PRESS STATEMENT from WORKERS FRONT - the information bulletin of USO,
the United Workers Union of the Oil Industry

TERRORISM AGAINST USO
---------------------
The National Executive Committee of USO, the United Workers Union of the
Oil Industry, denounces that at approximately 9.15pm yesterday,
Wednesday 20th March, RAFAEL JAIMES TORRA, the Treasurer of the
Barrancabermeja branch of our union was assassinated as he left his home
in the Galán district of the city. His nephew GERMAN AUGUSTO CORZO
GARCIA who was accompanying him was also seriously wounded.

RAFAEL was linked to [the state oil corporation] ECOPETROL through the
Management Committee of the Barrancabermeja [oil refinery] Complex for
18 years. A solderer by profession, he had been the union's negotiator
in the last round of negotiations. He was a tireless fighter in
defending jobs in the maintenance team, succeeding in gaining respect
for the oil worker and preventing these activities from being contracted
out to external companies, as they need to be carried out by skilled
oilworkers.

We note that USO regional President AURY SARA MARRUGO and his bodyguard
ENRIQUE ARELLANO were disappeared the day before the Oil Forum in
Cartagena and subsequently assassinated [by paramilitaries on 5th
December last year]; that on 25th February the paramilitaries in
Casanare forcibly disappeared our comrade GILBERTO TORRES MARTINEZ who
had also been the organiser of an Oil Forum in Yopal, and that the
assassination of RAFAEL JAIMES took place scarcely 28 hours after the
Barrancabermeja Oil Forum had finished. RAFAEL had presented the union's
position to this forum, emphasising the necessity to strengthen
ECOPETROL and in particular the Barrancabermeja Refinery, which is
seriously threatened by the projects to construct private refineries in
Sebatopol and in Meta department.

The Barrancabermeja Branch of USO had denounced the series of threats
against our leaders to the National Government, to ECOPETROL's
management and to the State Security Organisations. The most recent
denunciation was made by our union on Tuesday 19th March to the
investigation unit of SIJIN [security police] in Barrancabermeja and
ECOPETROL's own security unit. But in spite of this the security
organisations did not take any measures to avoid this tragic outcome.
Our denunciations were known to the Inter-American Human Rights
Commission, which asked the Colombian Government to implement special
protective measures for workers, union activists and leaders, including
at their homes - measures which to this day have not been implemented.

When the workers and leaders arrived at the refinery installation,
scarcely 15 minutes after the murder was perpetrated, they found it
already under military control. The military were like rabid dogs,
itching to shoot at the union leaders and activists. "What bravery!",
pointing their rifles at the chests of the leaders, and them shooting
to one side, trying to demonstrate their power over the workers, we who
had only tears in our eyes and sadness in our heart for the loss of our
brother.

The United Workers Union USO condemns the cowardly assassination of
comrade RAFAEL JAIMES TORRA and we put the responsibility on the
Colombian State and the management of ECOPETROL for their indifference,
deafness and passivity in the face of possible assassinations of trade
union activists and leaders. Their casual treatment of our concerns, and
the fact that troops had already been mustered to the refinery, makes it
appear that this situation went according to a co-ordinated and pre-
mediated plan to annihilate the trade union organisation.

We call on national and international solidarity with USO and the people
of Barrancabermeja; we place responsibility on the Pastrana Government
for these terrorist acts and we demand that the security organisations
in the oil port of Barrancabermeja render accounts for this new and
atrocious assassination.

Compañero Rafael Jaimes Torra ... Presente, Presente, Presente!
Compañero Eduard Suárez ... Presente, presente, presente.
Compañero Aury Sará ... Presente, Presente, Presente.

Release our unjustly detained comrades!

GILBERTO TORRES MARTINEZ - FREE HIM NOW!
THEY TOOK HIM ALIVE, WE WANT HIM ALIVE

USO National Executive Committee
Barrancabermeja 21st March 2002


Additional Note
---------------
We are making an URGENT CALL so that national and international trade
union organisations make strong protests against the genocide that is
being committed against USO and the Colombian trade union movement.

There have been 85 USO leaders assassinated since 1988, but the
Colombian authorities have not made one arrest.

In spite of the incessant threats by paramilitary groups and military
intelligence reports concerning plans to assassinate USO leaders,
neither ECOPETROL's Security Co-ordination Unit, in charge of offering
security to the installations and workers of the corporation, nor the
government have taken action on the matter, keeping a complicit silent
on the events. As a result of all these threats, USO has through the
Lawyers Collective asked the Inter-American Human Rights Court of the
OAS for preventative measures to protect the lives of trade union
leaders and our members.

Given the evidence the Court had last December already urged the
Colombian Government to implement protection measures. Nevertheless, and
suspiciously, the Government has delayed the implementation of the
security schemes and up to now they still have not materialised.

As we have pointed out, there is a strategy of annihilation and
reduction of the social and trade union movement through, on the one
hand, criminalisation of trade union action and on the other the
physical elimination of leaders.

Comrades, the situation for Colombian workers is serious and it is only
through the solidarity of different organisations, social and trade
union, national and international, that we be able to stop this massacre
of leaders in Colombia.

Fraternally,

Hector Vaca
USO National Secretary for Energy Affairs




Colombia Solidarity Campaign Adds
---------------------------------
USO held a national stoppage after the disappearance of GILBERTO TORRES
which lasted 8 days. With this latest atrocity in Barrancabermeja, the
heart of the oil industry, the union has relaunched an indefinite
national stoppage with the central aim to protect members' lives. USO
demands the release of GILBERTO TORRES, implementation of the security
protection measures, and the end of state impunity for the
paramilitaries.

Hector Vaca visited Britain between 22nd February and 8th March. He was
a guest at the TUC General Council in the company of Berenice Celeyta of
SINTRAEMCALI who explained the terrible threats confronting Colombian
trade unionists. Hector addressed the War on Want annual conference and
held meetings with UNISON International Department, regions of the FBU
and T&GWU, and addressed meetings in Sheffield, Manchester, Nottingham,
Cardiff, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee organised by UNISON
regions, Globalise Resistance and other supporters of the Colombia
Solidarity Campaign.

At our last picket of the Colombia Embassy on 8th March a delegation
from the Campaign met with ambassador VICTOR RICARDO, who promised to
relay our concerns for the life of GILBERTO TORRES onto his government.
Meanwhile the TUC, UNISON and many other individuals and organisations
have sent their urgent messages of concern. But as yet there is
insufficient international pressure to safeguard USO. The Colombian
authorities have still not intervened to assist GILBERTO, the only
intermediary has been the International Red Cross which has passed
letters from GILBERTO's family onto his captors, so far without reply.
It is not known whether our comrade is alive or dead.

These violations take place in the context of a fiercely pro-business
agenda. Like the Pastrana government, the management of Ecopetrol
brandishes its determination to privatise Colombia's resources whatever
the human cost. On 18th March, just two days before RAFAEL's
assassination, the corporation's director ALBERTO CALDERON ZULETA gave a
presentation entitled "The Present and Future of Oil Exploration in
Colombia" to the Cali Chamber of Commerce.

We were there to witness the prevalence of greed over humanity. CALDERON
revealed more favourable contracts for the oil multinationals, and the
hand over of the state's geological data as incentives to new
investment. He concentrated exclusively on the monetary benefits to the
Colombian regime. When I asked him about the social consequences of
Ecopetrol's open door policy, specifically for the peasant and
indigenous communities where exploration will take place and for the
human rights of workers in the oil industry, CALDERON merely replied
that the question was "abstract". He claimed that lessons had been
learned from previous errors but nonetheless the principle impact of the
oil industry is on the economy as a whole rather than specific
communities. And he made no comment at all on the human rights of
Ecopetrol's own workforce.

All of these factors highlight that international mobilisations of
solidarity with USO are essential and have to be escalated urgently.


RECOMMENDED ACTIONS
-------------------

1. Write Immediately
--------------------

SEND MESSAGES TO / ENVIAR MENSAJES O CARTAS A:

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:  rdh@presidencia.gov.co

And to:

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
 
FOR THOSE IN CANADA:
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: 
Luis Alberto Moreno
Embajador de Colombia
2118 Leroy Place, NW,
Washington, DC 20008
Phone: (202) 387 8338
Fax:     (202) 232 8643
 as@colombiaemb.org

with copies to:

USO ;
CUT ;
Colombia Solidarity Campaign ;
National and International Campaign Aginat Privatisation, Corruption and
the Criminalisation of Social Protest .


2. Join the Picket of the Colombian Embassy in London
-----------------------------------------------------

STOP THE TERRORISM AGAINST USO! FREE GILBERTO TORRES!
END IMPUNITY FOR THE PARAMILITARIES!

4pm - 6pm Friday 5th April

3 Hans Crescent, London SW1 (back of Harrods, near Knightsbridge tube)

Called by Colombia Solidarity Campaign. All support welcome.
(or organise similar protest activities).


3. Get Prepared
---------------
Further initiatives will be announced next week.

See previous Urgent Actions dated 22nd October 2001, 3rd December 2001,
5th December 2001, 27th February 2002 and 5th March 2002.