The Colombian labor movement has been the target of a campaign of intimidation unparalleled in the contemporary world. More than 3,800 union leaders and activists have been assassinated since the mid 1980's; more than one hundred have been killed in the first six months of 2002 alone. In the past several years, links between the right wing paramilitary groups that carry out the majority of these killings and both US based corporations operating in Colombia and US military assistance to the country have become increasingly evident. In response, American labor unions and human rights groups have launched solidarity campaigns aimed at holding corporations accountable for their practices in Colombia and calling for a moratorium on arms shipments until the country's human rights record improves.
The United States and The War on Trade Unions in Colombia: A Call for Solidarity
By Jeremy Rayner
On the morning of December 5th, 1996, a band of armed men on motorcycles rode up to the gates of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in the small rural town of Carepa, Colombia. They waited for the plant's gatekeeper to open the door, shot him ten times, climbed back onto their motorcycles and rode off. The gatekeeper, lying dead at his post, was Isídro Segundo Gil, the union's chief negotiator. His assassins belonged to one of Colombia's ruthless far-right paramilitary organizations. The paramilitaries were determined to destroy the union, which had dared to ask for $400 a month in wages, health benefits, and greater job security. Later that day they attempted to kidnap another of the union's leaders, who barely escaped with his life, and then firebombed the unions' offices that night. But what sealed the union's fate was when the paramilitaries returned to the plant a week later, gathered the workers in the company cafeteria, and forced them to sign letters of resignation from the union. Any employees who did not sign the letters would be killed. According to Edgar Paéz, one of the workers at the plant, "the company never negotiated with the union after that…. All the workers had to quit the union to save their own lives, and the union was completely destroyed."1
Scenes like this are all too common in Colombia, where organizing a union is very likely to get you killed. The numbers are staggering: more than 3,800 union leaders and labor activists have been murdered in Colombia since the mid 1980's, and more than one hundred have been killed in the first six months of this year alone. In 2000, more trade unionists were killed in Colombia than were killed in the entire world in 1999.2 And the situation is quickly getting worse: in 2001, murders of trade unionists were up by 30%.3 Beyond the obvious human tragedy that lies behind these numbers, this campaign of terror has serious implications for social justice and worker rights in Colombia and beyond.
In the face of such violent repression, the fate of Colombia's trade union movement might very well depend on the solidarity offered by people here in the United States. Support from people in the US is crucial, for two reasons: in the first place, there is abundant evidence that US-based companies are deeply implicated in the attacks on trade unionists occurring in their Colombian operations. At the same time, until the Colombian military severs its links with the paramilitary groups that carry out 90% of attacks on Colombia's trade unionists, US military aid to that country is all too likely to wind up offering indirect support for the paramilitaries' ongoing campaign against worker rights.
Negotiation by Death Squad : US-Based Corporations and Paramilitaries in Colombia
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. The workers at the Carepa plant had been asking both Coca-Cola and its bottler, Bebidas y Alimentos, to intervene on their behalf for two months before Isídro Segundo Gil's murder. The plant manager, Ariosto Milan Mosquera had announced publicly that he had asked the paramilitaries to destroy the union. His declaration had been followed by a series of death threats from the paramilitaries, which had prompted the union to send letters to both Coca-Cola and Bebidas y Alimentos asking that they intervene to secure their workers' safety.4 And this was not the first time that threats against workers had been carried out. Just two years before, in 1994, the paramilitaries had killed two trade unionists at the same plant.5 It should have surprised no one when two and a half months after the union's plea for help, Isídro Segundo Gil was murdered and the union busted.
More:
http://henningcenter.berkeley.edu/gateway/colombia.html~~~~~Recent Violence Against Trade Unionists
At least 48 trade unionists were assassinated in 2009. The following represents a sampling of cases of violence against trade unionists in 2010, which include cases of threats and murders. Translated texts of recent death threats are available here. Information comes from the Colombian labor central CUT, the ITUC, and ICTUR.
2010
20 June, Ibio Efren Caicedo, union member and activist with the Antioquia teachers' association (ADIDA). Ibio Efren's murder brings to seven the number of unionized teachers assassinated in Antioquia in 2010.
17 June, Nelson Camacho Gonzalez, died after being shot repeatedly while waiting for the bus to take him to work. Camacho Gonzalez was a member of the oil industry's united workers union USO (Union Sindical Obrera). His murder took place during an industrial dispute between the union and the multinational British Petroleum in Casanare. BIO
5 June, Hernán Abdiel Ordoñez Dorado, treasurer of the executive board of the prison workers’ union ASEINPEC in Cali. Ordoñez was in the company of his mother when he was attacked by unknown assailants travelling by motorbike, who shot him dead with four bullets. BIO
17 May, Francisco Antonio Abello, a member of the agricultural workers’ union SINTRAINAGRO, was assassinated in the town of San Juan de Palo Prieto, in the Department of Magdalena. BIO
12 May, Leslien Torcoroma, a teacher and member of the Norte se Santander region teachers’ union ASINORT, was assassinated in the town of Abrego, Department of Norte de Santander.
4 May, Fabián Franco Tigreros, a traffic guard, member of the Valle del Cauca region public sector union SINALSERPUB, was assassinated in the city of Jamundi, Department of Valle del Cauca.
3 May, Rodolfo Vecino, an executive member of the oil workers’ union USO, received threatening phone calls from paramilitary groups.
From January 28 through early May, at least four teachers affiliated to the teachers’ association of Cordoba, ADEMACOR, have been assassinated in the Department of Cordoba. Overto Beltrán Narváez, Rigoberto Polo Contreras, Elkin Eduardo González and Benito Díaz Álvarez were all killed by unknown assailants close to their workplaces. The president of ADIDA, Over Dorado Cardona, was also the victim of an armed attack, which he fortunately escaped unharmed.25 April, Benito Días Álvarez, a member of the Cordoba region teachers’ union ADEMACOR, was found in his home with his throat slit, in the town of San Bernardo del Viento, Department of Córdoba.
23 April, Diego Escobar Cuellar, Wilson Sáenz, Álvaro Vega, Omar Romero, Henry Domínguez, and Eduard Alberto Villegas, all members of the local CUT executive branch for Valle del Cauca, received threatening phone calls from paramilitary groups.
22 April, Diego Fernando Escobar Múnera, a criminal court judge and member of Association of Judicial workers ASONAL JUDICIAL, was assassinated in the city of Medellín, Department of Antioquia.
21 April, Elkin Eduardo Gonzalez, a member of the Cordoba region teachers’ union ADEMACOR, went missing. Later her body was found in the town of Tierra Alta, Department of Córdoba.
21 April, Alcidiades González Castro, a member of the agricultural workers’ union of Arauca ACA, was assassinated in the town of Tame, in the Department of Arauca.
9 April, Martha Cecilia Díaz Suárez, President of the local government workers’ union ASTDEMP and David Florez, member of the Santander, CUT executive branch, received threatening letters from paramilitary groups.
17 March, Israel Verona, a member of the agricultural workers’ union of Arauca ACA, was assassinated in the town of Saravena, in the Department of Arauca.
21 February, Marco Aaron Suarez, a local level leader of the oil workers’ union USO, was subjected to an attempt on his life in the town of Puerto Gaitan, Department of Meta. His vehicle received several bullets.
10 February, the brothers Omar Alonso and José de Jesús Restrepo Ospina, both members of the miners and agricultural workers’ union of the South of Bolivar Department FEDEAGROMISBOL, went missing. Later their bodies were found in the Cauca River in the region of South of Bolivar, Department of Bolivar. Both bodies were found with visible signs of torture.
3 February, Rigoberto Polo Contreras, a member of the Cordoba region teachers’ union ADEMACOR, was assassinated in the town of Tuchin, Department of Córdoba.
28 January, Overto Beltrán Narváez, a member of the Cordoba region teachers’ union ADEMACOR, was assassinated in the town of San Antero, Department of Córdoba.
27 January, German Osman, national President of the oil workers’ union USO, received threatening phone calls from paramilitary groups.
18 January, Jaime Bazante Guzman, a member of the Cauca region teachers’ union SUTEC, was assassinated in the town of Caloto, Department of Cauca.
14 January, armed men entered the Plantation of Palo Alto, in the region of Ciénaga, Department of Magdalena. The men demanded to know the whereabouts of Jose Luis Soto Jaramillo and Juan Carlos Torres Munson, members of the agricultural workers’ union SINTRAINAGRO. The men then fired shots, wounding a worker Miguel August Cuenca Torregroza, and forced 185 workers to leave their workplace at gunpoint.
http://www.usleap.org/usleap-campaigns/colombia-murder-and-impunity/recent-violence-against-trade-unionists~~~~~ Colombia’s ‘dirty war’
Right-wing terror squads torture and kill union workers and activists
BY PATRICK KEANEY
BARRANCABERMEJA, DEPARTMENT OF SANTANDER, COLOMBIA — When his body was recovered, it was clear that Aury Sara Marrugo spent his last hours alive in agony. His gums had been butchered. A blowtorch had been used to sear the flesh under his arms and the soles of his feet. Over 70 small incisions were found on his corpse, and strong acid had been applied to his abdomen. At some point during the savagery, a single bullet was fired at close range into the middle of his face, ending his misery. Sara had been "disappeared" on November 30, 2001. His remains, and the grisly warning they were designed to convey to his colleagues, turned up the following week.
Sara drew his final, tortured breaths in the town of Cartagena, on the northwest coast of Colombia. His executioners, members of a right-wing paramilitary group known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), wanted his fate to be public knowledge. According to a statement by the AUC, Sara was executed because he was thought to be a member of one of Colombia’s armed opposition groups, the National Liberation Army, or EjŽrcito de Liberaci—n Nacional (ELN). Others familiar with the paramilitaries and their role in Colombia’s long-running civil war point to a more likely explanation for Sara’s murder. He was president of Uni—n Sindical Obrera (USO) — the Oil Workers’ Trade Union, Cartagena Section — and was therefore guilty of a crime that cost nearly 170 Colombian men and women their lives last year: he was a trade unionist.
Since 1985, over 3800 union workers and leaders have been assassinated in Colombia, making it by far the most dangerous place on earth to fight for workers’ rights. In 2001, according to the United Workers’ Central, or Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), the country’s 600,000-member central trade union, there were 169 assassinations of union workers, 30 more attempted assassinations, 79 "disappeared" or kidnapped, and over 400 reports of threats and intimidations. And, as of the third week in January, this year shows every indication of keeping pace with 2001’s horrific toll: already there have been six assassinations, including Maria Ropero, president of the Union of Community Mothers, who was shot 13 times. According to human-rights advocates at Amnesty International, in Colombia "the security and armed forces, as well as their paramilitary allies, often accuse trade unionists of being guerrilla sympathizers or auxiliaries." This makes them "military targets."
The leaders of Colombia’s labor unions believe they are being targeted because they openly denounce the violence and unjust distribution of wealth that takes such a heavy toll on the majority of their country’s population. As the most prominent members of Colombian civil society, trade unionists — especially representatives of the threatened public sector — find themselves at the point where four very powerful vectors meet. First, there are North American and European transnational corporations, which look to take advantage of Colombia’s vast natural resources and growing, low-wage labor pool. Second, there is the Colombian government, including the armed forces and national police, whose stability is threatened by the civil war, and whose stated goals are to eliminate the leftist guerrillas and enter the global economy. Third, there is the US government, which has started to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to the Colombian military, ostensibly to fight the "War on Drugs," but whose desire to protect US-based corporations operating abroad is well-known. And, last, there are the paramilitaries, a group whose various links to the country’s elites, the transnational corporations, the Colombian military, and, by extension, the US government are a matter of record. Traditionally, their primary function has been to perform the dirty work of torturing and killing Colombians like Aury Sara.
More:
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/multipage/documents/02161797.htm 
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