bad news from Colombia :-(
internationalist | 14.02.2002 14:03
Sorry to have to report this, but the state and its paramilitaries have just carried out their first revenge killing following the victorious SINTRAEMCALI occupation. Report from Colombia Solidarity Campaign follows.
Dear Friend,
With great sadness we have to report the murder of union representative
and community leader JULIO GALEANO, and with it the clear onset of
paramilitary reprisals on the successful SINTRAEMCALI occupation against
privatisation. To defend all our friends and comrades involved in this
heroic and historic victory an international response protesting JULIO's
assassination to the Colombian authorities is vital.
Likewise paramilitary violence and state repression are escalating
against every sector standing in the way of the neoliberal programme, as
evidenced by the two accompanying Urgent Actions concerning the Pacific
Black Communities and the Colombian Communist Party. Please act on these
requests for humanitarian solidarity.
I. CONTINUA GENOCIDIO CONTRA LOS LIDERES SOCIALES EN SANTIAGO DE
CALI / CONTINUING GENOCIDE AGAINST SOCIAL LEADERS IN CALI
pp 1- 4
II. PROCESO DE COMUNIDADES NEGRAS AMENAZAS EN NAYA Y YURUMANGUI
/ BLACK COMMUNITIES UNDER THREAT OF MASSACRE AS OVER 400
PARAMILITARIES MOVE ON THE NAYA AND YURUMANGUI RIVERS
pp 5 - 7
III. THE COLOMBIAN COMMUNIST PARTY SUFFERS INCREASED PERSECUTION BY
COLOMBIAN POLICE
pp 8 - 10
IV. DAYSCHOOL AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY RALLY
pp 10 - 11
I. CONTINUA GENOCIDIO CONTRA LOS LIDERES SOCIALES EN SANTIAGO DE
CALI
DENUNCIA PUBLICA
----------------
Las organizaciones abajo firmantes denunciamos ante la comunidad
nacional e internacional la ejecución extrajudicial del dirigente
comunal, extrabajador de EMCALI, JULIO GALEANO, a manos del grupo
paramilitar que opera en la Comuna 20 barrio de Siloe.
Los Hechos:
1. Siendo las 5:55 a.m. del día lunes 11 de febrero de 2002, fue
asesinado el líder comunal, JULIO GALEANO, salía de su residencia
ubicada en el barrio Brisas de Mayo Kr. 53 oeste No. 12-19 de la comuna
20 - Siloe, en compañía de su esposa VIVIANA MARIA VILLAMIL con rumbo al
Centro Administrativo Municipal CAM, Torre Administrativa de EMCALI,
donde ella labora, fueron abordados por dos hombres, uno de ellos quien
desenfundo un arma y le dijo "quédese quieto", y procedió a dispararle
a la altura del maxilar inferior izquierdo.
2. Julio Galeano y su esposa se desplazaban en una motocicleta
Yamaha Chappy, de su propiedad y al recibir el primer impacto callo al
suelo donde fue rematado con tres tiros más, mientras su esposa salió
corriendo por el impacto.
3. Julio Galeano y su esposa delegada Sindical participaron
activamente en la Asamblea Permanente de SINTRAEMCALI, que duro 36 días,
los cuales, como todos ustedes saben, fueron decisorios para frenar la
liquidación y privatización de la Empresa.
4. JULIO GALEANO, padre de tres hijos, 16, 13 y 9 años, hizo
parte del comando de paro por el Salvamento de EMCALI, fue trabajador
de esta Empresa y delegado de SINTRAEMCALI desde 1993 hasta el día 1
de septiembre de 1998, cuando miembros de la III Brigada del Ejercito,
realizaron varios allanamientos ilegales en Siloe e incursionaron
violentamente a su residencia, destruyeron sus pertenencias, rompieron
electrodomésticos e ingresaron tres granadas de fragmentación con el
fin de realizar un montaje en contra del delegado sindical procediendo a
detenerlo arbitrariamente.
5. JULIO GALEANO, estuvo privado ilegalmente de su libertad
durante 32 meses. Al salir en libertad fue amenazado de muerte por parte
del grupo paramilitar que hace presencia en esta comuna, sin embargo,
continuo con su trabajo comunitario, organizaba reuniones, impulsaba
proyectos comunitarios con la administración local y municipal.
6. Igualmente fue reconocido líder comunitario y en varios
periodos perteneció a la Junta de Acción Comunal del Barrio Brisas de
Mayo desempeñándose como Presidente, actualmente ocupaba el cargo de
Fiscal de la Junta de Acción Comunal y de la Asociación de padres de
familia del Colegio Juan Pablo Segundo, perteneció al Grupo Nueva Vida
y realizaba un importante trabajo con jóvenes drogadictos en alto
riesgo.
Por los hechos anteriormente expuestos y ante la gravedad de la
situación que afrontan los lideres comunales, dirigentes y activistas
sindicales de la ciudad de Santiago de Cali, particularmente los que
habitan en la comuna 20 - Siloe y el Distrito de Agua Blanca,
solicitamos:
1. Exigir al gobierno Colombiano se desarrolle una
investigación exhaustiva para dar castigo a los responsables del
asesinato del líder comunitario JULIO GALEANO.
2. Se prevengan nuevos hechos que atenten contra la integridad
física y psicológica de los lideres, sociales, populares, comunitarios,
sindicales y de derechos humanos en la ciudad de Santiago de Cali.
3. Se proteja a su esposa e hijos y se les brinde toda la
asistencia humanitaria necesaria.
PUBLIC DENOUNCEMENT
-------------------
We, the below signed organisations, denounce to the national and
international community the extra-judicial execution of JULIO GALEANO, a
community leader and former worker at EMCALI, at the hands of the
paramilitary group that operates in the Siloe area of Comuna 20
district.
The Facts:
1. At 5:55 a.m. on Monday 11th February 2002, community leader
JULIO GALEANO was assassinated as he left his home, located in at No
12-19 West 53 Street, in the Brisas de Mayo neighbourhood [barrio] of
Comuna 20 district. He was accompanying his wife VIVIANA MARIA VILLAMIL
and they were heading for the CAM Tower, the Central Municipal
Administration building of EMCALI where she works. They were tackled by
two men, one of them drew a firearm, told them to "keep quiet", and
proceeded to shoot JULIO in the face, at the top of his lower left jaw.
2. JULIO GALEANO and his wife were by then on their Yamaha Chappy
motorcycle. On receiving the first shot JULIO fell to the ground where
he was finished off by three more shots, while his wife was able to keep
moving.
3. JULIO GALEANO and his wife, who is a union representative,
were active participants in SINTRAEMCALI's recent permanent assembly,
that is occupation, that lasted 36 days. It was this occupation, as is
well known, that was decisive in stopping the liquidation and
privatisation of the EMCALI corporation.
4. JULIO GALEANO, was father of three children aged 16, 13 and 9
years old. He was a member of the "Save EMCALI" strike committee, he had
been a worker at the corporation and a SINTRAEMCALI union
representative from 1993 until 1 September 1998, when members of the
Army's Third Brigade carried out several illegal raids in Siloe. They
broke into his home violently, destroying possessions, breaking
electrical domestic appliances, and planting three fragmentation
grenades with the aim of framing him up and proceeded to detain him
arbitrarily [without just cause].
5. JULIO GALEANO was illegally deprived of his liberty for 32
months. On leaving detention he was given a death threat by a
paramilitary group that was present in his district. He nevertheless
continued with his community work, pushing forward community projects
with the local and city administration.
6. He was a recognised community leader and at different times he
served on the Brisas de Mayo Neighbourhood Community Action Committee,
including as its President. Most recently he has been the Co-ordinator
of the Community Action Committee and of the Parents Association at Juan
Pablo Secondary School. JULIO also belonged to the New Life Group and he
carried out important work with young people who were high risk drug
addicts.
In consequence of these events, and given the seriousness of the
situation faced by community leaders and trade union activists in the
city of Santiago de Cali, particularly those living in the Siloe area of
Comuna 20 district and in the Agua Blanca district, we seek you support
in the following manner:
1. Demand that the Colombian government mounts a thorough
investigation so that those responsible for the murder of
community leader JULIO GALEANO be identified and punished.
2. That new attempts on the physical and psychological well being
of social, popular, community, trade union and human rights
leaders in the city of Santiago de Cali be prevented.
3. That JULIO GALEANO's wife and children are protected and given
all necessary humanitarian support.
RECOMMENDED ACTION
------------------
ENVIAR MENSAJES O CARTAS A / SEND MESSAGES TO:
ANDRÉS PASTRANA ARANGO
Presidente de la República,
Presidencia de la República
Carrera 8 No. 7-26 Palacio de Nariño,
Santa Fe de Bogotá
Teléfono. +57.1.5629300 ext. 3550 (571) 284 33 00
Fax +(57)1 - 286 74 34 - 286, 68 42 -284 21 86
Mailto:
pastrana@presidencia.gov.co
ARMANDO ESTRADA VILLA
Ministro del Interior
Carrera 8 # 8-09 - Bogotá
Fax: +57-1-286.80.25
GUSTAVO BELL
Ministro de la Defensa,
Ministerio de Defensa Nacional
Avenida El Dorado con carrera 52 CAN Santa Fe de Bogotá
Tel-fax: +57.1.222.1874
E-mail de la Secretaría General: infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co
EDGARDO JOSÉ MAYA VILLAZÓN
Procuraduría General de la Nación
Carrera 5 No. 15-80 Santa Fe de Bogotá
Tel-fax: +57.1.342.9723, +57.1.281.7531
LUIS CAMILO OSORIO
Fiscal General de la Nación
Diagonal 22 B No. 52-01 Santa Fe de Bogotá.
Tel fax: +57.1.570.2022
EDUARDO CIFUENTES
Defensoría del Pueblo
Calle 55 No. 10-32 Santa Fe de Bogotá
Fax: +57.1.346.1225
LUIS ERNESTO GILIBERT
Director General Policía Nacional
Santafé de Bogotá
Fax: +57.1.428.7634 - +57.1.315.9527
FERNANDO TAPIAS STAHELIN
Comandante de las Fuerzas Militares
Avenida el Dorado con Carrera 52
Santa Fe de Bogotá
Telefax. 57-1-2222935
CAMILO GÓMEZ
Comisionado para la Paz Fax: +57.1.560.9946
Oficina en Colombia del Alto Comisionado de la ONU para
los Derechos Humanos
Fax: +57.1.313.4050
Mailto: oacnudh@hchr.org.co
Signed:
Asociación Para la Investigación y Acción Social NOMADESC;
La Unión Sindical Obrera USO; Sindicato de Trabajadores de Las Empresas
Municipales de Cali SINTRAEMCALI; Corporación Servicios Profesionales
Comunitarios SEMBRAR; Sindicato De Los Trabajadores Universitarios De
Colombia SINTRAUNICOL; Central Unitaria De Los Trabajadores CUT - VALLE
DEL CAUCA; Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Minería en Colombia
SINTRAMINERCOL; Movimiento Estudiantil del Valle del Cauca y Nariño;
Fundación Comité De Solidaridad Con Presos Políticos Seccional Valle del
Cauca; Sintramunicipio Bugalagrande; Sintramunicipio Yumbo;
Sintramunicipio Dagua; Sintrametal Yumbo; Sutev; Asonal Judicial Valle
del Cauca; Sintrahospiclínicas; Sinaltrainal Bugalagrande.
CAMPAÑA NACIONAL E INTERNACIONAL DE DERECHOS HUMANOS CONTRA LA
PRIVATIZACIÓN, LA CORRUPCION Y LA PENALIZACIÓN DE LA PROTESTA SOCIAL
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRIVATISATION,
CORRUPTION AND THE CRIMINALISATION OF SOCIAL PROTEST
[Also to relevant embassy as indicated below].
II. BLACK COMMUNITIES UNDER THREAT OF MASSACRE AS OVER 400
PARAMILITARIES MOVE ON THE NAYA AND YURUMANGUI RIVERS
Canada, 12 February 2002
It is with sad and striking irony that, while millions celebrate Black
History Month, we have to forward the news of an imminent paramilitary
incursion into the traditional territories of the Black communities on
Colombia's Pacific Coast.
In Colombia, all massacres are announced
The inhabitants of the Naya and Yurumangui Rivers have been preparing
for an imminent massacre since late November, 2001 when right-wing
paramilitaries announced that they would "celebrate Christmas with a
massacre" in order to "seize control of the area and cleanse it of
guerrilla collaborators".
It was thanks to the pressure generated by an international campaign of
letters in protest to the Colombian government that the Christmas
massacre was prevented.
Despite the threats against them, the communities of the Naya and
Yurumangui, with great courage and dignity, have made the decision to
stay and resist and defend their traditional territories no matter what
the consequences.
The Wealth of the Pacific Coast Rainforest
The territories of the Colombian Pacific, which have been inhabited by
African descendants for some 400 years, are coveted for their immense
resource wealth and "development" potential, which includes petroleum,
gold, uranium, precious timber, biodiversity and enormous potential for
hydroelectric dam development. Likewise, the Black communities are also
recognized in their rights to collective entitlement of these very
lands as well as the right to autonomously develop them according to
their traditional values of their culture, rights which became
consecrated under the Black Communities Law (or Law 70) of 1993. Thus,
the historic and cultural project of the Black communities finds itself
in direct confrontation with the strategic interests of national and
international investment. This confrontation has meant the infliction of
terrible violence upon the peaceful communities of the Pacific coast
rainforest. The Black communities peacefully strive to build a society
which can exist in harmony with the forest that gives them their
sustenance and have always maintained that this does NOT make them
guerrilla collaborators.
Over 400 paramilitaries move on the Naya and Yurumangui
Today, February 12, 2002, news was just received of the movement of over
400 paramilitaries into the Naya and Yurumangui Rivers. It should be
noted that Colombia is a country known for maintaining vital links
between the official military and illegal paramilitary death squads. A
great deal of evidence to this regard has been compiled by credible
sources such Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and
the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).
What can be done?
Since all massacres in Colombia are previously announced, the sending
of letters, emails, faxes and making phone calls has proven to be an
effective tool for halting these acts of barbarism. At the end of this
message you will find the relevant addresses.
Below we include a translated version of the communiqué sent out by the
Autonomous Black Movement of Colombia known as the PCN (Proceso de
Comunidades Negras) sent to the president of Colombia, the High
Commission for Human Rights of the United Nations and the Colombian
Human Rights Ombudsman.
*******************************************
Bogotá, 12 February 2002
URGENT
To: VICEPRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
OFFICE FOR THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN
Bogotá
Re: The situation in the Naya-Yurumanguí
We have just been informed today of the deployment by land of
approximately 400 paramilitaries that apparently come from the Darien
and Calima region (province of Valle del Cauca), who have just moved
through the settlements known as Los Turbos-San Cipriano-Aguaclara. They
were seen by the inhabitants of that region have given testimony of the
presence of the paramilitaries passing through the region and confirm
that they have already passed through the Anchicayá River hydroelectric
dam. Also, it has been reported that paramilitaries of the urban area
of the port city of Buenaventura are concetrating and awating orders to
be sent to the Naya and Yurumangui Rivers. The order they have been give
is to enter with blood and fire to remove the guerrilla.
Likewise, we have been informed from the inhabitants of the region of
the intensification of paramilitary roads blocks and check points,
specifically in the villages of Zabaletas, Llano Bajo and San Marcos on
the Anchicaya River. Paramilitaeis currently control all poitns of
access to those rural areas. Their route appears to be Calima - Darién,
crossing over the New highway, entering the rivers Anchicaya, Raposo,
Cajambre, Yurumangui and Naya
We write this letter in expectation that you take all measures to avoid
that, just as it is being announced, the Black, indigenous and peasant
communities that live in this region suffer aggression, massacres and
displacement.
Sincerely yours,
BLACK COMMUNITIES PROCESS (PROCESO DE COMUNIDADES NEGRAS - PCN) NATIONAL
COORDINATION TEAM
VERSION ESPANOL
===============
URGENTE
Señores
VICEPRESIDENCIA DE LA REPÚBLICA OFICINA DEL ALTO COMISIONADO PARA
DERECHOS HUMANOS DE NACIONES UNIDAS DEFENSORIA DEL PUEBLO
Bogotá.
Ref. Situación Naya-Yurumangui.
Hemos sido informados en el día de hoy del desplazamiento por tierra
de cerca de 400 paramilitares y que al parecer vienen de la zona
Calima-Darién, atravesaron por el sitio conocido como Los Tubos- San
Cipriano-Aguaclara. Estos han sido visto por pobladores de esta zona y
se dice que ya pasaron por la hidroeléctrica del Río Anchicaya..
Igualmente se dice que los paramilitares de la zona urbana de
Buenaventura están siendo concentrados para ser enviados a los ríos Naya
y Yurumangui. La orden es entrar a estos ríos a sangre y fuego y sacar a
la guerrilla.
Igualmente se nos informa de la zona que se han intensificado desde el
viernes ultimo hasta hoy los retenes de los paramilitares en las
veredas Zabaletas, Llano Bajo, San Marcos sobre el río Anchicaya.
Los paramilitares controlan en el caso de Buenaventura todos los accesos
a la zona rural. La ruta que están siguiendo es la de Calima - Darién,
atravesando la carretera Nueva, entrando a Anchicaya, Raposo, Cajambre,
Yurumangui y Naya.
Esperando se tomen las medidas para evitar que tal y como esta
anunciado, las comunidades negras, indígenas y campesinas que viven en
esta zona sean nuevamente agredidas, masacradas y desplazadas...
De ustedes,
PROCESO DE COMUNIDADES NEGRAS EQUIPO DE COORDINACION NACIONAL
RECOMMENDED ACTION
------------------
Address your letters to:
FOR THOSE IN CANADA:
Write to: Fanny Kertzman Yankelevitch
Ambassador for Colombia
360 Albert Street, Suite 1002
Ottawa, Ontario K1R 7X7
Fax: (613) 230-4416
Email: embajador@embajadacolombia.ca
FOR THOSE IN THE UNITED STATES:
Write to: Luis Alberto Moreno
Embajador de Colombia
2118 Leroy Place, NW,
Washington, DC 20008
Phone: (202) 387 8338
Fax: (202) 232 8643
as@colombiaemb.org
FOR THOSE IN THE U.K.
Mr VICTOR RICARDO,
Ambassador to the UK,
Embassy of the Republic of Colombia
Flat 3A, 3 Hans Crescent, London SW1X 0LN, UK
Tel: (020) 7589 9177. Fax: (020) 7581 1829.
E-mail: mail@colombianembassy.co.uk
IN COLOMBIA:
Write to: ANDRÉS PASTRANA ARANGO
Presidente de la República,
Carrera 8 n. 7-26 Palacio de Nariño,
Santa Fe de Bogotá
Teléfono. +57.1.5629300 ext. 3550 (571 ) 284 33 00
Fax (571 ) 286 74 34 - 286, 68 42 -284 21 86
Mailto: pastrana@presidencia.gov.co or rdh@presidencia.gov.co
National Human Rights Ombudsman
Sr. Eduardo Cifuentes Munoz
Defensor del Pueblo, Defensoria del Pueblo
Calle 55, No. 10-32/46 office 301
Telegram: National Advocate, Bogota, Colombia
Fax: 011 57 1 640 0491
Salutation: Dear Mr. Cifuentes Munoz
WITH COPIES TO:
Proceso de Comunidades Negras (PCN)
pcnkolombia@hotmail.com
Canada Colombia Solidarity Campaign (CCSC)
mingacolombia@yahoo.ca
************************************************
Canada-Colombia Solidarity Campaign
122 St.Patrick Street, Suite 20-113
Toronto Ontario Canada M5T 2X8
Tel: Toronto(416) 533-8305
Ottawa (613) 747-9930
Fax: (416) 533-6871
Email: mingacolombia@yahoo.ca
Web:
http://tao.ca/~ccsc
************************************************
III. THE COLOMBIAN COMMUNIST PARTY SUFFERS INCREASED PERSECUTION BY
COLOMBIAN POLICE
Urgent Appeal for International Support
---------------------------------------
Dear Friend
We have received an urgent request from the Colombian Communist Party
for the support of the international community concerning the increasing
persecution of their members by state security forces. On the night of 4
February 2002, the homes of 10 of the party's members were raided by
police who accused them of being guerrilla collaborators and searched
their properties for Marxist literature.
Such acts of intimidation and repression are all too familiar in
Colombia, but the fact that state security forces, and not their
paramilitary henchmen, appear now to be openly carrying out persecution
campaigns takes us back to a period of all too recent Latin American
history no one ever wanted to see repeated - Cuba, Chile, Argentina,
Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay, Peru, Guatemala, Nicaragua. Yet the
nightmare of the post-war US-orchestrated international campaign of
terror against communists or any other political or ideological
opponents never went away. For a time it was metamorphised into the 'War
on Drugs'. And now to has come back to haunt us under a new banner - the
fraudulent US/UK 'War on Terrorism'. In Latin America, Cuba remains a
target, but even higher up the US hit list and sitting pretty are now
Colombia and Venezuela.
There have been but a flutter of news stories about the National Law for
Defence and Security introduced in Colombia in August 2001, yet its
implications are vast and extremely sinister. The law, another US
initiative thought out well before 11 September when the international
'War on Terrorism' was still a plot to be unleashed on the world, gives
untold powers to the Colombian security forces. These same security
forces, as we well know, have an horrific human rights record and work
almost symbiotically with that dark army of blood-curdling assassins we
know as paramilitaries, responsible for the deaths of thousands of
innocent civilians each year. The North American government, in spite of
its hypocritical claims to be concerned about human rights and in spite
of the pleas of three senior human rights NGOs, is about to throw even
more money and military hardware at these same security forces.
So, as well as being lavished with better equipment, more money, more
advanced training, and a bunch of hired assassins soon to be wearing the
new uniform of political legitimacy, the Colombian state security forces
have also been issued a new style of season ticket to persecute and kill
openly and with impunity. The new Law on Defence and National Security
enables them to stop, search, harass, detain arbitrarily for long
periods of time without a lawyer, torture, assassinate and disappear
anyone they decide to accuse of being a guerrilla collaborator in the
new US-led crackdown on so-called 'terrorists' and their 'supporters'.
They can operate independently without the need for civilian judicial
authorities to be a party. They can file their own reports and offer
unchallenged explanations for the deaths of civilians.
The Colombian Communist Party, long persecuted for their politics along
with the Patriotic Union (together they have seen more than 5,000 of
their members assassinated by state security forces and paramilitaries
since 1985) are experiencing a renewed escalation of this persecution
against a background of the siege-like conditions of the Bush/Blair 'new
world order'.
Please write to express your concern about this situation to:
Andres Patrana Arango
Presidente de La Republica
Carrera 8n. 7-26, Palacio de Narino
Santafe de Bogota
Colombia
Phone: 011-57-1-566-2071
Fax: 011-57-1-286-7434
E-mail: rdh@presidencia.gov.co; apastra@presidencia.gov.co
Gustavo Bell Lemus
Vice Presidente de la Nacion
Consejeria Presidencial de Derechos Humanos
Calle 7 nos. 6-54 Piso 3
Santafe de Bogota, Colombia
Ph: 011-57-1-336-0311
Fax: 011-57-1-342-9355
Eduardo Cifuentes
Defensor del Pueblo
Calle 55 No. 10-46
Santafe de Bogota
Ph: 011- 57-1-314-7300
Fax: 011-57-1-314-4000
General FERNANDO TAPIAS.
Comandante Fuerzas Militares
FAX 2229335
General LUIS AUGUSTO GILIBERT
Director General de la PolicÌa Nacional
FAX 4287634 o 3159527
Coronel LUIS ALFONSO NOVOA
Director Oficina Derechos Humanos PolicÌa Nacional
Fax 3159000
Unidad de Derechos Humanos
Ministerio Interior
Fax 5663214
American Officials:
Anne Patterson
U.S. Ambassador to Colombia
Ph: 011-57-1-315-2139
Fax: 011-57-1-315-2038
ambassadorb@pd.state.gov
Mari Dieterich
Secretary for Human Rights
U.S. Ambassador in Colombia
Ph: 011-57-1-315-0811 ext. 2451
Fax: 011-57-1-315-2163
DieterichMe@state.gov
British Officials:
Tony Blair
Prime Minister
House of Commons
Westminster
London SW1A 0AA
Dr Dennis MacShane
Foreign and Commonwealth Office - Latin America and Caribbean
King Charles Street
London SW1A 2AH
Jack Straw
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Foreign and Commonweath Office
Whitehall
London SW1A 2AH
David Blunkett
Home Secretary
House of Commons
Westminster
London SW1A 2AH
COPIES OF YOUR MESSAGE TO:
COLOMBIA PEACE ASSOCIATION
liz.atherton@freeuk.com
IV. DAYSCHOOL AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY RALLY
Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1
Saturday 23 February 2002
Dayschool: Plan Colombia: Clearing the way for the Multinationals
10am to 5pm
With guest speakers from Sintraemcali, USO - the Colombian oil workers
union and Sinaltrainal - the Colombian food workers union currently
taking Coca Cola to court for complicity in the assassination of trade
union leaders. Workshops on Plan Colombia and the environment, the Latin
American context, and neoliberalism and the role of the multinationals.
daytime tickets- £6 waged/£3 unwaged. Places limited, book in advance.
Solidarity Rally VICTORY TO SINTRAEMCALI! 6pm until 8pm
Following a 36 day occupation which commenced on Christmas Day, the
public sector union Sintraemcali successfully prevented the
privatisation of the public services of Cali, Colombia's second city.
This victory rally will pay tribute to the 1535 trade unionists
assassinated in Colombia over the past 10 years and the continuing
struggle of the Colombian people against the imposition of neo-
liberalism.
Speakers:
Luis Hernández (President Sintraemcali)
Berenice Celeyta (Colombian Human Rights Defender)
Hector Vaca (USO Oilworkers union)
Carlos Alberto Olaya (Sinaltrainal food workers union)
Jeremy Corbyn MP
and UNISON, War on Want, Colombia Solidarity Campaign,
Haldane Society and others
To be followed at 8pm by FIESTA
Live Salsa with Latino Na'Ma
musical special guests, DJs & Colombian food & drink
Evening tickets- £6 waged/£4 unwaged. Book in advance to guarantee entry
Combined ticket- day school, solidarity rally and fiesta
£10 waged/£5 unwaged
Join the Colombia Solidarity Campaign and attend the AGM on
Sunday 24 February, Conway Hall 10am to 4pm
Workshops on British multinationals, building international solidarity
etc
Combined weekend ticket £15 waged, £5 unwaged existing members;
or £25 and £10 new members
Creche facilities will be available during the daytime sessions, but
please notify us of needs in advance, latest Thursday 21st Feb.
To book tickets, to receive more information about Colombia, or to join
the Colombia Solidarity Campaign, contact us at PO Box 8446, London N17
6NZ. Tel 07950 923448, email colombia_sc@hotmail.com
--
Andy Higginbottom
Co-ordinator Colombia Solidarity Campaign
With great sadness we have to report the murder of union representative
and community leader JULIO GALEANO, and with it the clear onset of
paramilitary reprisals on the successful SINTRAEMCALI occupation against
privatisation. To defend all our friends and comrades involved in this
heroic and historic victory an international response protesting JULIO's
assassination to the Colombian authorities is vital.
Likewise paramilitary violence and state repression are escalating
against every sector standing in the way of the neoliberal programme, as
evidenced by the two accompanying Urgent Actions concerning the Pacific
Black Communities and the Colombian Communist Party. Please act on these
requests for humanitarian solidarity.
I. CONTINUA GENOCIDIO CONTRA LOS LIDERES SOCIALES EN SANTIAGO DE
CALI / CONTINUING GENOCIDE AGAINST SOCIAL LEADERS IN CALI
pp 1- 4
II. PROCESO DE COMUNIDADES NEGRAS AMENAZAS EN NAYA Y YURUMANGUI
/ BLACK COMMUNITIES UNDER THREAT OF MASSACRE AS OVER 400
PARAMILITARIES MOVE ON THE NAYA AND YURUMANGUI RIVERS
pp 5 - 7
III. THE COLOMBIAN COMMUNIST PARTY SUFFERS INCREASED PERSECUTION BY
COLOMBIAN POLICE
pp 8 - 10
IV. DAYSCHOOL AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY RALLY
pp 10 - 11
I. CONTINUA GENOCIDIO CONTRA LOS LIDERES SOCIALES EN SANTIAGO DE
CALI
DENUNCIA PUBLICA
----------------
Las organizaciones abajo firmantes denunciamos ante la comunidad
nacional e internacional la ejecución extrajudicial del dirigente
comunal, extrabajador de EMCALI, JULIO GALEANO, a manos del grupo
paramilitar que opera en la Comuna 20 barrio de Siloe.
Los Hechos:
1. Siendo las 5:55 a.m. del día lunes 11 de febrero de 2002, fue
asesinado el líder comunal, JULIO GALEANO, salía de su residencia
ubicada en el barrio Brisas de Mayo Kr. 53 oeste No. 12-19 de la comuna
20 - Siloe, en compañía de su esposa VIVIANA MARIA VILLAMIL con rumbo al
Centro Administrativo Municipal CAM, Torre Administrativa de EMCALI,
donde ella labora, fueron abordados por dos hombres, uno de ellos quien
desenfundo un arma y le dijo "quédese quieto", y procedió a dispararle
a la altura del maxilar inferior izquierdo.
2. Julio Galeano y su esposa se desplazaban en una motocicleta
Yamaha Chappy, de su propiedad y al recibir el primer impacto callo al
suelo donde fue rematado con tres tiros más, mientras su esposa salió
corriendo por el impacto.
3. Julio Galeano y su esposa delegada Sindical participaron
activamente en la Asamblea Permanente de SINTRAEMCALI, que duro 36 días,
los cuales, como todos ustedes saben, fueron decisorios para frenar la
liquidación y privatización de la Empresa.
4. JULIO GALEANO, padre de tres hijos, 16, 13 y 9 años, hizo
parte del comando de paro por el Salvamento de EMCALI, fue trabajador
de esta Empresa y delegado de SINTRAEMCALI desde 1993 hasta el día 1
de septiembre de 1998, cuando miembros de la III Brigada del Ejercito,
realizaron varios allanamientos ilegales en Siloe e incursionaron
violentamente a su residencia, destruyeron sus pertenencias, rompieron
electrodomésticos e ingresaron tres granadas de fragmentación con el
fin de realizar un montaje en contra del delegado sindical procediendo a
detenerlo arbitrariamente.
5. JULIO GALEANO, estuvo privado ilegalmente de su libertad
durante 32 meses. Al salir en libertad fue amenazado de muerte por parte
del grupo paramilitar que hace presencia en esta comuna, sin embargo,
continuo con su trabajo comunitario, organizaba reuniones, impulsaba
proyectos comunitarios con la administración local y municipal.
6. Igualmente fue reconocido líder comunitario y en varios
periodos perteneció a la Junta de Acción Comunal del Barrio Brisas de
Mayo desempeñándose como Presidente, actualmente ocupaba el cargo de
Fiscal de la Junta de Acción Comunal y de la Asociación de padres de
familia del Colegio Juan Pablo Segundo, perteneció al Grupo Nueva Vida
y realizaba un importante trabajo con jóvenes drogadictos en alto
riesgo.
Por los hechos anteriormente expuestos y ante la gravedad de la
situación que afrontan los lideres comunales, dirigentes y activistas
sindicales de la ciudad de Santiago de Cali, particularmente los que
habitan en la comuna 20 - Siloe y el Distrito de Agua Blanca,
solicitamos:
1. Exigir al gobierno Colombiano se desarrolle una
investigación exhaustiva para dar castigo a los responsables del
asesinato del líder comunitario JULIO GALEANO.
2. Se prevengan nuevos hechos que atenten contra la integridad
física y psicológica de los lideres, sociales, populares, comunitarios,
sindicales y de derechos humanos en la ciudad de Santiago de Cali.
3. Se proteja a su esposa e hijos y se les brinde toda la
asistencia humanitaria necesaria.
PUBLIC DENOUNCEMENT
-------------------
We, the below signed organisations, denounce to the national and
international community the extra-judicial execution of JULIO GALEANO, a
community leader and former worker at EMCALI, at the hands of the
paramilitary group that operates in the Siloe area of Comuna 20
district.
The Facts:
1. At 5:55 a.m. on Monday 11th February 2002, community leader
JULIO GALEANO was assassinated as he left his home, located in at No
12-19 West 53 Street, in the Brisas de Mayo neighbourhood [barrio] of
Comuna 20 district. He was accompanying his wife VIVIANA MARIA VILLAMIL
and they were heading for the CAM Tower, the Central Municipal
Administration building of EMCALI where she works. They were tackled by
two men, one of them drew a firearm, told them to "keep quiet", and
proceeded to shoot JULIO in the face, at the top of his lower left jaw.
2. JULIO GALEANO and his wife were by then on their Yamaha Chappy
motorcycle. On receiving the first shot JULIO fell to the ground where
he was finished off by three more shots, while his wife was able to keep
moving.
3. JULIO GALEANO and his wife, who is a union representative,
were active participants in SINTRAEMCALI's recent permanent assembly,
that is occupation, that lasted 36 days. It was this occupation, as is
well known, that was decisive in stopping the liquidation and
privatisation of the EMCALI corporation.
4. JULIO GALEANO, was father of three children aged 16, 13 and 9
years old. He was a member of the "Save EMCALI" strike committee, he had
been a worker at the corporation and a SINTRAEMCALI union
representative from 1993 until 1 September 1998, when members of the
Army's Third Brigade carried out several illegal raids in Siloe. They
broke into his home violently, destroying possessions, breaking
electrical domestic appliances, and planting three fragmentation
grenades with the aim of framing him up and proceeded to detain him
arbitrarily [without just cause].
5. JULIO GALEANO was illegally deprived of his liberty for 32
months. On leaving detention he was given a death threat by a
paramilitary group that was present in his district. He nevertheless
continued with his community work, pushing forward community projects
with the local and city administration.
6. He was a recognised community leader and at different times he
served on the Brisas de Mayo Neighbourhood Community Action Committee,
including as its President. Most recently he has been the Co-ordinator
of the Community Action Committee and of the Parents Association at Juan
Pablo Secondary School. JULIO also belonged to the New Life Group and he
carried out important work with young people who were high risk drug
addicts.
In consequence of these events, and given the seriousness of the
situation faced by community leaders and trade union activists in the
city of Santiago de Cali, particularly those living in the Siloe area of
Comuna 20 district and in the Agua Blanca district, we seek you support
in the following manner:
1. Demand that the Colombian government mounts a thorough
investigation so that those responsible for the murder of
community leader JULIO GALEANO be identified and punished.
2. That new attempts on the physical and psychological well being
of social, popular, community, trade union and human rights
leaders in the city of Santiago de Cali be prevented.
3. That JULIO GALEANO's wife and children are protected and given
all necessary humanitarian support.
RECOMMENDED ACTION
------------------
ENVIAR MENSAJES O CARTAS A / SEND MESSAGES TO:
ANDRÉS PASTRANA ARANGO
Presidente de la República,
Presidencia de la República
Carrera 8 No. 7-26 Palacio de Nariño,
Santa Fe de Bogotá
Teléfono. +57.1.5629300 ext. 3550 (571) 284 33 00
Fax +(57)1 - 286 74 34 - 286, 68 42 -284 21 86
Mailto:
pastrana@presidencia.gov.co ARMANDO ESTRADA VILLA
Ministro del Interior
Carrera 8 # 8-09 - Bogotá
Fax: +57-1-286.80.25
GUSTAVO BELL
Ministro de la Defensa,
Ministerio de Defensa Nacional
Avenida El Dorado con carrera 52 CAN Santa Fe de Bogotá
Tel-fax: +57.1.222.1874
E-mail de la Secretaría General:
infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co EDGARDO JOSÉ MAYA VILLAZÓN
Procuraduría General de la Nación
Carrera 5 No. 15-80 Santa Fe de Bogotá
Tel-fax: +57.1.342.9723, +57.1.281.7531
LUIS CAMILO OSORIO
Fiscal General de la Nación
Diagonal 22 B No. 52-01 Santa Fe de Bogotá.
Tel fax: +57.1.570.2022
EDUARDO CIFUENTES
Defensoría del Pueblo
Calle 55 No. 10-32 Santa Fe de Bogotá
Fax: +57.1.346.1225
LUIS ERNESTO GILIBERT
Director General Policía Nacional
Santafé de Bogotá
Fax: +57.1.428.7634 - +57.1.315.9527
FERNANDO TAPIAS STAHELIN
Comandante de las Fuerzas Militares
Avenida el Dorado con Carrera 52
Santa Fe de Bogotá
Telefax. 57-1-2222935
CAMILO GÓMEZ
Comisionado para la Paz Fax: +57.1.560.9946
Oficina en Colombia del Alto Comisionado de la ONU para
los Derechos Humanos
Fax: +57.1.313.4050
Mailto:
oacnudh@hchr.org.co Signed:
Asociación Para la Investigación y Acción Social NOMADESC;
La Unión Sindical Obrera USO; Sindicato de Trabajadores de Las Empresas
Municipales de Cali SINTRAEMCALI; Corporación Servicios Profesionales
Comunitarios SEMBRAR; Sindicato De Los Trabajadores Universitarios De
Colombia SINTRAUNICOL; Central Unitaria De Los Trabajadores CUT - VALLE
DEL CAUCA; Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Minería en Colombia
SINTRAMINERCOL; Movimiento Estudiantil del Valle del Cauca y Nariño;
Fundación Comité De Solidaridad Con Presos Políticos Seccional Valle del
Cauca; Sintramunicipio Bugalagrande; Sintramunicipio Yumbo;
Sintramunicipio Dagua; Sintrametal Yumbo; Sutev; Asonal Judicial Valle
del Cauca; Sintrahospiclínicas; Sinaltrainal Bugalagrande.
CAMPAÑA NACIONAL E INTERNACIONAL DE DERECHOS HUMANOS CONTRA LA
PRIVATIZACIÓN, LA CORRUPCION Y LA PENALIZACIÓN DE LA PROTESTA SOCIAL
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRIVATISATION,
CORRUPTION AND THE CRIMINALISATION OF SOCIAL PROTEST
[Also to relevant embassy as indicated below].
II. BLACK COMMUNITIES UNDER THREAT OF MASSACRE AS OVER 400
PARAMILITARIES MOVE ON THE NAYA AND YURUMANGUI RIVERS
Canada, 12 February 2002
It is with sad and striking irony that, while millions celebrate Black
History Month, we have to forward the news of an imminent paramilitary
incursion into the traditional territories of the Black communities on
Colombia's Pacific Coast.
In Colombia, all massacres are announced
The inhabitants of the Naya and Yurumangui Rivers have been preparing
for an imminent massacre since late November, 2001 when right-wing
paramilitaries announced that they would "celebrate Christmas with a
massacre" in order to "seize control of the area and cleanse it of
guerrilla collaborators".
It was thanks to the pressure generated by an international campaign of
letters in protest to the Colombian government that the Christmas
massacre was prevented.
Despite the threats against them, the communities of the Naya and
Yurumangui, with great courage and dignity, have made the decision to
stay and resist and defend their traditional territories no matter what
the consequences.
The Wealth of the Pacific Coast Rainforest
The territories of the Colombian Pacific, which have been inhabited by
African descendants for some 400 years, are coveted for their immense
resource wealth and "development" potential, which includes petroleum,
gold, uranium, precious timber, biodiversity and enormous potential for
hydroelectric dam development. Likewise, the Black communities are also
recognized in their rights to collective entitlement of these very
lands as well as the right to autonomously develop them according to
their traditional values of their culture, rights which became
consecrated under the Black Communities Law (or Law 70) of 1993. Thus,
the historic and cultural project of the Black communities finds itself
in direct confrontation with the strategic interests of national and
international investment. This confrontation has meant the infliction of
terrible violence upon the peaceful communities of the Pacific coast
rainforest. The Black communities peacefully strive to build a society
which can exist in harmony with the forest that gives them their
sustenance and have always maintained that this does NOT make them
guerrilla collaborators.
Over 400 paramilitaries move on the Naya and Yurumangui
Today, February 12, 2002, news was just received of the movement of over
400 paramilitaries into the Naya and Yurumangui Rivers. It should be
noted that Colombia is a country known for maintaining vital links
between the official military and illegal paramilitary death squads. A
great deal of evidence to this regard has been compiled by credible
sources such Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and
the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).
What can be done?
Since all massacres in Colombia are previously announced, the sending
of letters, emails, faxes and making phone calls has proven to be an
effective tool for halting these acts of barbarism. At the end of this
message you will find the relevant addresses.
Below we include a translated version of the communiqué sent out by the
Autonomous Black Movement of Colombia known as the PCN (Proceso de
Comunidades Negras) sent to the president of Colombia, the High
Commission for Human Rights of the United Nations and the Colombian
Human Rights Ombudsman.
*******************************************
Bogotá, 12 February 2002
URGENT
To: VICEPRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
OFFICE FOR THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN
Bogotá
Re: The situation in the Naya-Yurumanguí
We have just been informed today of the deployment by land of
approximately 400 paramilitaries that apparently come from the Darien
and Calima region (province of Valle del Cauca), who have just moved
through the settlements known as Los Turbos-San Cipriano-Aguaclara. They
were seen by the inhabitants of that region have given testimony of the
presence of the paramilitaries passing through the region and confirm
that they have already passed through the Anchicayá River hydroelectric
dam. Also, it has been reported that paramilitaries of the urban area
of the port city of Buenaventura are concetrating and awating orders to
be sent to the Naya and Yurumangui Rivers. The order they have been give
is to enter with blood and fire to remove the guerrilla.
Likewise, we have been informed from the inhabitants of the region of
the intensification of paramilitary roads blocks and check points,
specifically in the villages of Zabaletas, Llano Bajo and San Marcos on
the Anchicaya River. Paramilitaeis currently control all poitns of
access to those rural areas. Their route appears to be Calima - Darién,
crossing over the New highway, entering the rivers Anchicaya, Raposo,
Cajambre, Yurumangui and Naya
We write this letter in expectation that you take all measures to avoid
that, just as it is being announced, the Black, indigenous and peasant
communities that live in this region suffer aggression, massacres and
displacement.
Sincerely yours,
BLACK COMMUNITIES PROCESS (PROCESO DE COMUNIDADES NEGRAS - PCN) NATIONAL
COORDINATION TEAM
VERSION ESPANOL
===============
URGENTE
Señores
VICEPRESIDENCIA DE LA REPÚBLICA OFICINA DEL ALTO COMISIONADO PARA
DERECHOS HUMANOS DE NACIONES UNIDAS DEFENSORIA DEL PUEBLO
Bogotá.
Ref. Situación Naya-Yurumangui.
Hemos sido informados en el día de hoy del desplazamiento por tierra
de cerca de 400 paramilitares y que al parecer vienen de la zona
Calima-Darién, atravesaron por el sitio conocido como Los Tubos- San
Cipriano-Aguaclara. Estos han sido visto por pobladores de esta zona y
se dice que ya pasaron por la hidroeléctrica del Río Anchicaya..
Igualmente se dice que los paramilitares de la zona urbana de
Buenaventura están siendo concentrados para ser enviados a los ríos Naya
y Yurumangui. La orden es entrar a estos ríos a sangre y fuego y sacar a
la guerrilla.
Igualmente se nos informa de la zona que se han intensificado desde el
viernes ultimo hasta hoy los retenes de los paramilitares en las
veredas Zabaletas, Llano Bajo, San Marcos sobre el río Anchicaya.
Los paramilitares controlan en el caso de Buenaventura todos los accesos
a la zona rural. La ruta que están siguiendo es la de Calima - Darién,
atravesando la carretera Nueva, entrando a Anchicaya, Raposo, Cajambre,
Yurumangui y Naya.
Esperando se tomen las medidas para evitar que tal y como esta
anunciado, las comunidades negras, indígenas y campesinas que viven en
esta zona sean nuevamente agredidas, masacradas y desplazadas...
De ustedes,
PROCESO DE COMUNIDADES NEGRAS EQUIPO DE COORDINACION NACIONAL
RECOMMENDED ACTION
------------------
Address your letters to:
FOR THOSE IN CANADA:
Write to: Fanny Kertzman Yankelevitch
Ambassador for Colombia
360 Albert Street, Suite 1002
Ottawa, Ontario K1R 7X7
Fax: (613) 230-4416
Email:
embajador@embajadacolombia.ca FOR THOSE IN THE UNITED STATES:
Write to: Luis Alberto Moreno
Embajador de Colombia
2118 Leroy Place, NW,
Washington, DC 20008
Phone: (202) 387 8338
Fax: (202) 232 8643
as@colombiaemb.org FOR THOSE IN THE U.K.
Mr VICTOR RICARDO,
Ambassador to the UK,
Embassy of the Republic of Colombia
Flat 3A, 3 Hans Crescent, London SW1X 0LN, UK
Tel: (020) 7589 9177. Fax: (020) 7581 1829.
E-mail:
mail@colombianembassy.co.uk IN COLOMBIA:
Write to: ANDRÉS PASTRANA ARANGO
Presidente de la República,
Carrera 8 n. 7-26 Palacio de Nariño,
Santa Fe de Bogotá
Teléfono. +57.1.5629300 ext. 3550 (571 ) 284 33 00
Fax (571 ) 286 74 34 - 286, 68 42 -284 21 86
Mailto:
pastrana@presidencia.gov.co or rdh@presidencia.gov.co National Human Rights Ombudsman
Sr. Eduardo Cifuentes Munoz
Defensor del Pueblo, Defensoria del Pueblo
Calle 55, No. 10-32/46 office 301
Telegram: National Advocate, Bogota, Colombia
Fax: 011 57 1 640 0491
Salutation: Dear Mr. Cifuentes Munoz
WITH COPIES TO:
Proceso de Comunidades Negras (PCN)
pcnkolombia@hotmail.com Canada Colombia Solidarity Campaign (CCSC)
mingacolombia@yahoo.ca ************************************************
Canada-Colombia Solidarity Campaign
122 St.Patrick Street, Suite 20-113
Toronto Ontario Canada M5T 2X8
Tel: Toronto(416) 533-8305
Ottawa (613) 747-9930
Fax: (416) 533-6871
Email:
mingacolombia@yahoo.ca Web:
http://tao.ca/~ccsc ************************************************
III. THE COLOMBIAN COMMUNIST PARTY SUFFERS INCREASED PERSECUTION BY
COLOMBIAN POLICE
Urgent Appeal for International Support
---------------------------------------
Dear Friend
We have received an urgent request from the Colombian Communist Party
for the support of the international community concerning the increasing
persecution of their members by state security forces. On the night of 4
February 2002, the homes of 10 of the party's members were raided by
police who accused them of being guerrilla collaborators and searched
their properties for Marxist literature.
Such acts of intimidation and repression are all too familiar in
Colombia, but the fact that state security forces, and not their
paramilitary henchmen, appear now to be openly carrying out persecution
campaigns takes us back to a period of all too recent Latin American
history no one ever wanted to see repeated - Cuba, Chile, Argentina,
Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay, Peru, Guatemala, Nicaragua. Yet the
nightmare of the post-war US-orchestrated international campaign of
terror against communists or any other political or ideological
opponents never went away. For a time it was metamorphised into the 'War
on Drugs'. And now to has come back to haunt us under a new banner - the
fraudulent US/UK 'War on Terrorism'. In Latin America, Cuba remains a
target, but even higher up the US hit list and sitting pretty are now
Colombia and Venezuela.
There have been but a flutter of news stories about the National Law for
Defence and Security introduced in Colombia in August 2001, yet its
implications are vast and extremely sinister. The law, another US
initiative thought out well before 11 September when the international
'War on Terrorism' was still a plot to be unleashed on the world, gives
untold powers to the Colombian security forces. These same security
forces, as we well know, have an horrific human rights record and work
almost symbiotically with that dark army of blood-curdling assassins we
know as paramilitaries, responsible for the deaths of thousands of
innocent civilians each year. The North American government, in spite of
its hypocritical claims to be concerned about human rights and in spite
of the pleas of three senior human rights NGOs, is about to throw even
more money and military hardware at these same security forces.
So, as well as being lavished with better equipment, more money, more
advanced training, and a bunch of hired assassins soon to be wearing the
new uniform of political legitimacy, the Colombian state security forces
have also been issued a new style of season ticket to persecute and kill
openly and with impunity. The new Law on Defence and National Security
enables them to stop, search, harass, detain arbitrarily for long
periods of time without a lawyer, torture, assassinate and disappear
anyone they decide to accuse of being a guerrilla collaborator in the
new US-led crackdown on so-called 'terrorists' and their 'supporters'.
They can operate independently without the need for civilian judicial
authorities to be a party. They can file their own reports and offer
unchallenged explanations for the deaths of civilians.
The Colombian Communist Party, long persecuted for their politics along
with the Patriotic Union (together they have seen more than 5,000 of
their members assassinated by state security forces and paramilitaries
since 1985) are experiencing a renewed escalation of this persecution
against a background of the siege-like conditions of the Bush/Blair 'new
world order'.
Please write to express your concern about this situation to:
Andres Patrana Arango
Presidente de La Republica
Carrera 8n. 7-26, Palacio de Narino
Santafe de Bogota
Colombia
Phone: 011-57-1-566-2071
Fax: 011-57-1-286-7434
E-mail:
rdh@presidencia.gov.co; apastra@presidencia.gov.co Gustavo Bell Lemus
Vice Presidente de la Nacion
Consejeria Presidencial de Derechos Humanos
Calle 7 nos. 6-54 Piso 3
Santafe de Bogota, Colombia
Ph: 011-57-1-336-0311
Fax: 011-57-1-342-9355
Eduardo Cifuentes
Defensor del Pueblo
Calle 55 No. 10-46
Santafe de Bogota
Ph: 011- 57-1-314-7300
Fax: 011-57-1-314-4000
General FERNANDO TAPIAS.
Comandante Fuerzas Militares
FAX 2229335
General LUIS AUGUSTO GILIBERT
Director General de la PolicÌa Nacional
FAX 4287634 o 3159527
Coronel LUIS ALFONSO NOVOA
Director Oficina Derechos Humanos PolicÌa Nacional
Fax 3159000
Unidad de Derechos Humanos
Ministerio Interior
Fax 5663214
American Officials:
Anne Patterson
U.S. Ambassador to Colombia
Ph: 011-57-1-315-2139
Fax: 011-57-1-315-2038
ambassadorb@pd.state.gov Mari Dieterich
Secretary for Human Rights
U.S. Ambassador in Colombia
Ph: 011-57-1-315-0811 ext. 2451
Fax: 011-57-1-315-2163
DieterichMe@state.gov British Officials:
Tony Blair
Prime Minister
House of Commons
Westminster
London SW1A 0AA
Dr Dennis MacShane
Foreign and Commonwealth Office - Latin America and Caribbean
King Charles Street
London SW1A 2AH
Jack Straw
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Foreign and Commonweath Office
Whitehall
London SW1A 2AH
David Blunkett
Home Secretary
House of Commons
Westminster
London SW1A 2AH
COPIES OF YOUR MESSAGE TO:
COLOMBIA PEACE ASSOCIATION
liz.atherton@freeuk.com IV. DAYSCHOOL AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY RALLY
Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1
Saturday 23 February 2002
Dayschool: Plan Colombia: Clearing the way for the Multinationals
10am to 5pm
With guest speakers from Sintraemcali, USO - the Colombian oil workers
union and Sinaltrainal - the Colombian food workers union currently
taking Coca Cola to court for complicity in the assassination of trade
union leaders. Workshops on Plan Colombia and the environment, the Latin
American context, and neoliberalism and the role of the multinationals.
daytime tickets- £6 waged/£3 unwaged. Places limited, book in advance.
Solidarity Rally VICTORY TO SINTRAEMCALI! 6pm until 8pm
Following a 36 day occupation which commenced on Christmas Day, the
public sector union Sintraemcali successfully prevented the
privatisation of the public services of Cali, Colombia's second city.
This victory rally will pay tribute to the 1535 trade unionists
assassinated in Colombia over the past 10 years and the continuing
struggle of the Colombian people against the imposition of neo-
liberalism.
Speakers:
Luis Hernández (President Sintraemcali)
Berenice Celeyta (Colombian Human Rights Defender)
Hector Vaca (USO Oilworkers union)
Carlos Alberto Olaya (Sinaltrainal food workers union)
Jeremy Corbyn MP
and UNISON, War on Want, Colombia Solidarity Campaign,
Haldane Society and others
To be followed at 8pm by FIESTA
Live Salsa with Latino Na'Ma
musical special guests, DJs & Colombian food & drink
Evening tickets- £6 waged/£4 unwaged. Book in advance to guarantee entry
Combined ticket- day school, solidarity rally and fiesta
£10 waged/£5 unwaged
Join the Colombia Solidarity Campaign and attend the AGM on
Sunday 24 February, Conway Hall 10am to 4pm
Workshops on British multinationals, building international solidarity
etc
Combined weekend ticket £15 waged, £5 unwaged existing members;
or £25 and £10 new members
Creche facilities will be available during the daytime sessions, but
please notify us of needs in advance, latest Thursday 21st Feb.
To book tickets, to receive more information about Colombia, or to join
the Colombia Solidarity Campaign, contact us at PO Box 8446, London N17
6NZ. Tel 07950 923448, email
colombia_sc@hotmail.com --
Andy Higginbottom
Co-ordinator Colombia Solidarity Campaign
internationalist
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SOS COLOMBIA
15.02.2002 03:11
What’s happening in Colombia?
For the past 40yrs Colombia has been engaged in a long and bloody civil war between the government and the guerillas. And to make matters worse, in 1999 the US made Colombia the target of its ‘war on drugs,’ giving the Colombian government $1.3 billion in ‘military aid’ to fight the drug trade. This ‘military aid’ package is known as PLAN COLOMBIA.
But PLAN COLOMBIA has only added fuel to the fire of Colombia’s crisis. The ‘military aid’ is being used to intensify the conflict against the guerillas, pushing the country to the brink of total war.
On Feb 6 2002, the Washington Post reported that the Bush administration is requesting an
additional $98 million for Colombia, which would provide 12 new transport helicopters for a
“Critical Infrastructure Brigade” designed to protect a 480-mile oil pipeline belonging to Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum from guerilla attacks. And furthermore, it was the notoriously corrupt Enron Corporation that led lobbying for PLAN COLOMBIA. Enron owned Centragas, a 375-mile natural gas distribution system in northern Colombia.
It is becoming clear that corporate profit is motivating the US military intervention, as Colombia is one of the most resource-rich countries in the world.
The conflict is taking a horrible toll on the people of Colombia. There is irrefutable evidence of a systematic, nation-wide campaign of terror against social movements and labor leaders, displacing people from resource rich territories as well as eliminating, dismantling and criminalizing social dissent. A recent report released by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch states that the Colombian military has close operational ties with paramilitary forces responsible for widespread civilian massacres.
Canadian Investment in Colombia
Why should Canadians be concerned? Because Canadian corporations are also profiting from the repression in Colombia, with an annual investment of over $5 billion (US) in the energy, mining, telecommunications and manufacturing sectors. Canadian investment continues despite the fact that a labor leader is assassinated every 3 days.
A recent incident involves Canada’s Export Development Corporation. The EDC spent $17
million financing the URRA 1 hydro dam, which was built without consulting the indigenous
people who lived in the area.
The dam flooded the indigenous lands, afflicted them with water-borne diseases and destroyed their way of life. And when they spoke out, their leader, Kimy Domico, was
‘dissappeared’ by paramilitary gunmen and has not been seen alive since.
The EDC is a crown corporation. These are OUR tax dollars at work!
Globalization’s Dirty War
What is happening in Colombia is setting the tone for what happens across the America’s—including here. Neo-liberal globalization is full blown in Colombia. Civil society is being systematically dismantled. There’s no public education, healthcare or social services. Privatization is becoming the norm.
If you go to Colombia you will see the effects of this. 200,000 children are employed in the “informal economy” - picking up garbage and selling candy in the street.
This is the ugly reality that the advocates of corporate-driven globalization don’t want you to see.
Waging Chemical Warfare in Colombia
Another highly controversial facet of PLAN COLOMBIA is the aerial fumigation program.
Military planes have already sprayed and estimated 70, 000 acres of coca fields with glysophate, a high-concentrate weed killer made by the Monsanto corporation (the makers of Agent Orange, the herbicide that was used in the Vietnam war, linked to cancer and a generation of severe birth defects).
But the human and environmental costs of the spraying are enormous. People too are being
fumigated. It is causing severe rashes and respiratory problems in children. The glysophates
are contaminating drinking water and destroying legitimate crops, creating hunger and massive displacement. And instead of reducing drug production, it is forcing coca farmers deeper into the Amazon jungle, causing deforestation and threatening the habitat of endangered species.
What we can do
First we must resist the “militant ignorance” (Don’t know, don’t care, don’t take me there) that pervades our culture.
This comes from a sense of powerlessness—but there’s so much we can do.
Think of the money corporations spend each year on public relations. PR is a multi-million dollar industry. And they do this because they care about what we think. They know we have choices.
We have the power and the responsibility to demand that Canadian corporations abide by the same ethical standards in Colombia that they would abide by in Canada.
Call up and ask how they justify doing business in a country in which paramilitary death squads with known links to the government can massacre labor leaders and indigenous peoples.
We have to send the message that a failure to do business responsibly will result in a boycott of their products, and will force us to remove them from ourinvestment and pension portfolios.
We know this will work - we’ve seen it happen in South Africa with the fall of Apartheid.
Canadian Companies doing Business in Colombia:
OIL and GAS SECTOR
Enbridge Inc.
TransCanada Pipelines Ltd.
Canadian Occidental Ltd.
Vanguard Oil Corp.
TechnoPetrol Inc.
Quadra Resources Corp.
Mera Petroleums Inc.
Millenium Energy Inc.
MINING SECTOR
Conquistador Mines Ltd.
Grey Star Resources Ltd.
Sur American Gold Corp.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Nortel Networks
Bell Canada International
OTHER SECTORS
Kruger Inc. (pulp and paper)
Quebecor World Inc. (printing)
McCain Foods Ltd.
Bata Shoe Organization
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Wider U.S. Role in Colombia Sought
$98 Million Requested for Military Training, Equipment
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 6, 2002; Page A15
The Bush administration's fiscal 2003 budget request for $98 million in new Pentagon training and equipment for the Colombian military marks the first step in a wider initiative to move U.S. involvement in the war-racked South American nation beyond counternarcotics assistance, administration officials said yesterday.
The money, over and above a request for $731 million in Andean regional assistance to continue anti-drug aid programs, would be drawn from foreign military financing funds, most often used to provide U.S. military aid to allies in the Middle East. Since Sept. 11, additional money from the account has been authorized for anti-terrorism activities in Uzbekistan, Turkey and the Philippines.
In Colombia, most of the money would be used to train troops and provide at least 12 new transport helicopters for a 2,000- to 4,000-member "Critical Infrastructure Brigade" in the Colombian army. The brigade's initial role would be to protect a pipeline that transports oil belonging to Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. from fields in northeastern Colombia to the Caribbean coast. Bombing by leftist guerrilla groups shut down the 480-mile pipeline for most of last year.
Eventually, a senior Defense Department official said, the brigade would extend its protection to other infrastructure, including power transmission sites that are regularly targeted by guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish initials FARC, and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN).
The official said the program would begin a "qualitative change" from a policy based on beefing up Colombia's ability to counter the guerrilla-protected production and trafficking of cocaine and heroin in the southern part of the country, to one that will help the Colombian government develop "effective sovereignty" over all of its territory.
The request drew instant congressional criticism. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), whose foreign operations subcommittee appropriates counterdrug and foreign military financing funds and has placed tight limits on all aid to Colombia, said, "This is no longer about stopping drugs -- it's about fighting the guerrillas." Citing ongoing human rights abuses by the Colombian military, Leahy said the proposal "draws us further into a military quagmire, and the Congress should be very reluctant to go down that road."
On the other side of the issue, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) said he was "encouraged" by the proposal. He asked Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, testifying yesterday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "How else can we increase help to the Colombian government in their war against the narco-terrorists?" Powell said it is important to protect the Colombian economy, but "our principal focus" remains on the larger Andean regional counternarcotics effort.
Although final figures are still being compiled, preliminary indications are that the cultivation of coca, the raw material of cocaine, has not decreased despite a massive U.S.-funded aerial fumigation program. Alternative development programs designed to wean peasant growers from illicit crops have progressed more slowly than anticipated. Troops trained and equipped by the United States have made little headway in attempts to reclaim guerrilla-occupied coca-growing zones in the south.
Other proposals -- including the stepped-up provision of U.S. intelligence in the anti-guerrilla war -- are being debated by the State Department, which is reluctant to risk bipartisan support for the anti-drug policy, and the Pentagon, where civilian policymakers believe the new anti-terrorism climate will support an expanded effort. Colombia's guerrilla and paramilitary groups are on the administration's list of international terrorist organizations.
Attempts to gain congressional approval for the program are likely to be undermined by a report released yesterday by three human rights groups -- Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Washington Office on Latin America. The report accuses the Colombian military of maintaining close operational ties with paramilitary forces responsible for widespread civilian massacres.
Current congressional restrictions on counternarcotics funding require that Powell suspend all U.S. aid at the end of the month unless he can certify that Colombia has made progress in severing those ties and in promoting the civilian investigation, suspension and prosecution of military officers credibly accused of human rights abuses. The report concludes that "Colombia's government has not, to date, satisfied these conditions," and that the military's human rights record, if anything, has gotten worse.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
Published on Wednesday, February 6, 2002 by OneWorld.net
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INTER PRESS SERVICE
Monday, 21 January 2002
Indigenous Peoples Decry War and Oil
By Kintto Lucas
QUITO, Ecuador - Native peoples from nine countries of Latin America and the Caribbean drew up strategies and issued declarations against the anti-drug Plan Colombia, the Colombian civil war and against petroleum and mining activities on their lands, during a weekend meet in the Ecuadorian capital.
The indigenous delegates issued a declaration rejecting the implementation of Plan Colombia, the anti-narcotics fight launched by the Andrés Pastrana government with international assistance, within their lands, "because of its environmental, social, cultural and economic effects, and particularly because it is a violation of human rights."
They also resolved to withhold political recognition of the peace talks currently under way in Colombia because native peoples "are not directly represented" at the negotiating table, despite the fact that they continually have been victims in the decades- long armed conflict.
Another resolution of the two-day conference was to demand compensation and reparations from the governments of the Amazon Basin countries and from oil and mining firms "for the environmental, social and cultural damages caused by petroleum exploitation and mining in indigenous territories."
They further demand that those countries standardize and reform their Constitutions to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples and that this process must include their participation.
The indigenous leaders from the region also called for the demarcation and legalization of their ancestral territories and the creation of a state agency to control the boundaries of these lands.
The participants in the meeting - from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela - are members of the Coordinating Body for the Indigenous Peoples' Organisations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), which held its annual conference here Saturday and Sunday.
The objective of the gathering was to draw up the Amazon Indigenous Agenda "so that all organizations in the Basin are working from the same perspective and in a coordinated way," said Sebastiao Haji Manchineri, a Yine native from Brazil and COICA general coordinator.
"We must have our own agenda, because until now we did not had a concrete mission as Amazon peoples," Manchineri told IPS.
Plan Colombia, oil exploitation and mining "are life-and-death issues for our peoples, issues that are threatening our reality. We must move forward with joint actions" that favor the sustainable development of the lands, said the COICA leader.
The coalition of native groups is working to prevent Plan Colombia from "increasing the militarization of the Amazon Basin," which would harm the local communities and turn the area into a "no-man's land".
Plan Colombia, the Pastrana government's anti-drug initiative that has over a billion dollars in mostly military support from the United States, is considered by many political analysts and civil society representatives as a plan to fight Colombia's guerrilla organizations.
"With the Colombian war, our people do not have anyone to turn to for help in meeting their most urgent needs, and this lack of alternatives is pushing them into situations of extreme poverty," said Manchineri.
COICA was founded in 1985 to "defend territorial rights, the free determination of indigenous peoples and the continuity of their unique cultures". The organization represents 400 indigenous groups from the Amazon Basin, or approximately 1.5 million people.
The Association of Sarayaku Indigenous Centres, of the central- eastern Ecuadorian province of Pastaza, denounced that, since 1998, representatives from major oil companies have been making offers to indigenous leaders in efforts to divide them and convince them to back down from their refusal to allow oil exploration in their ancestral lands.
Franco Viteri, of the Tayjasaruta-Sarayaku Government Council, stated that these actions by the petroleum companies violate the collective rights recognized by the Constitution of Ecuador and by the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 169.
The ILO Convention stipulates that before natural resources may be exploited within indigenous territory, the native community that holds rights over the land must be consulted and grant its permission.
"We are a Kichwa community of 1,500 people living on an ancestral territory of 1,400 square km, practicing our culture and our economic, political, cultural and social systems. It is crucial to fight to maintain this, and we will do so," stated Viteri.
Holding on to territorial control is the only guarantee of survival for the Kichwa people of Sarayaku, said the indigenous leader.
"We have witnessed how in the last three decades the petroleum industry has upset the lives and environments of other native peoples, and how they did not receive any benefit at all," Viteri added.
Based on the recognition of collective rights established by Ecuador's Constitution and the ILO's Convention 169, Viteri's group is demanding the immediate withdrawal of the Argentina-based CGC (Compañia General de Combustibles) Oil Company that is carrying out exploration activities in the area.
"We demand recognition of the Kichwa people's autonomy and territorial jurisdiction," he said. "We were born free and we have lived happily. We will fight like tigers. We will not end up as slaves."
For their part, the delegates from the Cofán peoples, who live in the northeast Ecuadorian province of Sucumbíos, bordering Colombia, charged that the government has failed to provide them titles to the land that they have inhabited for centuries.
The authorities argue that the land is found within the boundaries of national parks.
Toribio Aguinda, president of the Federation of the Cofán Peoples, stated that the lack of documentation proving ownership has caused problems for them with Colombian and Ecuadorian tenant farmers who cut down trees in the area.
"This is our ancestral territory, and if they would leave us in peace we wouldn't care about the property titles, but the tenant farmers come and say that the land doesn't belong to us because we don't have any papers that prove we do," Aguinda said.
The titles would also provide the native community with a sense of assurance in case the Colombian civil war escalates and the displaced civilian population or right-wing paramilitaries begin to cross the border into Ecuador, he added.
This Ecuadorian area's Cofán communities, which total 600 people, live 23 km from Nueva Loja, capital of Sucumbíos province, on the banks of the Aguarico River.
In February 2001, some 500 indigenous peoples from nearby communities were threatened and forced to abandon their homes by a commando of right-wing Colombian paramilitaries operating inside Ecuador.
Aguinda pointed to other effects of the Colombian war, saying that a month after the incident with the paramilitaries, three Cofán women died from a strange intoxication, a poisoning the residents attribute to the contamination caused by the aerial fumigation of the illicit coca crops in the Colombian border area.
The pesticide used in the operations, glyphosate, "is a chemical so powerful that its effects are felt well inside the Ecuadorian side of the border," Aguinda said.
He and other leaders of the Cofán peoples believe that the deaths were a direct result of the rupture in the delicate balance between nature, humans and the spirits, a balance they say is necessary for their cultural survival.
The Cofán communities hardest hit by the Colombian conflict are the 428 families living in the Guamuéz river valley, in the Colombian department of Putumayo.
The widespread fumigation - part of Plan Colombia - and the clashes between the leftist insurgent Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the right-wing paramilitaries of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) caused en exodus of the Cofán to Ecuador, where they were received by their fellow native communities in Sucumbíos.
Ten years ago, the Cofán numbered 10,000 between Ecuador and Colombia. Today, their population has dwindled to less than 3,000.
"Plan Colombia is one more reason why the indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin face extinction. War and petroleum seem to be persecuting us," said COICA leader Manchineri.
Copyright 2002 IPS
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U.S. Urged to Freeze Aid for Colombia
by Alison Raphael
The United States should refuse to hand over some US$500 million in military aid to Colombia due to its failure to fulfill conditions attached to the funds, said leading human rights groups Tuesday.
In a joint press conference, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) maintained that Colombia has failed to meet human-rights performance conditions set by the U.S. Congress in 1999.
The requirements include suspending the worst human rights abusers from the armed forces, severing ties between the military and right-wing paramilitary groups, and ensuring that military officials cooperate with civilian authorities seeking to punish rights abusers.
"The facts are clear. Colombia has not met the conditions," said Alexandra Arriaga, director of Amnesty International's government relations division, citing evidence laid out in a recent 32-page report published jointly by the three groups.
The report documents Colombia's noncompliance with U.S. requirements through grisly details of massacres carried out by paramilitary groups allegedly in collusion with the armed forces, and the murders or "disappearances" of a dozen civilian prosecutors, investigators, and witnesses involved in cases brought against paramilitaries.
The requirement that officers against whom there is "credible evidence" of grave rights abuses be suspended has also been skirted, as known abusers and paramilitary collaborators continue to hold high-ranking posts in the army, according to the report.
Other rights groups have substantiated the report's findings, including the Colombia office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which concluded that Colombia's paramilitaries rely on coordination and tolerance from the armed forces after a visit in December 2001.
Continuing to fund the Colombian military, the rights groups argue, "would send the message that the U.S. government is willing to turn a blind eye to human rights violations and allow Colombia to continue down a familiar path of impunity, violence, and terror."
State Department officials met last week with the three groups and other organizations concerned with human rights and U.S. foreign policy to discuss the report's findings. A final decision by the department on aid to Colombia is expected within a month.
However, in the 2003 budget released Monday, the administration of President George W. Bush asked for an additional US$98 million in training and equipment for the Colombian military.
U.S. government policy since the mid-1990s has been to aid Colombia's military in its battle against drug traffickers and several guerrilla groups. As a result, Colombia has become the third-largest recipient of U.S. aid funds, after Israel and Egypt.
Coletta Youngers, a Colombia analyst at WOLA commented that aid authorization for Colombia puts the U.S. government "between a rock and a hard place; between being honest and disrupting the aid flow or misrepresenting the facts in order to keep the aid spigot open."
Copyright © 2002 OneWorld.net.
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PLAN COLOMBIA: The real “COLLATERAL DAMAGE”
Read the reviews. In every COLLATERAL DAMAGE review there are references to Sept.11, and how the film had to be pushed back because it is the first big film to portray terrorism since the WTC attacks. What the reviews DON'T talk about is how the film is whipping up support for the US military intervention in Colombia.
For those of you unfamiliar with the film, it is about a firefighter, played by Schwartzenegger, whose wife and child are accidentally killed when a bomb goes off at a Colombian embassy in L.A. (they are the 'collateral damage' alluded to in the film's title.) Arnie is dissatisfied with the investigation and decides to take the law into his own hands, going down to Colombia to find the guerilla's responsible.
The film reviews have touched on how difficult a terrorism film is to watch post-Sept 11, but they have all failed to mention that since 1999 the US has given the Colombian govt. over $2 billion in arms under Plan Colombia and the Andean Initiative.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that in the 2003 budget, Bush has requested that another $98 million in arms to be designated for the intervention.
Plan Colombia has had a disastrous impact on Colombia. It has poured fuel on the fire of its ongoing civil war. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have just issued reports condemning the Colombian govt for human rights violations and outsourcing its dirty work to paramilitary death squads (the AUC).
But the mask is finally off. In the past, the US claimed that Plan Colombia was about the war on drugs, but with the new $98 million dollar request the Bush administration is saying it is needed to protect an oil pipeline belonging to the US giant Occidental Petroleum from guerilla attacks.
Plan Colombia is a military intervention paving the way for globalization. With the FTAA right around the corner, we are seeing an intensified effort to crush resistance to global capitalism.
COLLATERAL DAMAGE is drumming up public support for this cause.
In Toronto tonight we had about 40 protesters at the opening of the film. And it was effective. We spoke with people about the crisis in Colombia and handed out about 600 leaflets. Four theatre managers confronted us and called the police. When we took photos of the confrontation, one of the managers demanded that we hand over our film. We refused, and ten minutes later he returned with an automatic camera to take pictures of us, "to pay us back." But we all waved our banners and posed for the camera!
By that time the police had arrived (which only brought more attention to our cause). But the police left after they realized we were not 'impeding' movie patrons and 'blocking the fire route' like the managers claimed.
I urge you all to organize around this film, and to continue in solidarity with Colombia.
P.S. join WITNESS FOR PEACE in Washington April 19-22 for an Anti Plan Colombia rally!
WS