Colombia Remains Violent for Trade Unionists, Even After US Free Trade Deal
By: David Dayen Thursday January 26, 2012 11:38 am
Remember during the debate over the Colombian trade deal when the Administration swore up and down that they would, as a condition of putting the free trade agreement forward, insist on an “action plan” that would end the murder of trade unionists in Colombia and bring about justice for those already killed? Yeah, so, we’re several months beyond the passage of those trade deals – Obama highlighted them in the State of the Union on Tuesday. So how’s that action plan going? Not so well, Human Rights Watch says.
In its World Report 2012, the human rights organization stated that Washington “provided approximately US$562 million in aid, about 61 percent of which was military and police aid. Thirty percent of US military aid is subject to human rights conditions, which the US Department of State has not enforced.”
The report also criticized the U.S. for failing to “address the paramilitary successor groups believed to be responsible for a large portion of anti-union violence,” as promised in the April 2011 Labor Action Plan. Improving the situation of labor rights for Colombian workers was a condition for the Democrats to ratify the free trade agreement with the South American country.
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But the other problem here is that there has been no accountability for any of the other murders. Practically nobody has been prosecuted for committing acts of violence against unionists, or even for making threats. There have been 195 trade unionist murders since 2007 and just 6 convictions, and zero convictions on any attempted homicides or threats, which number in the thousands.
More:
http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/01/26/colombia-remains-violent-for-trade-unionists-even-after-us-free-trade-deal/
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Colombia: Ensure Justice for Anti-Union Violence
Letter to Attorney General Morales
October 3, 2011
Dear Attorney General Morales:
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As you know, Colombia continues to face an extraordinarily high level of anti-union violence.[1] While the number of trade unionists killed every year is certainly less today than a decade ago,it remains higher than any other country in the world. The National Labor School (ENS), Colombia’s leading NGO monitoring labor rights, reports that in 2010 there were 51 killings of trade unionists, 22 homicide attempts, and 397 threats.[2]
A major reason for this ongoing violence has been the chronic lack of accountability for cases of anti-union violence. Colombia has failed to deliver justice for more than 2,500 trade unionist killings committed over the past 25 years.[3] As Vice-President Angelino Garzón acknowledged during a November 2010 speech, “[T]he immense majority of crimes [against] trade unionists remain in impunity…there have been advances in the investigations…but we still have not gotten to 200 court rulings, and there are thousands of workers and union leaders killed and disappeared.”[4]
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Over the past several months, Human Rights Watch has carried out a comprehensive evaluation of the sub-unit’s work, reviewing hundreds of court judgments for crimes against trade unionists, examining the most recent available data provided by the Attorney General’s Office on the status of investigations, and conducting dozens of interviews with prosecutors, judges, rights advocates, and victims.
Our research has found severe shortcomings in both the scope of the sub-unit’s work and the investigative methodology that it employs. In terms of the scope, we found that:
• The increase in the number of convictions since the sub-unit’s creation, while substantial, represents only a small fraction of the total number of cases of trade unionist killings that still need to be investigated and prosecuted.
• The increase in convictions is largely due to confessions provided by paramilitaries under the Justice and Peace process, which does not apply to cases of killings committed after 2006.
• The sub-unit has made virtually no progress in obtaining convictions for killings from the past four-and-a-half years.
• The sub-unit has made virtually no progress in prosecuting people who order, pay, instigate or collude with paramilitaries in attacking trade unionists.
More:
http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/10/03/colombia-ensure-justice-anti-union-violence
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Posted: February 11, 2011 01:06 PM
Colombia's Anti-Union Violence Rules out Free Trade Agreement
President Obama is being pressed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and corporate interests to advance a free trade agreement with Colombia that he campaigned against when he ran for president. The agreement's potential economic benefits are uncertain but certainly small, while its importance to U.S. foreign policy is enormous. Passage of the Colombia free trade agreement would mark the administration's abandonment of concern about human rights and labor rights among our trade partners. In particular, the president would be turning his back on unions here, in Colombia, and around the world.
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The level of anti-union violence in Colombia is only acceptable if you don't really care about the victims or justice. Last year, 46 unionists were murdered in a country less than one-seventh the size of the United States -- a rate that would translate to more than 320 murdered union members and leaders in a country of our size. Would we stand for that here?
Even if the number of murders had fallen to zero last year, it would be far too soon to reward Colombia for an improvement. The violence against unionists in Colombia has been so vicious and overwhelming that there should be no trade deal until years have passed without any further incidents. In addition to the murders of more than 2,850 trade unionists (more than 700 of whom were union leaders) over the last 25 years, there have been more than 10,000 violent incidents such as kidnappings, cases of torture, assaults, death threats, disappearances, etc.
Appalling violence continues in Colombia. Last year's 46 murders of unionists followed 47 in 2009 and 49 in 2008. Eleven of the 2010 murders occurred during the new Santos presidency, and dozens of death threats are being made against unionists and their leaders month after month. The campaign of terror hasn't stopped.
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Most of the unionists' murders have never even been investigated. The Colombian attorney general is investigating only 800 cases in the union\human rights groups' database of murdered trade unionists.
More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ross-eisenbrey/colombias-antiunion-viole_b_820629.html
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