Colombian "Democracy" and 80 Years of Murdering Workers

[magbana]

Colombian 'Democracy' and 80 Years of Murdering Workers

Vinicius Souza and Maria Eugênia Sá
Idéias em Revista (a publication of Sisejufe-RJ)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
May 25, 2008

A banner in memory of the 60th anniversary of the murder of Colombian presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. (Photo courtesy of Vinicius Souza and Maria Eugênia Sá)

The murders of union leaders in the American continents are not limited to the massacre of leaderships in the Brazilian rural entities or to the struggles for power in other South American organizations. The continental champion in this topic (which has been on the ranking top for 80 years) is still Colombia, with figures so impressive that the United States Congress is even being restrained from ratifying the free trade agreement that was signed between the two nations in 2006.

From Jan. 1, 1991, to Dec. 31, 2006, according to data from the Syndical National School of Colombia and the Unitary Center of Workers of that country, 8,105 cases of violation of the most basic human rights of workers affiliated to unions in Colombia were recorded. Those cases include 2,245 homicides, 3,400 threats, 1,292 cases of eviction, 399 arbitrary arrestments, 206 wounded individuals, 192 attempts on life, 159 kidnappings, 138 missing persons, 37 cases of torture, and 34 cases of moral disrespect.

During the mandates of the current president (Álvaro Uribe Vélez) only, according to the official figures of the Colombian government, over 440 murders occurred (only 43 in 2007), of which legal proceedings resulted in just seven sentences. Of the 236 murders perpetrated from 2004 to 2006, just one defendant was convicted.

FULL ARTICLE:

http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/3156.cfm#down

http://snipurl.com/2ar6h

[Judi Lynn]

1. Very glad to read this. Returning later to re-read it. Thank you. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. This goes down so hard, magbana...

From the article:

Even with over 30 years of activities in the country at the time, the North American United Fruit Company (presently Chiquita Brands Inc., which according to Colombian paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso, who has himself been accused of committing more than 6,000 murders of unionists, used to make payments to the paramilitaries for exporting its production) offered no labor security to its thousands of outsourced workers. Organized around a union, those workers prepared a list of nine demands that included a contract in writing, a day's work of eight hours with a weekly day off, payment in cash, assistance in cases of labor-related accidents, and washrooms for the workers' use. Although such requests had been made in order to adjust the company to the legislation in force in the country at that time, United Fruit refused to grant them and the workers went on strike.

After slightly over a month of tense shutdown, the governor of the departamento (state) of Magdalena summoned the workers for a meeting in the city of Ciénaga. However, instead of sending the politician to that city, the Colombian government issued Decree-Law No. 1, which prohibited meetings with more than three individuals, put the region in a state of siege, and nominated Gen. Carlos Cortés Vargas as civil and military intervener. The general gathered his troops in front of the crowd that was waiting for the governor and ordered dispersal in five minutes' time. Since he was not obeyed, his next command was to open fire.

How convenient for the Colombian government Mancuso has been extradited to the U.S., where he will be tried on drug charges and more questions about the massacres and the polticians and military involved with him will never be asked.

That's why the families and friends of the victims are wild with anger about this. Their country has been manipulated to the complete destruction of justice in all forms.

[gbscar]

3. Funny that you've posted entire articles which argued he was protected from extradition...

...and now it's all the other way around, almost completely.

Extradition was incredibly good and just punishment, when it looked like they wouldn't be facing it, but now it's the most horrible and unfair thing that should never have happened. You lose no matter what you do.

At the very least, that shows those earlier articles were painfully simplistic.

Me? I think it's bad if it isn't used as an opportunity by the victims and others, instead of merely complaining about it.

And in fact they might be able to get more, in terms of reparations and punishment if not necessarily truth, out of him outside of Colombia rather than inside, where he was routinely violating the law even during the justice and peace process and was only revealing information at a snail's pace according to his own convenience and without being judicially confirmed. Which would take even more time.

So slow that it would take 35 years for the paramilitaries to finish going through the entire process, even if by some miracle Mancuso's picked up speed in the meanwhile, the picture was bleak.

http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/colombia/doc/impunidad1.html

Now he may even think he's got nothing to lose by speaking if interrogated about crimes, since the threat of extradition became a reality. There is nothing preventing the victims and their allies in the U.S. from raising new cases and forcing new charges against him and others, including U.S. companies, in the U.S. In fact, there's the Alien Tort Act, for example, and it could cover non-drug offense.

But I am a horrible person for pointing this out and not just nodding or expressing moral outrage, so none of this matters.

[Judi Lynn]

4. magbana, I remembered your article when I saw this piece a few moments ago:

Colombia: false positives
Monday, 2 June 2008, 3:04 pm
Column: Tortilla con Sal

Colombia: false positives

by Gloria Gaitán, in Aporrea, Rebelión.

False positives is a local term from the aftermath of 9/11 applied to totally fabricated, supposedly "terrorist", events cooked up by the Alvaro Uribe government to help the regime by throwing up a smoke screen during times of high scandal, as has happened repeatedly throughout this governement

This week with the serious para-politics scandal, the extradition of paramilitaries to keep them quiet and the accusations by ex-congresswoman Yedis Medina - who has shown that Alvaro Uribe's second re-election is illegitimate since it took place via bribes and criminal conspiracy - false positives have been the order of the day monopolizing the national scene.

As the whole world must know, Colombia's Office of Public Prosecution - whose director was until recently a functionary of the President's office - placed criminal charges against three national congress members, four foreigners and various Colombian nationals as presumed accomplices of the Colombian Armed Revolutionary Forces (FARC). The accusations made public relate to contacts for arranging the humanitarian agreement with the guerrillas so as to win freedom for all the hostages.

For the Uribe government, this is a sin, because he does not want the hostages to be freed without crushing and defeating the guerrillas. The lives of those in the fighters' hands and the atrocious torment suffered by their relatives is a matter of complete indifference to him. So for "reckless" people to be allowed to facilitate a humanitarian agreement is, by his lights, a criminal matter.

More:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0806/S00010.htm