From: Colombian Labor Monitor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 08:00:58 -0500 (CDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: COLOMBIA: Weekly News Update #599, 7/22/01
WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #599, JULY 22, 2001
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
[.....]
5. Colombia: Indigenous Protest Abductions
6. Colombia: Rebels Kidnap Ex-Governor
7. Colombia: Coca-Cola Charged in Lawsuit
[.....]
*5. COLOMBIA: INDIGENOUS PROTEST ABDUCTIONS
On July 20 some 800 indigenous people set out on a search mission
in the southern Colombian department of Cauca to find three
German technical advisers who were abducted July 18 by the Sixth
Front of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC). Leaders of the Paez and Guambiano tribes gave the FARC
two days to release the Germans before beginning the search.
The abducted Germans "are three friends of the indigenous people
and work in the development of alternative projects to eradicate
coca crops in the zone," according to Armando Valbuena, president
of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC).
Reiner Bruchmann, Thomas Kuenzel and Ulrich Kuenzel work for the
German government's technical support organization, GTZ, which
carries out social development projects in impoverished
countries. They were abducted in the indigenous municipality of
Silva while on their way to inspect agricultural projects where
campesinos are planting blackberries and capers to replace coca
plants. The FARC have reportedly conditioned release of the
Germans on the suspension of aerial herbicide fumigations in the
zone. The German government already opposes aerial fumigations;
it supports the voluntary manual eradication of drug crops, along
with alternative development projects for farmers.
The abduction came as local indigenous communities were stepping
up their peaceful protests against the US-sponsored fumigations,
which have had a devastating impact on the environment and the
health and livelihood of local residents. On July 15, nearly
35,000 people from the Paez, Guambiano and black communities of
Cauca, along with other campesinos, began to mobilize toward the
departmental capital, Popayan, where they planned to try to
blockade the Pan-American highway in an effort to halt the aerial
fumigations. Guambiano leader and Cauca governor Floro Tunubala,
along with other area governors and local leaders, continue to
lobby the government for an end to the fumigations, which are
scheduled to resume soon over indigenous territories in Cauca and
neighboring Narino, in violation of earlier accords that allowed
for manual eradication in the area. [El Nuevo Herald 7/21/01 from
AFP, 7/22/01; El Colombiano (Medellin) 7/16/01]
*6. COLOMBIA: REBELS KIDNAP EX-GOVERNOR
On July 15, leftist rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) abducted former Meta governor Alan Jara Urzola as
he was riding in a United Nations (UN) vehicle with diplomatic
plates near the rebel-controlled demilitarized zone in southern
Colombia. Jara and UN personnel had just attended a ceremony
marking the inauguration of a "bridge of reconciliation" in
southern Meta. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan condemned the
abduction in a July 16 statement. [AFP 7/17/01; Xinhua News
Agency (China) 7/17/01]
The FARC's Eastern Bloc took responsibility for the Jara
abduction in an undated communique which was distributed on July
19 via email by the FARC's International Commission. The
communique accused Jara of being "the intellectual author, in
complicity with top military commanders and [local politicians],
of innumerable selective murders of grassroots leaders and
massacres in all of Meta department." The FARC said Jara will be
subjected to a "people's trial," and asked the UN "to explain to
the Colombian people and the international community the reasons
why this man was traveling under their protection, putting in
jeopardy the recognized neutrality of this organization." The
communique suggested that Jara was using the bridge inauguration
to further his electoral ambitions, and said it was
"incomprehensible that an organization as respectable as the
United Nations would let itself be used in this way." [FARC
Communique, undated, sent 7/19/01]
The abduction came less than a week after Jose Miguel Vivanco,
Human Rights Watch (HRW) director for Latin America, released the
text of a 20-page letter sent to FARC top commander Manuel
Marulanda Velez ("Tirofijo"). In the letter, Vivanco charged the
FARC with "a record number of violations" of international
humanitarian law, and urged an end to the crimes. In statements
published by several newspapers on July 13, Marulanda claimed the
FARC has respected human rights since its founding in 1964, and
said he never received Vivanco's letter. Vivanco told the Bogota
daily El Tiempo that he delivered an original and 20 copies of
the letter to the FARC, one of which was addressed to Marulanda.
The letter was also emailed to the FARC. Vivanco told El Tiempo
that if the rebels have not received the statement, another copy
could be sent "by certified mail." The letter was unusual in that
HRW, like most human rights watchdog groups, generally directs
its criticisms at governments and does not comment on the actions
of illegal groups. [ET 7/13/01; EFE 7/13/01]
*7. COLOMBIA: COCA-COLA CHARGED IN LAWSUIT
Coca-Cola Company is one of three defendants accused in a Miami
federal court of collaborating with death squads to kill,
threaten and intimidate workers at Coca-Cola bottling plants in
Colombia. With the support of United Steelworkers of America and
the International Labor Rights Fund, the suit was filed on July
20 in the US federal court for the southern district by
plaintiffs that include Sinaltrainal, a Colombian union
representing 2,300 food workers, including 500 bottling plant
employees; current leaders of the union; and the estate of Isidro
Segundo Gil, a union leader shot to death in 1996 at the entrance
to a bottling plant in the northern town of Carepa, in Antioquia
department, in the region of Uraba. Sinaltrainal charges that Gil
was killed by paramilitaries acting on orders from a plant
manager and on behalf of the bottling company's owners.
The lawsuit, filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, is seeking
$500 million in damages; it names Coca-Cola as a defendant
because the US-based company "exercises considerable control"
over the bottling companies and benefited from their repression
of unionists, according to lawyers for the union.
"We vigorously deny wrongdoing regarding human rights in Colombia
or anywhere else," said Rafael Fernandez Quiros, the manager for
international public affairs for Coca-Cola. "Neither Coca-Cola or
its Colombian subsidiary own or operates any bottling plants in
Colombia." The other two defendants are Panamerican Beverages, a
Miami company which is the largest soft-drink bottler in Latin
America, and Bebidas y Alimentos, a bottling plant in Colombia
run by Richard Kirby of Key Biscayne, Florida. The stock of
Panamerican Beverages, which has had a nearly 60-year
relationship with Coca-Cola, fell $0.11 to $19.65 on the New York
Stock Exchange following the filing of the suit. [Equipo Nizkor/
Derechos Human Rights/ Serpaj Europa Informacion 7/20/01; Miami
Herald 7/21/01]
The case has been assigned to Judge Paul Huck. [CNN en Espanol
7/20/01 from Reuters] Attorney Daniel Kovalik, counsel to the
Steelworkers and to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, dismissed
Coca-Cola's attempts to distance itself from its affiliates,
pointing out that under the terms of its contracts, the company
constantly supervises and inspects the plants it works with.
"It's inconceivable that they didn't know about it," Kovalik
said. "They even control the type of uniforms the workers wear."
[El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 7/21/01, quote retranslated from
Spanish]
[.....]
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