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Colombia’s Violence Against Union Members Growing |
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Over the past 23 years, some 2,697 trade union members have been killed in Colombia. That’s a rate of one every three days.
One of those killed was Jorge Dario Hoyos who was assassinated in 2001. Seven years later, his daughter, Yessika Hoyos, is still fighting to bring the persons responsible for his killing to justice.
Even though the low-level trigger men have been prosecuted, the masterminds who ordered Dario Hoyos’ death have not been found—an all-too-common scenario in the deadliest country in the world for union members. But Yessika Hoyos is determined to get justice for her father, she told a group at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., on Friday.
The Colombian government is not willing to investigate violence against union members and it is not willing to investigate torture.
Hoyos was one of three Colombian human rights experts who visited the AFL-CIO last week after testifying before the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee that the Colombian government has done little to stem the tide of violence against trade unionists or to prosecute the killers.
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the committee chairman, opened the hearing by pointing out that
sadly, Colombia has been the most dangerous place in the world to belong to a labor union for decades. In some recent years, there have been more labor killings in Colombia than the rest of the world combined.
It remains difficult to know who is responsible for most of these deaths because so few cases have been investigated, let alone prosecuted.
The AFL-CIO and a broad coalition of groups have opposed passage of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement until workers are able to fully exercise international core labor rights without fear, the country makes deep and sustained progress on ending impunity, and the agreement is amended to address persistent criticisms of the trade model.
José Luciano Sanin, director of Escuela Nacional Sindical (National Union School), a leading Colombian think tank, says the Colombian government has not vigorously investigated or prosecuted the killing of trade unions. At the current pace of investigations and trials, it would take 37 years to prosecute the backlog of cases. And the caseload is growing—the rate of killings, which had fallen for a few years, jumped sharply last year by 25 percent, Sanin says.
More than 60 percent of all murdered unionists in the world are Colombians. The murder rate of unionists in Colombia is five times that of the rest of the countries of the world, including those countries with dictatorships that have banned union activity.
Human rights advocates in Colombia contend that many of these murders were planned by the leadership of the country’s right-wing paramilitary organizations, as well as the Colombian military, and national police. Although some prosecutions are being conducted, prosecutions often stop short from holding those who conspired, ordered or paid for anti-labor murders accountable.
A former special judge for some of the most high profile labor assassination cases, told the committee:
There is a systematic pattern where prosecutors are content to find the material authors [the people who pulled the trigger] of the deaths, but leaving out the intellectual authors, who are the most important, given that they are the ones who sponsor, order the executions, put up the money, and always remain in impunity. Thus, these crimes will not stop, since the true perpetrators are not prosecuted.
To view all of the testimonies from the Feb. 12 hearing, click here.
Despite the abysmal record in her native country, Hoyos says she still has hope. She told the AFL-CIO forum she keeps working to educate people because
so many tolerate violence in our society. I keep doing it because I believe we can build the kind of Colombia where children don’t have to grow up without parents.
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The President of Colombia recently stated that he does not need the US to tell him how to deal with trade unionists. He called the US statistics wrong and called it “hate politics.” An article stated him as saying that his political enemies spouting the mistreatment of union workers are taken in by the, “social-coolness of the bourgeois left, drinking whiskey and cocktails.”
That is an interesting view of the American union man by the President of a South American country that former President Bush and many Republican congress members call our friend.
The full writing can be seen here:
http://colombiareports.com/colombian-news/news/2895–colombia-does-not-need-demands-from-the-us-on-how-to-protect-workers-president-uribe-says-.html
Once again though we have him just talking the talk and not walking the walk. In that article he stated that the government dedicated $40 million to protecting workers. But he did not address the fact that it did not work. More union members were killed in 2008 than in 2007. Despite the so-called government help, the murder rate is going up not down. The president proudly stated that 144 of the murderers were in jail. He neglected to state that amount only represents a very small percentage of the over 2,600 murdered. Bottom line, Colombia has for years and continues to lead the world in murders of union members. Progress is when you become #2, #3, #4 or #5 in the world in those murders.
The president of Colombia wants the FTA passed stating that not doing so would be an injury not only to his government, but to all the country. The problem in that statement is that shown my many, the Colombian government does not represent the majority of people in the country but represents the economic elite. One report by a Iowa University student who investigated it showed that 20 years ago of the 43 million people in Colombia that a 3,200 controlled 36% of the land. Today that mere 3,200 controls 56% of the land. The country has one of the most unequal divisions of wealth in the entire world. What is good for the wealthy is not necessarily good for the people. Trickle down economics has been shown not to work, especially in Colombia.
The belief spouted by those who want the FTA passed is that a large market will open for US goods. But with a minimum wage in Colombia of about $215 a month and over 50% of the population living below the poverty level, that will probably not be the case. Even reducing the tax on goods coming in won’t help people buy more. History has shown that the savings are very rarely if ever passed on to the consumer, instead the rich just add it to their pocket. Many argue that the labor laws written into the FTA will help. Unfortunately due to the massive corruption in Colombia as noted in US State Department reports, NGO reports and even a union delegation visiting Colombia, enforcement of the laws is at the discretion of who has the money. In the last two years labor groups and business owners have been unable to reach an agreement in Colombia about an increase in minimum wage. Each year the president made the decision to increase it just enough to cover inflation.
Think about it, are we going to sell more paint for instance when the working person has to put in a half week of work to afford it? Or how about a $400 stove that will require two months of wages even if they did not have to pay for rent, food and utilities?
There are those who have posted here on previous blogs about Colombia stating the admirable progress Colombia has made in security. For another view of that see this video of an interview by an independent journalist in Colombia who has traveled most of the country
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw6HQflZMz0&eurl=http://www.colombianblog.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9524&start=20&feature=player_embedded.
With all the conditions mentioned, it is much more likely for American jobs to go to Colombia than for American jobs to be created to satisfy an increased market. This has already been shown when Owens-Illinois closed their Godfrey plants and sent the work to Colombia.
Until the Colombian government stops just giving the US lip service and calling us bourgeois leftists and starts actually making concrete and sustained progress, an FTA is not of benefit to workers of either country.
TRUE and TRUE. The United States needs to make a strong stand against Columbia, and not even consider trade where there are such extreme human rights violations occurring, and countless murders. This sets the worst kind of precedent for a nation that claims to be a democracy and represent freedom and equal rights. It is time to reclaim our integrity and dispense the hypocrisy of our actions. But will we? We cannot even unanimously agree that the EFCA is a good thing, yet for the sake of the survival of our country, it may be the only thing that can keep us afloat. Without worker protections and a fair living wage, there may be no way we can overcome this economic decline. The American worker knows this; yet the ones who control the purse strings don’t seem to understand how crucial this is. They are the ones controlling the laws and our government. This has got to stop. We need to enforce laws and regulations that are a benefit to all of us, and that strengthen our quality of life, not destroy it.
For trade unionists here in America is a moral obligation to oppose the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, we can’t sign treaties over the blood of our brothers.
The ultra-rigth wing goverment of Uribe had been oppresing Colombian people, there is 35.000 people dissapear under the rule of para-military gangs legalized by Uribe, at this very moment 4 million Colombians had been displazed and now are living in the streets of big cities it is the biggest human crissis in this hemisphere; that’s why Bush reward Uribe with the medal of freedom.