Month of August, 2006
Colombia Journey: Report from Scott Nicolson
Dear friends,
Sixteen people were arrested by the military and police on charges of “rebellion” and “terrorism” in Fortúl (15 miles south of Saravena in the state of Arauca) on August 12. The majority of those people are community leaders and the arrests took place just days before the August 17 deadline for candidates to register for the upcoming mayoral election.
During the May 28 presidential elections, the candidate of the left-wing Alternative Democratic Pole, Carlos Gaviria, received more votes in Fortúl than did president Uribe. Many people view the arrests as another attempt by the government to disrupt elections in Arauca. On October 21, 2003, thirty one political leaders were arrested in Arauca just five days before municipal and state elections. Father Helmer Muñoz, who was leading in the polls for the governor’s race, was one of the people arrested.
Police Burglarize Headquarters of SINALTRAINAL
On August 3, 2006, at about 12:15 PM, uniformed men who were identified as judicial police of the SIJIN entered the headquarters of SINALTRAINAL in Bogota and proceeded to search the union office under the pretext of a preventative operation...
Colombia Journey: Report from Scott Nicolson
Dear friends,
On the morning of August 5, Fray told me “We’ve got company.” When I stepped outside of the social organizations’ building here in Saravena, a tank and an armored personnel carrier were parked across the street. The cannon of the personnel carrier was pointed towards the building and the machine gun was pointed towards the corner of the building. It was an intimidating display of our tax dollars at work – $3.8 billion in military aid to Colombia since 2000.
August 5 was the second anniversary of the massacre by the Colombian military of three social leaders here in the state of Arauca – Alirio Martinez, Jorge Prieto, and Leonel Goyeneche. Alirio was the president of the Departmental Peasant Association, Jorge was the president of the Arauca section of the health care workers union, and Leonel was a teacher and the treasurer of the Arauca section of the United Workers Federation.
Assassination of Trade Unionist in Barrancabermeja
The Barrancabermeja Committee of the Colombian Trade Union Federation (CUT) rejects the vile assassination of one of our comrades JORGE GUILLEN LEAL, 33 years old, that took place on 23 July at 2.30 pm in the barrio Covida in the municipality of Barrancabemeja.
Colombia Journey: Report from Scott Nicolson
Dear friends,
One of the most deadly professions in Colombia is education. I visited Arauca City (100 miles east of Saravena in the state of Arauca) from July 17 to 19, and I met with leaders of the Arauca Teachers Union. Jaime Carrillo, human rights coordinator for the union, gave me a list of the 28 teachers who have been killed in Arauca since 1980 - nineteen of those murders took place in the last five years. “I knew most of those people,” said Jaime. Another 125 teachers have been threatened with death – five percent of the 2,456 teachers employed by the state of Arauca.
Colombia Journey: Report from Scott Nicolson
Dear friends,
Luis Carlos is 11-months old and has a congenital heart problem (“soplo” or inflammation). His parents, Rosalba and Luis Alberto, are part of the three million “displaced” people here in Colombia – people who had to flee from their homes to escape the war and repression. The family is currently living in Arauca City and I met them at the Permanent Human Rights Committee office there on July 26.
Rosalba and Luis Alberto managed to work their way through the bureaucratic maze and officially register as displaced people. As such, the family is entitled to government-subsidized health care through a private company - Caprecon. The doctor says that Luis Carlos needs an electrocardiogram (EKG) but none of the public hospitals in the state of Arauca have that equipment. Caprecon made an appointment for Luis Carlos to have an EKG in the public hospital in Bucaramanga (15 hours west of Arauca City by bus) for July 28, but the company refused to cover any of the travel costs.
Colombia Journey: Report from Scott Nicolson
July 9, 2006
Dear friends,
I arrived here in Bogotá on June 30 and I went to prison the following day (to visit a friend). [...]
I also want to express my appreciation to all the organizations that are supporting my accompaniment work in Colombia – Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ, University Congregational Church, Montana Human Rights Network, Progressive Labor Caucus, Community Action for Justice in the Americas, and the Missoula Central Labor Council. I also want to thank my one corporate sponsor – Banana Boat Sunscreen.
Colombia: Presidential election result a 'huge fraud'
Interview with Hernan Durango, former leader of Colombia's Central Unity of Workers (CUT) and member of the Communist Party of Colombia (PCC). He is currently a journalist for Venezuelan newspaper Diario Vea.
Notes from the field: Union peasants killed & disappeared
Report by CAN 2006 Delegation member Katrina Plotz
Colombia is the third-largest recipient of U.S. aid. Since 2000, Colombia has received $4.7 billion from the military aid package, “Plan Colombia.” Originally proposed under the “War on Drugs,” the Bush administration increased aid to Colombia under the rhetoric of the “War on Terror.” The groups that constitute the armed resistance in Colombia’s fifty-year civil war are on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. This allows the Colombian military to violently intimidate anyone who questions the social, economic, and political policies of the Colombian government.
Paramilitary Terror in Colombia
Report by CAN 2006 Delegation members Doug Michel and Jon Plotz
The United States has been involved in Colombian paramilitary forces since 1962 in Colombia. The first paramilitary group included 60 men in Bogotá who spread out from the city to attack liberals and leftist organizers. This group of paramilitaries received training at the School of the Americas, in Fort Benning, Georgia. According to recently declassified documents, U.S. General William Yarborough helped to initially organize the Colombian paramilitary and teach them military and terrorist tactics.
Flyers
Links
U.S. Activist Groups:
Anti-War Committee (antiwarcommittee.org)
July 2006 Delegation
Delegations
Previous CAN delegations have met with important trade union leaders from FENSUAGRO, USO, SINALTRAINAL, and many others. A hallmark of our delegations is the opportunity to meet with the rank-and-file trade unionists, farmer-peasants, and local community organizers who are on the front lines of the movement for peace and justice in Colombia.
Documents
March on the RNC: Stop the War on Iraq! End Plan Colombia! (pdf)
Posted on 11/01/07.
About the Colombia Action Network
Our main focus is on ending Plan Colombia and all U.S. military aid to Colombia. As of 2006, almost 5 billion dollars in U.S. taxes has been sent to the Colombian right-wing government since 2000. This money is being used in Colombian President Uribe's dirty war against his own people. The CAN is committed to saying NO to the fumigation chemicals, helicopters, weapons, U.S. forces, and military training that our tax dollars provide.
We were founded 1999. We try to change U.S. policy by organizing and participating in demonstrations, organizing national speaking tours of Colombian social movement leaders, organizing national and regional conferences, and by sending delegations of U.S. activists to learn about the effects of U.S. military aid first hand and to provide protection to social movement leaders from the Colombian military and para-militaries.
We hope you will use our materials and sign up on our mailing list so that you can be a part of the national movement against Plan Colombia and join us in solidarity with the Colombian people. We would like to have more unions and student and activist groups relate to the CAN. Please email us or call us if you would like to be a part of up coming tours, conferences, or national days of action!
¡Viva la lucha colombiana!
Long live the Colombian struggle!
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actioncolombia-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To contact us send an email to:
info@colombiasolidarity.org
Or you can call CAN toll free:
(866) 473-7431.
