President Uribe

In northwestern Colombia in 2001, the president and vice president of the mining union Sintramienergetica were taken off a Drummond bus and shot to death by paramilitary death squads hired by the corporation. Later that year, paramilitaries also killed the new president. These men were all killed during negotiations with Drummond.

Colombia's intelligence services compiled lists of union activists and gave them to right-wing paramilitaries, who then carried out assassinations, according to captured documents and a key witness.

The U.S. Congress is considering a proposed trade agreement with Colombia, and news of the government-paramilitary collaboration has put passage of that legislation in further jeopardy.

The Colombian Department of Nariño is experiencing one of the worst protection and humanitarian assistance crisis since Colombian President Alvaro Uribe began his second term in office. The U.S. financed aerial herbicide spray program (fumigations) compounds and exacerbates the myriad of hardships that Afro-Colombian communities are already facing: racism, disadvantaged access to state programs, food insecurity due to the internal armed conflict, internal displacement and vulnerability to human rights violations by the armed groups.

The Colombia Action Network has signed onto this letter circulating in
support for the Cimitarra River Valley Peasant Association. The CAN was
hosted by the CRVPA in 2004 & 2005 on delegations to Colombia. The letter
and the report from the International Peace Observatory explain the
repression faced by the CRVPA.
- Meredith Aby for the CAN
colombiasolidarity.org

Dear President Uribe:

We are writing to you today to express our deep concern for the present
situation of the civilian population and farmers' organizations in the
Antioquian Northeast, the Cimitarra River Valley and the Sur de Bolívar

BOGOTA, Colombia - President Bush pledged continued support Sunday to this
strong but drug and violence-plagued U.S. ally, on a visit marked by both
warm official welcomes and rioting protesters.

"Your country has come through very difficult times and now there's a
brighter day ahead," Bush said to President Alvaro Uribe after their
meetings and lunch at the presidential palace. "We have been friends and we
will remain friends."

Bush came to Colombia's capital for a show of confidence in Uribe and the
country's battle against narcoterrorists. But the stop was clouded by a
political scandal involving Uribe, and security jitters had Bush staying