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Colombia
has come to secure its own niche in Irish political
consciousness as a result of the ongoing detention
of three Irish republicans who have been incarcerated
in dangerous conditions for more than two years while
the bizarre nature of the prosecution case grinds
on against them. Constant international monitoring
secured by the efforts of Catriona Ruane and others
has at least ensured that we know where they are.
And while they have every reason not to feel safe
they are at least alive. Others who have fallen foul
of the country’s security apparatuses and associated
paramilitaries have not been so fortunate. While Sean
Smyth and colleagues, who engage in solidarity work
on behalf of Colombian trade union activists, have
worked diligently to highlight their plight in Ireland,
they have not been able to command the international
interest that Ruane has managed to generate.
Today
an appeal went out on behalf of two trade union leaders
who have gone missing in the country which has been
described as ‘notorious for repression against
unions.’ On September 29, 2003 Seth Cure and
David Vergara disappeared in the course of conducting
union business. Given what has happened to others
in similar circumstances the outlook can only be bleak.
One newspaper report in 2001 underscores the point:
In
mid-March, Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Victor
Orcasita were riding from their jobs at the Loma
coal mine in northern Colombia. Locarno and Orcasita
were president and vice president of the union at
the mine, a local of intramienergetica, one of Colombia's
two coal miners' unions. As the company bus neared
Valledupar, 30 miles from the mine, it was stopped
by 15 gunmen, some in military uniforms. They began
checking the identification of the workers, and
when they found the two union leaders, they were
pulled off the bus. Locarno was hit in the head
with a rifle butt. One of the gunmen then shot him
in the face, as his fellow workers on the bus watched
in horror. Orcasita was taken off into the woods
at the side of the road. There he was tortured.
When his body was found later, his fingernails had
been torn off.
Teaching
and health workers’ unions in particular have
fallen at the coalface of the systematic murder campaign.
More than 3,800 union leaders and activists have been
assassinated since the mid 1980's while more than
one hundred were killed in the first six months of
2002 alone. Union activity is effectively criminalized
by the Colombian State which vigorously promotes an
anti-union culture. Human rights bodies claim that
violations take place:
as
a direct consequence of the exercise of the union
activity, when the union workers solve or finish
an industrial dispute, during the realization of
national and local strikes, when they try to exercise
their collective bargaining right, when they are
in process of creation of a union or, when they
face peacefully and legally the loss of their labour
and union conquests.
Evidence
of State indifference to the death squad activity
is to be found in court records: the last 3,500 murders
of trade unionists in Colombia have resulted in only
six convictions underlining the contrast between the
ease with which the paramilitaries can find the trade
unionists and the 'inability' of the state to trace
the authors of their murders. But pro-active engagement
rather than indifference may be more characteristic
of state policy. According to the Uruguayan-Mexican
writer Carlos Fazio - he attended the funeral of Arch
Bishop Romero in El Salvador 23 years ago and has
been commenting on the region for some considerable
time - the death squad activity is 'the product of
a systematic strategy, sponsored by the State, and
based on the classical counter-insurgency doctrine
of the new model for low-intensity warfare.'
Corporate
profit seems to be the hidden hand clearing the market
of unionisation in order that it may be truly free
– for capital to roam and rampage unhindered.
In the 1990s the US based Drummond Coal Company closed
down much of its home operation and relocated in Colombia.
In March, 2001, during a dispute between the company
and the union, the president and vice president of
the union, Valmore Locarno and Victor Orcasita, were
assassinated by a right wing death squad. Towards
the end of the same year Locarno’s replacement
as president, Gustavo Soler, met a similar fate.
A
former mine worker who had to get out before he too
was murdered described the role of Drummond:
Drummond
apparently allows the violence to continue on its
behalf. When union members complain about safety
or other issues at the mine, they are targeted by
the company. As a union, we have a responsibility
to speak out. The indifferent Colombian government
turns a blind eye, saying the company needs “free
reign” to be productive and boost our economy.
Well, it's a reign of terror with productivity placed
before humanity. This climate of violence allows
the company to further violate its contract and
the law. On top of that, the wage difference between
Colombian and American miners is horrible. Drummond's
newest wage scale at La Loma ranges from $1.50 to
$2.75 per hour. The company fulfils only the minimum
requirements of Colombian law. We get no pensions
from the company and few benefits. Greed is the
bottom line for Drummond.
Drummond
is not alone in the employment of ‘murder incorporated’
against trade union activists. According to Jeremy
Rayner:
There
is mounting evidence that American companies are
complicit in the persecution of trade unionists
at their Colombian operations. In the case of the
Coca-Cola bottling plant in Carepa, where Isídro
Segundo Gil was murdered, the union Sinaltrainal
argues that Coca-Cola knowingly stood by and allowed
the plant's manager to bring in paramilitaries to
destroy the union … unionists have also been
assassinated at other Coca-Cola bottling plants
in Colombia … The president of Sinaltrainal,
Javier Correa, reported last year that the number
of unionized workers at Coca-Cola plants had dropped
by more than two thirds since 1993-from 1,300 workers
to only 450.7
The
International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) and the United
Steelworkers of America have filed a suit against
the Drummond Company on behalf of the families of
slain workers and their union. The suit, filed in
March last year, accuses Drummond of hiring paramilitary
gunmen to torture, kidnap and murder union leaders.
An additional lawsuit charges Coca-Cola, amongst others,
of complicity in the campaign of murder and intimidation
being waged against unionists at Coca-Cola plants
throughout the country.
Despite
the murderous purges being waged against the unions
by death squads linked to the Colombian military,
Colombia is now the third largest recipient of US
military aid in the world. And the purpose is to ensure
that the neo-liberal agenda governing the operation
of the country’s economy remains hegemonic. Which
means US military hardware whether in the form of
manpower or weaponry is the cutting edge for companies
like Drummond and Coca Cola. For certain there is
one drink that won’t pass my lips again. Fortunately,
I have a choice. It may be too late for Seth Cure
and David Vergara.
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