Colombia: “World Capital of Trade-Unionist Murders”

Alfredo Correa de Andreis: Assassinated in Barranquilla, 2004.

In Colombia, 72 union leaders were murdered in 2006, two more than in the previous year, according to Human Rights Watch. The NGO considers Colombia “The world capital of trade-unionist killings,” with more than 1,500 deaths since 1990.

Colombian prosecutor probing U.S. firms in Washington visit (AP):

Iguaran meets with U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Monday and Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday. With both, he is sure to talk about Chiquita Brands and the Alabama-based coal company Drummond Co. Inc.

On the dubious record of the USDOJ under Gonzalez as Fourth Amendment defender and net exporter of due process of law, start with Adult Supervision for Mexican Narcs?

Uribe is out in the media today trying to refute a Human Rights Watch report on the extermination of trade unionists.

Thousands of Colombians disappeared in the past decade, most victims of right-wing militias that emerged in the 1980s to fight leftist rebel groups.The paramilitaries quickly evolved into mafias, enriching themselves through cocaine trafficking, theft and extortion in large chunks of the country, particularly the Caribbean coast. Large landowners, politicians and corporations bankrolled the militias to expand their holdings, while police and military officers turned a blind eye.

More specifically, as El Tiempo reports today, Mario Iguarán will lay the blame for the murders of numerous labor organizers on both paramilitary groups and military units.

Durante su visita a Estados Unidos, Mario Iguarán ha dicho que no quiere adelantarse a los resultados de las investigaciones, pero lo que se ha encontrado hasta el momento confirma esas sospechas.

During his visit to the U.S., Iguarán said he does not want to anticipate the results of the investigations, but that what he has discovered to date confirms these suspicions.

Iguarán se refirió a casos como los del profesor Alfredo Correa, asesinado en 2004; de tres sindicalistas de la firma estadounidense Drummond Co., en 2001, y de Luis Orozco Serrano, vicepresidente de la Asociación Nacional de Trabajadores de la Salud, en 2001. Indicó que en ellos ”los autores fueron grupos armados al margen de la ley llamados paramilitares o Autodefensas”.

Iguarán was referring to cases such as that of Prof. Alfredo Correa, murdered in 2004; of three union members from the U.S. firm Drummond, murdered in 2001; and the case of Luis Orozco Serrano, vice-president of the National Association of Healthcare Workers, murdered in 2001.He said that in those cases “the authors were armed outlaw groups known as paramilitaries or self-defense groups.”

”Desafortunadamente -digo desafortunadamente porque ¿quién quiere ver a miembros de su fuerza pública en particular, al ejército de su país, de su patria, involucrado en estos hechos?-, en muchos de los casos encontramos la acción, en ocasión por omisión, pero igualmente censurable, y en actitud criminal, de miembros de la fuerza pública”.

“Unfortunately — and I say unfortunately because who wants to see their police, their army, the army of their homeland, involved in this sort of thing? — in many of these cases we found members of the police and military acting, or acting by omission, which is just as reprehensible, in a criminal fashion.”

Indicó que debido a que los expedientes así lo señalan ”tenemos que decirlo… y eso es lo que está dictando nuestras decisiones”.

He said that, given that the reports indicate those things, “We have to say so … and that is what is driving our decisions.”

Según Iguarán, los casos de intervención paramilitar y fuerza pública en los asesinatos se remontaban a varios años atrás y ahora sobre la base de investigaciones ”nosotros no tenemos ningún reparo” en decirlo.

According to Iguarán, cases of paramilitary and police and military involvement in assassinations go back a number of years and that now, based on the investigations, “he have no choice but to sayso.”

En Colombia fueron asesinados 72 dirigentes sindicales en el 2006, dos más que en el año anterior, según la organización Human Rights Watch. La ONG considera al país ”la capital del mundo de la muerte de sindicalistas”, con más de 1.500 muertos desde 1990.

In Colombia, 72 union leaders were murdered in 2006, two more than in the previous year, according to Human Rights Watch. The NGO considers Colombia “The world capital of trade-unionist killings,” with more than 1,500 deaths since 1990.

Esa situación ha llevado a legisladores demócratas, bajo fuerte presión sindical estadounidense, a paralizar en el Congreso las gestiones de aprobación del tratado bilateral de libre comercio en tanto el gobierno del presidente Álvaro Uribe no proporcione informes sobre avances en las investigaciones y sanciones a los responsables.

This situation has led Democratic lawmakers, under heavy pressure from U.S. trade unions, to block passage of approval the bilaterial trade agreement until President Uribe provides information on the progress of investigations and punishment of those responsible.

Iguarán añadió que su oficina estaba investigando el ”magnicidio de 1985”, en que el entonces grupo armado M-19 se tomó el Palacio de Justicia, con varios muertos y desaparecidos como consecuencia. Los autores ya han sido indultados y los asesinatos han prescrito, pero no las desapariciones, explicó.

Iguarán added that his office is also investigating the “mass murder of 1985,” in which the armed group M-19 took over the Palace of Justice, with various persons dead and disappeared as a consequence. The actors have been granted clemency and the statue of limitations on the murders has run out, but not on the disappearances, he explained.

En 10 meses de investigación, ”tenemos ya oficiales privados de la libertad y sindicados de la desaparición” de personas que, cuando se encuentren sus cadáveres, sus casos pasarán a ser calificados como asesinatos.

In 10 months of investigations, “we have officers under arrest and facing disciplinary proceedings for the disappearance” of persons who, when their bodies were found, came to be classified as murder victims.

“Esto es difícil y doloroso, pero tenemos que decir lo que digan los expedientes y procesos”.

“This is difficult and painful, but we have to report what the investigations and the proceedings tell us is true.”

Love unions or hate them, you still have to admit that labor disputes are more efficiently resolved by battalions of lawyers and a few “hey hey, ho ho” chants than by blood in the gutters.