U.S. ambassador to Colombia lauds Uribe government on security

[Say_What]

*Solid and democratic*--LOL. That last paragraph is a joke. Those paras who *surrendered* are now at a recreation location for three weeks of vacation. When they surrendered, reporters were NOT allowed to speak to interview them at all. After R&R they are supposed to be *retrained* and integrated back into society--but the city government of Medellin is saying "not with our tax dollars". Also, these thugs are being protected at this recreation spot with THREE rings of security manned by the Colombian Army.

85% of funding (our tax dollars) to Colombia goes to the military (many trained at the SOA) who in turn trains and advises the paramilitaries. Paramilitaries are responsible for 70% of the atrocities commited in Colombia, most in the area that produces most of Colombia's OIL. Colombia is the US' 8th largest supplier of OIL. It ain't about drugs folks--see the documentary Plan Colombia: Cashing in on the Drug War Failure (Paul Wellstone is among those interviewed.)

<clips>

Bogota, Dec 2 (EFE). - U.S. Ambassador to Colombia William Wood has lauded President Alvaro Uribe's government as "solid and democratic" and praised his administration's committment to ending violent political unrest.

In comments late Monday at an economic forum, Wood said that Uribe's steps to end insurgencies from the left and right "has created a sense of confidence and trust" among Colombians and foreign investors.

Since taking office 18 months ago, the president has worked to either crush or work out peace deals with the leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups fighting the country's armed forces.

Last month, the government reached an agreement for the surrender of more than 800 members of the largest paramilitary organization and their reinsertion into society.


http://www.efenews.com/includesasp/noticias.asp?opcion=0&id=5725660

---

In addition to Occidental Petroleum other companies that are part of the U.S.-Colombia Business Partnership include:

Dole Foods
Coca-Cola
Drummond Coal Company
Exxon Mobil
Colgate-Palmolive Co.
Enron Corporation

<clips>

...Occidental Petroleum Corporation’s background
Occidental Petroleum Corporation is one of the largest U.S.-based oil and gas companies. Occidental “discovered” Caño-Limón, Colombia’s second largest oil field. Occidental’s investment in Caño-Limón has yielded hundreds of million dollars annually although the pipeline has been a target of guerrilla forces.

Occidental’s Vice President for Public Affairs has made it clear that drug trafficking and attacks by guerrilla forces have disrupted the company’s normal operations. But according to the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), Occidental has also fueled the violence by employing drug-funded paramilitary groups to forcibly remove Colombia’s indigenous populations from potentially oil-rich lands. Paramilitary forces, which benefit from the drug trade and commit 70 percent of the human rights violations, have been utilized to combat the guerrillas who want the oil production in Colombia to be nationalized.

Occidental lobbying in Washington, D.C.
Between 1996 and 2000, Occidental spent more than $8.6 million (U.S.) lobbying the U.S. government for military aid to Colombia and aid to protect the Caño-Limón pipeline. Recently, the Bush administration allotted $98 million to protect the pipeline.

The real costs of pipeline protection
According to a report from Witness for Peace, the potential outcomes of the Bush administration’s proposal to spend $98 million on protecting the pipeline are alarming:

http://www.afsc.org/latinamerica/peace/military-aid-oil.htm

---

Article from 2002 describing our tax dollars at work funding murder, torture and *security* for the pipeline (gotta keep those gas guzzling SUVs on the road) </sarcasm>.

<clips>

...Role of Paramilitaries

The Colombian army has long been accused of cooperating with the paramilitaries because both sides share a common enemy in the guerrillas. The paramilitaries, financed by drugs and large landowners, use massacres and torture to fight the rebels in areas that have been neglected by Colombia's thinly stretched armed forces.

U.S. and Colombian officials defend the training plan, saying it will protect oil flow along the pipeline, which provides an important source of revenue for the Colombian government. The additional income from the protected pipeline will allow the Colombian government to step up efforts to combat the rebels and paramilitaries, the officials argue, as well as the drugs that flow to U.S. streets.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0915-07.htm

---

On edit: Funding for the Oil pipeline

...U.S. funds appropriated since August 2002 to help Colombia’s military protect the Caño Limón-Coveñas oil pipeline<9>: $99 million

Share of oil in this pipeline belonging to U.S.-based Occidental Petroleum<10>: 43.75%

http://colhrnet.igc.org/newitems/nov03/uscol.numbers..htm

[BayCityProgressive]

1. Oh for the love of God

Columbia is fair and democratic yet Cuba is a hell on Earth? Now I have heard it all. The USA really knows how to treat people fairly.

[Say_What]

2. Amazing isn't it?

Uncle Sam proclaims *democracy* has finally come to Latin America, everywhere but Cuba!! LOL and take a look at that article about gangs terrorizing Central America and the RW ruling party in El Salvador that was formed in September 1981 by rightist military officers and landowners as well as leaders of the death squads. Yep. That's the US version of *democracy*.

[Say_What]

3. Colombia and Human Rights

Barrancabermeja, Colombia is the murder capital of the world. 94 assasinations and 56 kidnappings this year alone. Folks need to pay attention to what's going on in Colombia--our tax dollars are supporting these atrocities--why? OIL.

Note US lapdog Uribe's statement in a speech that human rights workers are "spokespeople" for terrorists.

<clips>

"We will not raise our children for war," is the oft-repeated statement of the Popular Women's Organization (OFP), a group in Barrancabermeja, Colombia, that works with displaced communities to defend human rights. Yet an outspoken commitment to protect one's children can be enough to become a target of Colombia's violent political war.

On October 16, Esperanza Amaris Miranda, a leading member of the OFP, was abducted from her home in Barrancabermeja and murdered. In the past, Miranda had denounced paramilitary threats before the federal prosecutor. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Right's office, she was killed by three members of the paramilitary group Bloque Central Bolívar, an organization with documented ties to the Colombian military.

Murder and abduction of social activists in Colombia is not uncommon. In the town of Barrancabermeja alone, there have been ninety-four assassinations and fifty-six kidnappings this year. Throughout the country, there were 6,978 murders, disappearances or combat deaths as a result of political violence between July 1, 2002 and June 30, 2003. The Colombian Trade Union Congress estimates that in 2002, 172 trade unionists were killed, 164 received death threats and 132 were arbitrarily detained by authorities. Paramilitary groups, with the support of the Colombian armed forces, carried out many of these attacks.

Despite the extremely dangerous climate for social activism, the Colombian government continues to blatantly disregard human rights. Recent inflammatory statements by President Alvaro Uribe drive this point home. Speaking on September 8 before leaders of the armed forces at the inauguration of the new head of the airforce, Uribe condemned human rights defenders as terrorist sympathizers and cowards. He derided unspecified groups for supporting terrorism "under the pretext of defending human rights," and for hiding "their political ideas behind human rights." He called human rights workers "spokespeople" for terrorists, and he challenged them to "take off their masks."

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20031124&s=englander

[Judi Lynn]

4. So they just snuff them.

Pesky human rights workers, union workers, religious people who protest state sanctioned murder, etc., etc.

An article written at the very first of the year, refers to very rough stuff within the first two months:

DEMOCRATIC SECURITY CONTINUES TO HIT THE WORKERS AND THE PEOPLE

TO DATE ON 26 FEBRUARY 2003 NINE TRADE UNIONISTS HAVE BEEN ASSASSINATED THIS YEAR - THIS IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ALVARO URIBE, PRESIDENT OF COLOMBIA


The Central Trade union Federation of Colombia (CUT), through its human rights department, once more denounces before the world the onslaught against the trade union movement and especially aganist unions affiliated to the CUT. We ask that any person in receipt of this communication distributes it and at the same time sends messages of protest to the Colombian government for its responsibility as a State for these acts.


ASSASSINATIONS


On 20 February 2003, on the road from Alban to Bituima, JUAN ANTONIO BOHORQUEZ MEDINA of the trade union executive for the municipality of Bituima, affiliate of FECODE-CUT and who worked in the municipality of Alban, Cundinamarca, was kidnapped. Three days later his body was found. He had been horribly murdered in the jurisdiction of the municipality of Alban.


On 21 February 2003 at 7:30pm, FREDY PERILLA MONTOYA, a worker for the EMCALI Telephone Company (EICE) and SINTRAEMCALI activist, was intercepted by individuals travelling in a white van with polarised windows. They tried to force the comrade to get into the vehicle. He resisted and struggled with them and when they saw they were not going to succeed in taking him with them, they shot him six times and fled.


RAIDS AND DETENTIONS


On Wednesday 19 February 2003, in the night, the home of comrade RAFAEL PALENCIA FERNANDEZ was raided. He is an active member of the workers union, SINTRAMINTRABAJO which had been taking legal action on behalf of the freight workers against the transnational Coca Cola.

At present the comrade is in detention in the cells of the SIJIN in Cartagena, accused of supposedly belonging to the urban militias of the insurgency and of possibly planning terrorist acts in the city to coincide with the Businessmen's Congress with President Uribe on 20 and 21 February 2003. However, according to our comrade he is the victim of a vile montage by the forces of the State.

On the same night of 19 February 2003, the home of teaching comrade, affiliated to FECODE, SAMUEL REYES, was raided. He was a victim of the same montage as comrade Palencia.


On 22 February 2003. members of the secret police, detained in suspicious and inconsiderate circumstances, in the city of Manzinales, comrade ROBINSON BELTRAN HERRERA, President of the Workers Union at the Regional Autonomous Corporation of the Atlantic Coast, Otrora Corelca - SINTRAELECO CORELCA.


According to the secret police, they were notified of an order to capture the comrade by the Catagena Public Prosecutor's Office, which they carried out immediately.


THREATS


On 17 February at around 11:30am, a letter posted to the Colombian Association of Graphic Reporters arrived which contained threats against the president of the trade union, GLADYA BARAJAS and her family.

On Thursday 20 February, at 1:10pm, when the trade union leader and civic leader, ELBER ALBERTO GRANJA, former president of SINTRAMUNICIPIO YUMBO, and currently president of the Communal Action Committee for the Municipality of Vijes, Valle del Cauca, was on the footpath outside his house when he observed an individual with a firearm who started to shoot at him. (snip)

http://www.anncol.com/March_03/0404_police.htm



President Uribe praises one of his generals:

NEWSDESK

20 Nov 2003 21:58:21 GMT
Uribe denies Colombia general's death squad ties


By Phil Stewart

BOGOTA, Colombia, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe defended his new armed forces commander on Thursday after Amnesty International claimed the general colluded with far-right killers on the U.S. terrorist list.

Uribe told reporters Gen. Carlos Aberto Ospina was an "upright soldier" with the battlefield experience needed to lead the war against Marxist rebels.

"Gen. Ospina has (decades) of service to the nation. He is an upright soldier," Uribe told reporters, two days after naming Ospina to the post.

Amnesty International accused Ospina of a "long history" of working with ultra-right paramilitary death squads, blamed for killing thousands of people in their dirty war against Marxist rebels. (snip)

(snip) The rights group recalled a 1997 massacre in a northeastern region controlled by Ospina's 4th army brigade. It said troops surrounded the town of El Aro, allowing paramilitaries to round up villagers and kill four of them in cold blood. (snip/...)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20160075.htm


UNIONS VS. COCA-COLA COLOMBIA: WORKERS DEFY DEATH SQUADS

BULLETIN: Tens of thousands of Colombian students and workers marched five miles from the National University to the Simon Bolivar Plaza in downtown Bogotá Dec. 10. The demonstrators were protesting President Alvaro Uribe's plans to reorganize education and privatize Colombian industry for the benefit of transnational corporations. They also carried signs protesting Plan Colombia, Washington's program for military intervention against revolutionary guerrillas in the country.
By Rebeca Toledo
Bogotá, Colombia

December 13, 2002--As a 22-member-strong delegation from the International Action Center in the United States approached the Coca-Cola headquarters here on Dec. 5, rousing applause erupted from hundreds of protesters already gathered. Members of the delegation carried a banner that read: "The people of the U.S. demand justice for the people of Colombia. No to Coca-Cola and no to Plan Colombia."

The National Union of Food Industry Workers--Sinaltrainal--called the protest, to be held before a Tribunal Against the Violence of Coca-Cola later that same day.

The crowd chanted vigorously, "Who is paying for violence in Colombia? Coca-Cola!" and, "Why do they assassinate us when we are the hope of Latin America?"

After speeches of solidarity, the protesters moved on to the U.S. Embassy, where they were met by armed guards and riot police. Here the chants turned to: "We don't want to be a colony of the U.S., we want to be a free and sovereign Colombia" and "The workers aren't terrorists, U.S. imperialism is the terrorist." (snip)

(snip) Ironically, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had just left Bogotá when the delegates arrived. Powell had arrived Dec. 3 at a military airport here amid heavy security. Two military helicopters circled over the city while more than 50 motorcycle police officers and hundreds of soldiers were deployed to guard the route to his hotel.

Through Plan Colombia and the Andean Initiative, the U.S. government has provided well over $1 billion in aid to Colombia since 2000--mostly in military goods to stop the strong movement for social justice in Colombia, which includes insurgency groups, labor unionists, students, campesinos, and human-rights and community leaders.

During Powell's visit he promised to pour another $200 million into the military and police forces. There are now reportedly more U.S. troops in Colombia than there were in Central America in the 1980s. (snip/...)

http://www.iacenter.org/col_sum1202.html

[Say_What]

5. Gen. Carlos Aberto Ospina was instructor at the School of the Americas

<clips>

...Uribe promoted Gen. Jorge Enrique Mora Rangel from army chief to
commander of the Armed Forces, and named Gen. Carlos Alberto
Ospina Ovalle to replace Mora as army chief. Ospina served as an
instructor at the US Army's School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort
Benning, Georgia, from November 1987 to November 1988, while
still a colonel. {AP 8/15/02; SOA Graduates List from SOA Watch
website} According to a February 2000 Human Rights Watch report,
Ospina commanded the Army's 4th Brigade at a time when "extensive
evidence" showed "pervasive ties" between the 4th Brigade and
paramilitary groups. Ospina has specifically been named as
responsible for an October 1997 massacre of 11 civilians in El
Aro, the forced disappearance of 30 other people and an April
1998 operation in which numerous unarmed campesinos were
massacred in San Rafael municipality, Antioquia department.

---

Editorial today in the Sun Sentinel about Ospina

...That's a comforting conclusion, but the changeover in Colombia's military brass is concerning.

Two major human rights groups, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, complain that Mora's replacement, Gen. Carlos Ospina Ovalle, has long been suspected of having ties to paramilitary forces, which are responsible for a fair share of atrocities in what is a bloody civil war. In addition, the groups also point out that troops under Ospina Ovalle's command were implicated in a 1997 massacre, in which they are alleged to have cooperated with the right-wing paramilitary squads.

Colombia has entered a critical juncture in its civil war. Just last month, almost 900 men aligned with the country's biggest paramilitary organization turned in their arms at the start of a peace process between the rightist groups and the government.

If, through its promotion of Ospina Ovalle, the Uribe government signals that it worries less about abuses by those on the right than those on the left, such as the FARC guerrilla army, then that's the wrong message to send. And it's a particularly wrong time to send it, too.

<http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/editorial/sfl-editafcolombiadec02,0,7734878.story?coll=sfla-news-editorial>

[Say_What]

7. From the ANNCOL link: Five Colombian generals caught stealing US aid

Your money and mine sent to Colombia in the name of *democracy*. A bigger lie we will never hear.

<clips>
Half of all Colombia’s Police generals have been sacked after being caught spending US money - meant for paying snitches and fighting guerrillas - on diamonds, booze and chocolate during a three-year long fiesta. The scandal comes only days after the resignation of the Minister of Defence and the commander of the military forces, who has lost several hundred troops in combat with guerrillas in recent months.

...Police provided traffickers with cocaine

Colombia’s president Álvaro Uribe, who is no stranger to corruption himself having being sacked twice during his political career for providing favours to powerful drug cartels, was apparently forced by US pressure to take action against the top cops last week.

Uribe sacked half of the country’s Police generals, including the supreme National Police commander general Teodoro Campo and the commander of the Police in Medellín, General Leonardo Gallego, who is a key liaison between Uribe and the paramilitary death squads led by Carlos Castaño in the northern Antioquia department. General Gallego and Uribe had announced that they would receive 800 death squad members who have been pardoned for their crimes by the government in a ceremony in Medellín on November 25th.

The other three generals that have been removed are chief of operations Luis Alfredo Rodríguez, general Hector Darío and General Víctor Páez. On Wednesday 12th, the commander of the Police in Bogotá, General Jorge Castro, was named new chief of the National Police.

http://www.anncol.org/side/188

[Judi Lynn]

10. Very high ranking corruptos too, weren't they?

No problem. It's only our tax money!

This was hard to miss, too:

Meanwhile, inquiries continue into the disappearance of two tonnes of cocaine being held in custody by the police in Barranquilla. The narcotics, intended for export, was apparently returned to the paramilitary drug traffickers from whom it was seized in the first place.

The corruption scandals comes at the worst possible moment for the extremist government of Uribe, who is still groggy after more than 75 % of the voters last month boycotted a constitutional referendum, that Uribe had called “a vote against terrorism”. The purpose of the referendum was to provide further authoritarian powers to the military and the president, and to pave the way for more taxes to pay for the war. {snip)

We've heard someone mentioning Uribe could be in trouble, but it's almost impossible to hear any part of the truth about this _Bush buddy.

[Say_What]

13. Here's a newly published interview from Red Pepper

The woman being interviewed thinks that the US is trying to make it's own Israel in Latin America--a place that will be propped up with US military aid and loyal to US interests. This makes sense--particularly now that the Panama military base, from which all interventions in Latin America since WWII emenated, closed in 1999.

<clips>

Mariela Kohon: In your recently published book Inside Colombia, you state that Plan Colombia has been turned from a peace plan into a ‘battle plan’ and that ‘the military element is by far the most important’. What is Plan Colombia and what do you mean by this statement?

Grace Livingstone: There were two versions of Plan Colombia. The first version was written in Spanish by Colombians in May 1999. It was not particularly radical, but it was a peace and development plan which aimed to dissuade peasants from growing coca crops or joining armed groups by investing in alternative rural development and education. It did not mention drugs trafficking, military action or spraying crops with pesticides.

US officials re-wrote the draft entirely in October 1999. Their involvement was so extensive that the final version of Plan Colombia was published in English – not Spanish. Strengthening the authority of the state (by re-equipping and expanding the armed forces) became the main objective. An intensive militarised crop spraying campaign was also introduced. The US basically transformed Plan Colombia to meet their own perceived security needs – that is, the need to combat the Colombian guerrillas. It was used as a vehicle to step up counter-insurgency aid and US military involvement in Colombia at a time when combating drugs was the only acceptable pretext for intervention.

Some have argued that Colombia’s recently elected president, Alvaro Uribe Velez, with the backing of the US, is imposing ‘state terrorism’. What are your thoughts on this?

Colombia’s human rights record was so appalling in the 1990s that the US Congress banned all military aid to Colombia, except counter-narcotics aid. Of course, the counter-drugs aid found its way to counter-insurgency units and to the paramilitaries, but at least US politicians showed some awareness of the human rights problem. The ban also stemmed from a desire not to repeat the horrors of US foreign policy in Central America in the 1980s. Under the auspices of fighting communism, an illegal and cruel war was launched in Nicaragua, thousands were ‘disappeared’ in El Salvador and 200,000 people were murdered in Guatemala.

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Dec2003/x-Dec2003-Livingstone.html

[Judi Lynn]

14. I've heard of Coca-Cola's hiring death squads previously

Saw a reference in your article:

The Coca-Cola case is very important because the Colombian food workers’ trade union (Sinaltrainal) is trying to establish in court a direct link between a multinational company and the paramilitaries. Nine trade unionists working in Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia have been killed by paramilitaries. In a court action lodged in Miami, Florida, the union claims the paramilitaries were acting on behalf of the company. In March, the court ruled that the case could proceed. Now, Panamco Colombia (Coca-Cola’s bottlers in Colombia) is suing the union for slander. More details are available on the union’s website (www.sinaltrainal.org).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``

(snip) Friday, 20 July, 2001, 14:04 GMT 15:04 UK
Coke sued over death squad claims




Right-wing paramilitaries under arrest in Colombia

Trade union leaders in the United States have said they are suing the soft-drinks company Coca-Cola for allegedly hiring right-wing death squads to terrorise workers at its Colombian bottling plant.
A spokesman for Coca-Cola in Atlanta said its Colombian bottling plants were run by business partners and denied any wrongdoing by the company.

Lawyers for the United Steel workers union say they will file the lawsuit in Miami on Friday on behalf of the Colombian union Sinaltrainal.

The suit alleges that Coca-Cola and Panamerican Beverages, its principal bottler in Latin America, waged what union leaders describe as a campaign of terror, using paramilitaries to kill, torture and kidnap union leaders in Colombia.

Indirect responsbility

In a 66-page complaint presented at a news conference in Bogota, Sinaltrainal alleges that Coca-Cola bears indirect responsibility for the killing of Isidro Segundo Gil, a union leader shot dead on 5 December 1996. (snip/...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1448962.stm

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

Shameful, isn't it, learning just how goddawfully some American countries exploit native workers, corrupting some, and destroying others?

[Judi Lynn]

15. Just found another reason Cynthia McKinney may have been unpopular

with certain parts of the American "bidness" community. Never knew this before:

The slaughter of trade union leaders in several Coca-Cola bottling locations in Colombia directly parallels a scenario that took place in the 1980s in Guatemala City, when a rightwing American owner who lived in Texas-in the Colombian case, one of the owners is from Florida-was accused of contracting the hired services of extremist death squad units to murder trade union leaders at a Coca-Cola plant. This case became so notorious, with union leader after union leader being murdered, that eventually Coca-Cola's management, from its headquarters in Atlanta, decided to buy back the bottling plant from its American owner in an urgent effort to halt the bad publicity.

At the time that the company decided to buy back the franchise from the Trotter family, it was not envisaged that several decades later the soft drink giant would relive the events, this time in Colombia. Coca-Cola is not the only loser, the government of Colombia under its incoming president, Álvaro Uribe will also receive negative publicity over the Coca-Cola suit, including the systematic killing of labor leaders at a faster rate than any other Latin American country. According to the Colombian Labor Monitor, 105 union members have been assassinated between January 1, 2002 and July 18, 2002.

Despite the sluggish pace of legal action, the suit already has achieved one of its most important goals: drawing major media attention to the dismal conditions suffered by organized labor in Colombia. Although the case has temporarily faded from national attention in the U.S., two events planned for this month should revive the controversy. On July 20, an educational forum on both Colombia and human rights issues will bring various Colombian and American unionists together. Javier Correa, the President of the Colombian Food and Beverage Workers Union is scheduled to speak, along with U.S. Congressional Representative Cynthia McKinney. Just two days later, across the street from Coca-Cola's corporate headquarters in Atlanta, a rally will bring together those opposing Coca-Cola's treatment of workers. Through these efforts, organizers hope to illuminate "Coca-Cola's lack of concern over the safety of its workers in bottling plants in Colombia." In addition to highlighting the abuses being perpetrated by management, the rally will focus attention to the plight of Colombian unionists, who are frequent targets of the country's right-wing extremists. (snip/...)

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0207/S00087.htm

Return Cynthia McKinney to Congress! ASAP!

[Say_What]

19. Let nothing stand in way of the multinationals

they'll go to any lengths to protect US interests and Coke is a perfect example. BIG OIL is another.

[tedzbear]

6. Help. Is this right?

Columbia government: bad
Venezuela government: good
Brazil government: good
Bolivia government: bad
Chile government: bad

Bad also means "supported by the U.S."

[Say_What]

9. Start with Colombia and the articles on this thread

No offense, but good vs bad is way to simplistic for the complexities of Latin America. A few good threads are running today about Venezuela, Colombia, and Central America. Read the articles posted and begin to formulate your own opinion. Great that you are interested and feel free to jump into the discussion any time. The more you read the more you will learn. Colombia especially is unbelievably complex. As someone who spent 15 years in Latin America on another board pointed out recently about Colombia, "A most beautiful country, and a deadly one for campesinos and those involved in the FARC and ELN, the AUC, narcos and the military. It's kinda like a circle where everyone has a rifle pointed at each other."

Re 'Bad also means "supported by the U.S.", if you begin to look at the US support to Latin America it will become quickly apparent that when the US is sending loads of tax dollars anywhere it's because of US interests--NOT DEMOCRACY--as history has proved.

Peace!!

[Say_What]

12. Background on Colombia

Ted--what happened in Central America during the RayGun and Bush administration is now happening in Colombia. This drastic situation is completely ignored by the *free and democratic* corporate press.

<clips>

A brief background to the situation in Colombia prepared by the UK-based Colombia Peace Association.

For the past 50 years the South American nation of Colombia has been in a state of civil war. The conflict intensified when the government terminated peace talks with the FARC-EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army) rebel movement in February 2002, and this was further compounded when right-wing hardliner Alvaro Uribe Velez assumed the presidency in August 2002 and immediately declared a state of emergency - ushering in an even more repressive environment.

A central element of the Colombian conflict is the widespread and systematic violation of human rights; indeed, Colombia has the worst record in the Western Hemisphere. Agents of the State, most notably the Colombian police, military and the paramilitary death squads grouped under the AUC umbrella, routinely target large sectors of the civilian population for assassination, 'disappearance', torture and forced displacement. Those most affected by this State-sponsored terror include trade unionists, human rights workers, land-reform advocates, community leaders, students, academics, journalists and entire rural communities, including a disproportionately high number of indigenous and Afro-Colombian people.

Despite this appalling state of affairs, Colombia remains the third largest recipient of United States military aid in the world, with the now infamous 'Plan Colombia' alone having supplied billion in military training and hardware in recent years. Although this aid was given using the pretext of the 'War on Drugs', even Washington now admits that their real target are the growing insurgencies of the FARC-EP and ELN (National Liberation Army).

This counter-insurgency assistance is aimed at pushing the rebels and their civilian supporters out of regions rich in natural resources. Although the Colombian army and paramilitaries are responsible for the vast majority of this forced displacement, the U.S. too is responsible for driving tens of thousands from their land through a vicious campaign of chemical warfare, similar to the use of 'Agent Orange' in Vietnam.


http://www.anncol.org/side/41

[Judi Lynn]

8. Intense statement from Fromer Colombian M-19 Geurrilla & Congressman

Former Colombian M-19 guerrilla, Congressman Gustavo Petro says:

"Investigations in Congress find the paramilitary are the main exporters of cocaine. Carlos Castano helped the DEA kill Pablo Escobar and destroy the Medellin cartel. The paramilitary have infiltrated, or have connections with, the police, the military and the Attorney General's office. The paramilitary command 35% of the Congress, not because the people voted them in, but because people were forced to vote them in. "There is every indication that President Uribe is with the paramilitary. The policy of Uribe and his administration is to paramiltarize the entire society. They do this by strengthening the informers' network, by arming its citizens, and by using legal organizations. They no longer need 'illegal' paramilitaries, thus the negotiations. This is the first case in history where negotiations occur among friends. -

"For example: If the U.S. wants to solve the drug problem, for every $100 dollars made in cocaine production, only $2 remain with those who produce it, the drug mafia, which is more paramilitary everyday. Most money remains in the international economy. If I concentrate on the $2 of every $100, and want to cut coca production, the way to do it is through land reforms, in order to make land available to peasants, rather than through fumigation or alternative crop programs.

"U.S. foreign policy is wrong. It is using the drug issue to get at the oil fields. In the Americas, Venezuela is more important than Colombia. The first U.S. Green Beret battalion was not located in the coca area, but in Arauca, the main oil producing region near Venezuela. The paramilitary are being pushed toward Venezuela, and they now control 80% of the Colombian-Venezuelan border. Showing graphs and statistics, he pointed out that contrary to the U.S. claim that social violence erupts when there is drug growth, in 1957 through 1968, violence fell with the National Front and land reform policies. In 1985, negotiations between the government and the M-19 also lowered the amount of violence. 1991, the year the new constitution was being drafted, also saw a drop in violence. History, he concludes, demonstrates that violence diminishes with efforts to initiate land reform policies and democratic processes.(snip/...)

http://print.staughton.indypgh.org/news/2003/11/1695.php

[Say_What]

11. 'paramilitary command 35% of the Congress'

Unf*ck'nbelievable. In the documentary Plan Colombia a Colombian senator is interviewed saying that Plan Colombia was never debated in the Colombian congress. He said it was a back room deal between former Colombian president Pastrana, Clinton, and the State Department.

From the link:

... "The Colombian order is the most unequal on the planet. 11,700 Colombians, or .04%, are landowners. Together they own 32 million hectares of land, or nearly 55% of the total arable land in Colombia, and control over half of its resources. Since 1984, a total of eighteen years, they have tripled their extensions of land. "There are two methods to achieve this: lots of money, and violence and terrorism. "The paramilitary and cocaine explain the phenomenon. The social result is that millions of peasants gather in the cold upper mountains, the unhealthiest parts of the rainforest. Tens of thousands have been killed in massacres. There is no coca on 11,700 foot high land. All coca is located near the rainforest on peasant land, the areas fumigated through Plan Colombia. The United States fumigates the victims of narcotraffickers, while the narcotraffickers launder money and live happy in Miami under agreements with the DEA.”




On edit: Loose translation for the Plan Colombia sign: "the United States seems destined by providence to plague the Americas with misery in name of the freedom"

[Judi Lynn]

16. More on charges of Coca-Cola using death squads against Colombian workers

July 23, 2001

Coca-Cola Accused of Using Death Squads to Target Union Leaders

by Garry Leech

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Florida accuses the Coca-Cola Company, its Colombian subsidiary and business affiliates of using paramilitary death squads to murder, torture, kidnap and threaten union leaders at the multinational soft drink manufacturer's Colombian bottling plants. The suit was filed on July 20 by the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund on behalf of SINALTRAINAL, the Colombian union that represents workers at Coca-Cola's Colombian bottling plants; the estate of a murdered union leader; and five other unionists who worked for Coca-Cola and were threatened, kidnapped or tortured by paramilitaries.

Colombia has long been the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists with almost 4,000 murdered in the past 15 years. Last year saw 128 labor leaders assassinated. Most of the killings have been attributed to right-wing paramilitaries belonging to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), who view union organizers as subversives and, therefore, "legitimate" targets in their dirty war against Colombia's guerrilla insurgents. Three out of every five trade unionists killed in the world are Colombian. The most recent killing of a union leader at one of Coca-Cola's Colombian bottling plants was June 21 when Oscar Dario Soto Polo was gunned down.

Needless to say, companies in Colombia benefit from the reduced effectiveness of union organizing that results from the intimidation of workers by paramilitaries. But the complaint filed against Coca-Cola last week claims that the company does more than just benefit from paramilitary violence: it claims the company orchestrates it.

According to Terry Collingsworth of the Washington DC-based International Labor Rights Fund and co-counsel for the plaintiffs, "There is no question that Coke knew about, and benefits from, the systematic repression of trade union rights at its bottling plants in Colombia, and this case will make the company accountable." The plaintiffs are seeking compensation and an end to the human rights abuses committed against Coca-Cola's employees and union members. (snip/...)

http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia73.htm

[Judi Lynn]

17. Lawsuit against Coca-Cola and American plant owner

(snip) Eight Coca-Cola workers have been murdered, half of them as a response to the unions' demands for better working conditions or wages; 38 workers are displaced and 67 are living under death threats. Their families have been threatened and relatives kidnapped. Demonstrations have been attacked and union offices searched, bombed and burned.


The United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund on behalf of SINALTRAINAL--the National Union of Food Industry Workers--filed a suit in U.S. courts in July of 2001 against Coca-Cola. The suit maintains that Coca-Cola is responsible for the intimidation and murder of union organizers in its bottling plants in Colombia.


Javier Correa, president of SINALTRAINAL, said in a Dec. 5 speech that "According to a published article, in 1998 Coca-Cola officials met with paramilitary leader Carlos Castano in Cordoba."


The defendants in the case include Coca-Cola Corp., Coca-Cola Colombia, Panamco Beverages, Bebida y Alimentos, and Richard Kirby--the U.S. citizen who owns three of the bottling plants where union organizers have been murdered. (snip/...)

http://www.anncol.com/July_2003/2207_coca-cola.htm

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


WASHINGTON - Labor rights activists are suing Coca- Cola, the giant US-based multinational beverage company, for the killings and intimidation of union leaders at several of its bottling plants in Colombia.
The lawsuit, to be filed Friday in a Miami federal court, charges that Coke, by failing to prevent its bottlers in Colombia from bringing in right-wing paramilitary death squads to break up unions at its plants, bears responsibility for the abuses, including murder and torture, under both US and state law. (snip)

(snip) Also named as defendants in the lawsuit, which is being brought by the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) and the Washington- based International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF), are the bottlers themselves, Miami-based Panamco and Bebidas y Alimentos, a company owned by Richard Kirby and his son, Richard Kirby Keilland, both US citizens living in Key Biscayne, Florida. (snip)

(snip) Plaintiffs include SINALTRAINAL, a Colombian trade union that represents workers at a number of beverage and food companies in Colombia; the survivors of Isidro Segundo Gil, who was murdered by paramilitary forces inside the Carepa bottling plant in 1995' and several other union members who allegedly have been subjected to the paramilitaries' campaign of violence and intimidation.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0720-01.htm

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


More on American Coca-Cola Colombian plant(s) owner where where union workers were murdered:

(snip) The lawsuit in connection with the killing of Gil names Richard Kirby, the American owner of a bottling plant in Carepa, in northern Colombia, where the union leader was killed in 1996. The lawsuit alleges, in detail, that Kirby's plant manager at the time consorted with gunmen prior to the murder and made public comments that the gunmen would wipe out the union.

"I don't know if we met or not with them," Calderon said of Coke employees and right-wing paramilitary groups. But he said Coca-Cola had not negotiated with any factions in Colombia's war.

James McDonald, an attorney for Kirby, who lives in Key Biscayne, Fla., and Bogota, said, "Everyone recognizes the lawlessness in some parts of Colombia. Does that mean that Coke et al. are responsible for the violence perpetrated? I think that's a stretch. . . . The bottom line is, we deny these allegations." (snip/...)

http://www.laborrights.org/press/coke060602.htm

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



(snip) It is dangerous in Colombia to be a unionist, a student, a campesino, anyone who organizes for justice. The government of Alvaro Uribe Velez, with the political and financial support of the U.S. government, is broadening the more than 40-year-old civil war and paramilitarism in Colombia.

Paramilitaries, who are closely allied with the Colombian military, routinely intimidate, torture and murder union organizers and others. In the year 2000, three of every five unionists murdered in the world were killed in Colombia. Transnational corporations have moved much of their operations to countries like Colombia where neoliberal policies have destroyed obstacles to profit making. They take advantage of the rampant paramilitarism in Colombia.

Coca-Cola, Drummond and Nestle have all been accused of collaborating with paramilitaries to intimidate and murder union organizers. An international campaign is being organized to call attention to the abuses of transnationals in Colombia. It is focusing in particular on Coca-Cola, one of the most brutal and greedy corporations. Coca-Cola routinely exploits workers by subcontracting employees, laying them off without benefits, and by overworking and underpaying. But activists charge it also collaborates with paramilitaries to further repress workers who organize against these conditions. Eight Coca-Cola workers have been murdered, half of them as a response to the unions' demands for better working conditions or wages; 38 workers are displaced and 67 are living under death threats. Their families have been threatened and relatives kidnapped. Demon strations have been attacked and union offices searched, bombed and burned.

The United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund on behalf of SINALTRAINAL — the National Union of Food Industry Workers — filed a suit in U.S. courts in July of 2001 against Coca-Cola. The suit maintains that Coca-Cola is responsible for the intimidation and murder of union organizers in its bottling plants in Colombia. Javier Correa, president of SINALTRAINAL, said in a Dec. 5 speech that "According to a published article, in 1998 Coca-Cola officials met with paramilitary leader Carlos Castano in Cordoba."

The defendants in the case include Coca-Cola Corp., Coca-Cola Colombia, Panamco Beverages, Bebida y Alimentos, and Richard Kirby — the U.S. citizen who owns three of the bottling plants where union organizers have been murdered. In March, a U.S. district court judge awarded the unions a partial victory. Judge Jose E. Martinez ruled that the unions can go ahead with the suit against Panamco, Bebida y Alimentos and Richard Kirby. However, they removed Coca-Cola Corp. and Coca-Cola Colombia as defendants in the case. The unions are appealing the decision. (snip/...)

http://humanrightsonline.net/columbia3.html

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


Alvaro Uribe and George W. Bush

[Judi Lynn]

18. Paul Wellstone opposed "Plan Colombia"

Published on Saturday, December 2, 2000 by the Associated Press
Senator Paul Wellstone Takes The Lead Against 'Plan Colombia'
by Andrew Selsky

BARRANCABERMEJA, Colombia (AP) - Hard-eyed men with Uzis stood guard as Sen. Paul Wellstone stepped out of a helicopter and into a bulletproof car and drove to a meeting with human rights activists. Hours earlier, police said they discovered a bomb along the airport road.
U.S. and Colombian authorities Friday downplayed the possibility that Wellstone and U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson, who accompanied the Minnesota Democrat, were the intended targets of the bomb. Their visit marked the first time a U.S. lawmaker or ambassador had come to the deadliest town in all the Americas - a sweltering cluster of cinderblock homes on the banks of the muddy Magdalena River.

There was heavy security for the U.S. officials during their three-hour visit Thursday. But Barrancabermeja's 195,000 residents have no such protection: this year alone, 470 of them have been slain in politically motivated attacks, human rights workers say. Massacres are commonplace, and the killers are rarely caught.

Wellstone said he made the perilous journey to show support for the human rights activists, who face immense risk.

``I don't know whether I was targeted, but I certainly know that the human rights activists are targeted,'' Wellstone told an airport news conference on his return to Minneapolis on Friday. (snip/...)

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/120200-01.htm

He definitely took the more principled path, which has never been crowded in Washington.

[Say_What]

20. So does Dennis Kucinich...

I like this guy more all the time... maybe there's still hope.

<clips>

<clips>

Speech by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), July 23, 2003

...Aid to Colombia has failed to end the drug flow to America, and it has failed to protect human rights. Strong ties between the Colombian military and the paramilitary group AUC, which has been listed by the United States as a terrorist organization, are deeply disturbing, given the atrocious human rights abuses committed by the AUC. Most interestingly, The Washington Post recently published the findings of a report commissioned by President Uribe that showed the AUC, which frequently fights alongside the Colombian military, is a drug-trafficking organization. The report estimated that as much as 80 percent of the AUC's funding comes from drug trafficking. This means that the U.S. is funding a military that is working with a terrorist drug-trafficking organization in an effort to eradicate drugs. Does this not seem a little paradoxical?

The AUC's close relationship with the Colombian military is also disturbing because it implicates the United States in human rights abuses. How can the U.S. fund a military which has combined forces with a terrorist group responsible for torture, executions, and disappearances of innocent Colombian citizens? Until the Colombian government ceases its relationship with violent paramilitary groups that terrorize ordinary citizens, the United States must not directly fund it.

http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/030723kuci.htm

.

[Judi Lynn]

22. Is it that the other Congress people DON'T KNOW this is happening?

Or is it that they don't CARE?

Kucinich: "Ineffective and highly questionable funding of the Colombian military should not continue. U.S. taxpayer dollars should not be given to a military that is conducting human rights abuses against its own citizens. Instead, taxpayer dollars should be spent on worthy initiatives such as the HIV/AIDS programs that would genuinely benefit millions of suffering people."

Sure glad there's ONE man speaking out.

[Say_What]

23. ALERT: Ask your senator to force a debate on Colombia!

This was the alert from the Campaign for Labor Rights went out in September 2003. Apparently most congress critters do not know or are part of the money machine that entices them to keep their mouths shut. This is another situation where the US public knows nothing about what's going on there because the US press prints nothing about it--despite the fact that Colombia has the WORST record of atrocites in this hemisphere. Alarmingly, it's fast becoming another Central America with hundreds of thousands dead. Pathetic... :puke:

Here's the talking points:

<clips>

...TALKING POINTS

Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist. In 2002, 85% of all trade unionists murdered worldwide were Colombian.

The majority of Colombian trade unionist assassinations are committed by paramilitary forces linked to the Colombian military responsible for a long history of grave human rights abuses.

Paramilitary forces continue to operate with impunity. Not one person has been tried, let alone convicted, for the murders of over 400 trade unionists in 2001 and 2002.

U.S. unions challenge U.S. support to the Colombian military. Unions such as AFSCME, CWA, SEIU and other labor councils strongly oppose U.S. foreign aid to the Colombian military as it contributes to violence throughout the country.

Human rights abuses by U.S. foreign aid recipients violate US laws, rendering efforts by persons such as Senator Leahy to make U.S. aid contingent on democratic and human rights improvements meaningless.

Links between the paramilitary and the cocaine trade further weaken the administration's justification of aid to Colombia to fight narco-trafficking. In addition, aid to military units only succeeds in increasing violence and systematic violations of fundamental human rights, including the right to organized labor.

http://www.campaignforlaborrights.org/alerts/2003/sep05-colombia.htm

[Say_What]

24. Members of Congress and Colombia

Now that I read the information on the lawg.org site, I'm no longer puzzled by the *surrender* of the paras last week and why the press was not allowed to question them or why they are guarded now by three rings of the Colombian military. It's nothing more than a sham to ensure the flow of our tax dollars to the Colombian military.

From Latin American Working Group:

<clips>

Colombia is caught in a complex web of violence resulting in the most severe humanitarian crisis in the hemisphere. As in the case of Central America's civil wars, Colombia's insurgency is rooted in decades of extreme inequality and political exclusion - however, the Colombian guerrilla movements that developed are more violent and intransigent. Over 300,000 people are forced to flee their homes from political violence each year.

Two leftist guerrilla groups, the FARC and the ELN, are responsible for kidnappings for profit, killings of civilians by assassination, and indiscriminate use of weapons such as gas cylinder bombs. Right-wing paramilitary groups are responsible for the majority of human rights violations in Colombia, including massacres and targeted assassinations, particularly those of rural community leaders, trade unionists and other civilians. The major human rights violation by the Colombian armed forces-well documented by international and local human rights groups-- is collaboration with paramilitary forces, ranging from tolerating paramilitary activity to direct involvement in abuses. The violence is greatly aggravated by, but not caused by, profits from the drug trade, especially the explosion of coca and poppy production.

http://www.lawg.org/pages/new%20pages/countries/Colombia/intro-Colombia.htm

---

<clips>

Thank Your Senators for Speaking Out on Colombia!

...October 29th Senate hearing raises important questions. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee sponsored a hearing on Plan Colombia on October 30th. Invited panelists included General Hill, head of US Southern Command, and officials from USAID and the State Department. Despite the stacked panel, senators on the committee heard concerns about current US policy toward Colombia when Senator Feingold (D-WI) gave a strong statement, and Senators Dodd (D-CT) and Biden (D-DE) asked questions about the Colombian government’s proposal for negotiations with the paramilitaries. This was only a small step forward, but it helped educate other senators and sent a message that Senate support for the current policy shouldn’t be taken for granted. Click here to read Senator Feingold’s statement.

Letter on Colombia sent by prominent Senators. On September 30th, Senators Feingold (D-WI), Kerry (D-MA), Leahy (D-VT) and Dodd (D-CT) sent a letter to Secretary Powell that dealt with President Uribe’s statements against human rights defenders and concerns about the paramilitary peace process. The letter asked that the US ambassador to Colombia make a public statement renouncing Uribe’s remarks, and that Secretary Powell clarify what support, if any, the US is providing to Colombia for the peace process with paramilitaries. A copy of this letter will be available shortly on our website.

ACTION: If you are from Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, or Wisconsin, thank your senator for speaking out about their concerns with US policy towards Colombia! If you’re not from one of these states but know people who are, ask them to send a letter or make a quick phone call thanking their senator.

You can be connected with your senator’s office by calling the congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121 or toll-free at 1-800-839-5276. When you reach the office, ask to speak with the foreign policy aide, and let them know that you appreciate your senator’s efforts.

<http://www.lawg.org/pages/new%20pages/countries/Colombia/Senate-debate_followup.htm>

---

Other congressional work on Colombia

<clips>

* September 23, 2003 Congressional letter on human rights in Colombia. Rep. Lantos (D-CA) and fifty-six other members of Congress sent a letter on human rights issues to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on September 23rd. The letter sends an important message on human rights, democracy, and justice issues. Click on the link above to read a copy of the letter; if your representative signed it, please call and thank him or her for doing so!
* September 23, 2003 Congressional letter to Secretary of State Powell urging protection for human rights defenders. In response to comments by Colombian President Uribe and his cabinet equating human rights groups and other non-governmental organizations in Colombia with terrorists, Rep. Schakowsky (D-IL) and eighteen other members of Congress sent this letter to Secretary of State Powell on September 23.
* Bills introduced in the House and Senate in May and July, 2003 which would provide Temporary Protected Status to Colombians in the United States.
* Letter from 45 members of Congress to Secretary Powell raising concerns over the Secretary's decision to certify Colombia on human rights grounds. This letter was circulated by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and sent to Powell on July 23, 2002.

<http://www.lawg.org/pages/new%20pages/countries/Colombia/Congress%20Watch-Colombia.htm>

[Say_What]

21. New protests erupt in Bolivia

<clips>

LIMA, Dec 2, 2003 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Social protests erupted again in Bolivia this week despite a 90-day truce political parties and trade unions gave President Carlos Mesa when he took office in Mid- October.

In the districts of Aiquile, Totora and Mizque, protesters blocked the Cochabamba-La Paz road, demanding the government deliver 2.3 million US dollars for reconstruction in their localities, following the earthquake that rocked the region in 1998, said reports from La Paz, capital of Bolivia, on Tuesday.

Mayors claimed this amount, provided by international organizations, was diverted by the regime of President Hugo Banzer (1997-2002) to buy a presidential airplane.

In Murillo Square by the Government Palace, hundreds of families of the more than 80 killed and 450 injured during the month-long disturbances from Sept. 15 to Oct. 17 have been demonstrating since Monday. They are demanding more compensation than previously offered by Mesa's government.


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