatives. Forever united,

Jairo