Anti-Uribe Protest

[Judi Lynn]

Anti-Uribe Protest
May, 01 2008 By James Brittain



Massive demonstration on March 6 in Bogotá, Colombia—photo from colombia.indymedia.org

~snip~

While a consistent disdain toward the Colombian state continues to resonate throughout various Latin American countries, so, too, has opposition within Colombia. On Thursday, March 6, Colombians from all walks of life not only protested the illegal incursion of their country's forces on Ecuador's territory, but denounced human rights abuses against sectors of the Colombian populace by the Uribe and Santos administration and their links to the Colombian paramilitary.

Promoted by the National Movement of Victims of State-Sponsored Crimes (Movimiento Nacional de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado or MOVICE) and various social justice-based organizations, March 6 was a day of remembrance, homage, and protest. For months, human rights groups, sectors of organized labor, and politically conscious civilians worked together to create a domestic and international response to the atrocities. Journalist Luis Alberto Matta pointed out that 270 cities, medium sized towns, and large villages within Colombia had connected with each other. Outside Colombia, an estimated 140 cities in 23 countries across Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and Latin America coordinated events outside Colombian embassies in conjunction with protest.

After months of preparation and days of travel, Colombians peacefully demonstrated their opposition. Radio reporter Manuel Rueda described how hundreds of thousands of people came to condemn the state. The BBC documented that over 40,000 Colombians surrounded the Casa de Nariño and the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá to indirectly confront paramilitaries who had forced communities and individuals to vote for the Uribe administration or face torture and death; who publicly raped and molested children, women, and men and executed and/or mutilated civilians with chainsaws; forced live castrations; cut off the limbs of non-combatants; murdered the mentally and physically challenged; suffocated children in front of their parents; committed acts of cannibalism; and decapitated suspected guerrillas and subsequently used their skulls during soccer games with the Colombian army.

In the past year just under 80 governors, mayors, and Congressional politicians have been alleged or found guilty of having direct connections, meetings, and/or contracts with the paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Auto- defensas Unidas de Colombia or AUC). The AUC has targeted, threatened, and disappeared trade unionists and various community organizers. Included in the list of those linked to the AUC are Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón, his cousin Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, President Uribe's brother Santiago, and their cousin, former Senator Mario Uribe.

More:
http://www.zcommunications.org/zmag/viewArticle/17484

[Judi Lynn]

1. Amnesty International's open letter on the death squads slaughter of anti-death squad demonstrators:

Amnesty International USA Press Release
For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, March 26, 2008

NGOs Press President Uribe of Colombia to Address Wave of Violence Against Rights Defenders, Unionists
-- Uribe Advisor's Statements Contribute to Climate of Intolerance that Fosters Violence

(Washington) -- Recent statements by a close advisor to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe contributed to "a climate of political intolerance that fosters violence" shortly before a wave of killings, attacks, and threats against trade unionists and rights activists, a group of 22 international human rights organizations said in a joint letter to Uribe.

Four Colombian trade unionists -- some of whom were reportedly associated with a March 6 demonstration protesting state and paramilitary human rights violations -- were killed between March 4 and March 11. Members of human rights organizations have been subject to physical attacks, harassment, office break-ins and thefts of files in the past weeks. More than two dozen organizations and individuals received death threats purporting to come from paramilitary groups in the capital, Bogota.

Shortly before the attacks, presidential adviser José Obdulio Gaviria made a series of statements on national radio linking renowned victims' representative Ivan Cepeda and other organizers of the March 6 protest to the notoriously abusive guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). On February 11, one day after Gaviria first made the statements, the supposedly demobilized United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary group released a statement echoing Gaviria's allegations.

"Baseless comments such as these are profoundly damaging to Colombian democracy and human rights, and place those against whom they are made in direct danger of violence," said the NGO coalition in a letter to President Uribe. "These statements stigmatize the legitimate work of thousands of human rights defenders, trade unionists, and victims, and can have a chilling effect on the exercise of rights to freedom of expression and free association."

The coalition of NGOs called on President Uribe to:

• Publicly disavow statements by Gaviria and others that linked the protest organizers to guerillas;
  
• Reject the recent wave of attacks and reaffirm his government's support for the protection of the legitimate work of trade unionists and other human rights defenders;
  
• Ensure a prompt and impartial investigation into each of the recent attacks, hold those responsible to account, and take decisive action to dismantle paramilitary groups and break their links to state officials.

The letter, a copy of which was also sent to the U.S. government, pointed out that "this string of threats and attacks calls directly into question the effectiveness of the paramilitary demobilization process."

The violence comes as the Bush administration is aggressively pressing the U.S. Congress to ratify a Free Trade Agreement with Colombia. "In the debate over the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, President Uribe has repeatedly claimed that he is protecting workers' rights," said the NGOs. "But the fact that President Uribe has allowed his presidential adviser to continue his harassment, even while trade unionists and rights defenders are being killed and threatened, suggests a real disconnect between Uribe's discourse and his actions."

The letter was signed by: AFRODES USA, Amnesty International USA, Center for International Policy, Center for Justice and International Law, Church of the Brethren Witness/Washington Office, Colombia Human Rights Committee, Conference of Major Superiors of Men, Friends Committee on National Legislation, General Board of Church and Society, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, Jesuit Conference, Latin America Working Group, Lutheran World Relief, Mennonite Central Committee, Mercy Corps, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, Refugees International, United Methodist Church, US Office on Colombia, Washington Office on Latin America, Witness for Peace.

The letter follows below.http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGUSA20080326003

[Judi Lynn]

2. Colombian government continues attack on rights defenders

Colombian government continues attack on rights defenders
Submitted by WW4 Report on Sat, 05/03/2008 - 01:06.

Jesús Caballero is one of the latest trade union leaders to be assassinated in Colombia. A labor unionist with the State Training Institute in the Caribbean town of Sabanalarga, Caballero disappeared on April 16 and his body was found two days later, with signs of torture. He was also one of the organizers of the March 6 international demonstrations against state-sponsored and paramilitary violence and in solidarity with all victims. That made him the sixth person involved in the March 6 mobilization to be murdered. Such frontal targeting of the March 6 organizers has been linked to remarks made by President Alvaro Uribe's advisor José Obdulio Gaviria in Colombian media that protest organizers were guerrillas. {Semana, April 23}

In response to the remarks and subsequent attacks, 63 members of {US} Congress told President Uribe in an April 14 letter: "We respectfully ask that you personally reiterate the prohibition on public servants making disparaging remarks about human right defenders... We urge you to publicly reject Gaviria's statements and reaffirm your
government's commitment to the protection of human rights defenders."

So far, the request seems to have fallen in deaf ears. Instead of showing signs of support for labor and human rights work, Uribe's government went into attack mode. On April 18, as Vice President Francisco Santos was touring the US in a desperate attempt to save the Colombia-US Free Trade Agreement, he complained that the Congressional letter was part of a defamation campaign mounted by human rights organizations and labor to sink the FTA. Vice President Santos went on: "The Congress members are lied to. They don't know. We are investigating the murders and there will be a response to the letter. {The killings} were not related to the mobilization nor with what they claimed happened. They are using José Obdulio's statements to make a bigger fuss." His comments were made the same day that Jesús Caballero's body was found. {El Tiempo, April 18}

President Uribe himself accused human rights defenders of inciting attacks against his family. His accusations referred to a highly embarrassing episode in which the president's cousin and close political ally, Mario Uribe, tried to avoid arrest by requesting political asylum at the Costa Rican Embassy in Bogota. Uribe is the most influential politician under criminal investigation for links to right-wing dead squads, in what is known as the "para-politics" scandal. {AFP, April 22}

Soon after the word got out that Uribe was requesting asylum to avoid arrest, dozens of human rights defenders and members of the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes assembled in front of the Costa Rican Embassy—bringing pictures of well-known and less known persons killed by the paramilitaries, a coffin, and even a mariachi band. They demanded that Uribe turn himself in to the Colombian courts and respond to the crimes for which he is being investigated.

More:
http://ww4report.com/node/5434