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Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2000 4:16 PM
Subject: [Cuba SI] Rob: Colombian Economy. Child deaths. Coca or starve
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subject: Rob: Colombia Economy. Child deaths. Coca or starve
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From: "robert rodvik" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: COLOMBIA: Unions Lash Out Against IMF Tax Reforms
Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2000
Title: ECONOMY-COLOMBIA: Unions Lash Out Against Tax Reforms
By Yadira Ferrer
BOGOTA, Oct 4 (IPS) - Colombia's three central trade unions took
to the streets Wednesday to protest proposed tax reforms drawn up
in accordance with International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommendations.
Thousands of workers, pensioners, unemployed and social activists
massed outside Congress -- which began to debate the proposed
reforms on Sep 20 -- in the demonstration called in Bogota by the
Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, the Confederacin General de
Trabajadores Democrticos and the Confederacin de Trabajadores de
Colombia.
The three central trade unions and a number of independent unions
that also joined in the protest complain that the bill before
parliament would raise the cost of basic products and utilities,
and levy new taxes on income, pensions and wages.
''The working class is pronouncing itself against the bill because
it cannot bear any new economic measure that would directly affect
its already badly deteriorated income,'' Luis Garzn, the president
of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, Colombia's largest trade
union, told IPS.
The trade unionist said 70 percent of Colombian workers earn less
than the two minimum salaries, of 130 dollars each, considered
necessary for a household to afford the basic basket of essential
goods and services.
The Colombian economy, still in the grip of its worst crisis in
decades, shrank 4.4 percent last year, and unemployment currently
stands at over 20 percent. Some analysts say raising the tax burden
in the midst of such a heavy recession would be counterproductive
and inconsistent.
The proposed reforms, which would directly tax 65 widely used items,
''would lead to an absolute decline in living conditions for
Colombia's very poor,'' argued Garzn.
He said the protest only affected production in the state-owned
oil company, Ecopetrol, due to a strike called by the independent
Unin Sindical Obrera.
The bill, to be considered by a plenary session of Congress once
it makes it through a parliamentary commission, is seeking to
amplify the tax base with a 32 percent income tax, taxes on wages
and pensions, and a 15 percent Value Added Tax.
The government hopes to take in around 1.8 billion dollars in the
first year the new taxes are levied -- revenues that would go
towards reducing the fiscal deficit, which is currently equivalent
to 4.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The sectors that will become new taxpayers if the bill is passed
include retirees with incomes of more than eight minimum monthly
salaries (around 1,040 dollars) and workers earning more than six
minimum salaries (780 dollars).
New taxes would also be charged on 65 products like chocolate,
butter, vegetables and certain fruits, bottled water, pesticides,
sausages, daily newspapers, books and other printed matter.
The proposed reforms arise from ''a poorly designed policy oriented
by a mistaken IMF diagnosis of the economic crisis,'' Professor
Carlos Alvarez at the public National University told IPS.
Alvarez said the IMF blames the economic decline in Colombia on
the fiscal deficit, rather than on the opening up of the economy
to foreign competition, ''which drove local producers to ruin,
weakened internal demand and tax revenues, and led to a commercial
deficit'' of 1.58 billion dollars in 1999.
Although the IMF mentions elements like the global financial meltdown
and the weakening of the trade balance, ''it puts little weight on
those factors, and sees a solution to the crisis as dependent on
a drastic reduction of the fiscal deficit,'' he added.
The bill, as well as a reform of the social security system to be
submitted to Congress shortly, follow the IMF recommendations agreed
to by the government when the international lender approved a 2.7
billion dollar stand-by loan last December.
Opposition to the initiative has been led by the trade unions and,
within Congress, independent senators, the opposition Liberal Party,
and even a faction of the governing Conservative Party.
A group of independent lawmakers led by leftist Senator Jaime Dussn
criticised the bill as ''unnecessary and ill-timed,'' and called
on the legislative commission studying it to vote it down.
The Liberal Party has asked the government to withdraw the bill,
while a section of the Conservative Party announced that it planned
to vote against the reforms, because they would ''hurt the interests
of the middle and lower classes.''
But on presenting the bill to Congress, Finance Minister Juan Santos
said ''there is no rolling back the structural adjustment.'' He
added that as in the case of Brazil, Chile and Mexico, the reforms
are indispensable ''in order for this country to once again generate
wealth and reduce unemployment.'' (END/IPS/tra-so/yf/mj/sw/00)
Origin: Rome/ECONOMY-COLOMBIA/
----
[c] 2000, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
All rights reserved
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Subject: Ruling in Colombian child slayings dismays activists
Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2000
LOS ANGELES TIMES, Saturday, 9 September 2000
Ruling in Colombian child slayings dismays activists
By Ruth Morris
BOGOTA-International human rights activists Friday
lamented a ruling that will allow Colombian military courts
to decide the fate of soldiers who witnesses say shot at
a group of schoolchildren last month, killing six.
Civilian prosecutors determined late Thursday that,
contrary to preliminary reports from the army commander,
"there was no proof that combat" was in progress when
the children, ages 6 to 12, were fired upon while out for
a nature walk.
Prosecutors said the youngsters were not caught in
cross-fire with rebels, much less being used as human
shields by the guerrillas, as army commander Gen.
Jorge Enrique Mora first claimed.
After witnesses in the northern village of Pueblorrico told
reporters that no insurgents were in sight at the time,
Defense Minister Luis Fernando Ramirez acknowledged
that the shootings might have been caused by human
error.
Turning the case over to military courts to determine
whether the 22 soldiers and one noncommissioned officer
should be punished "is regrettable, lamentable," said
Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas division of
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch. "We have no
confidence in the military justice system," Vivanco said.
"Their record is extremely poor."
The case is expected to test the Colombian armed forces'
commitment to protecting the rights of civilians. It comes
at a time when many activists are questioning whether the
United States should be providing more than $600 million
in military support to an army with a record of abusing its
own people and with documented ties to right-wing private
armies.
The armed forces have given human rights training to
soldiers and have fired high-ranking officers accused
of collaborating with vigilantes.
Human Rights Watch has investigated links between
the armed forces and right-wing private armies. It has
concluded that the army has so consistently turned a
blind eye to massacres of civilians suspected of
supporting Marxist guerrillas that its collaboration with
the militias can be considered institutional.
Prosecutor General Alfonso Gomez Mendez said
Thursday that the shooting in Pueblorrico has become
a military matter because the soldiers had no intention
of killing the children.
The soldiers were tense and on high alert after fighting
with guerrillas earlier that day, army officials have said.
They were pursuing the insurgents when they saw
silhouettes moving across the landscape, armed forces
commander Gen. Fernando Tapias said three days after
the slayings.
Witnesses said the soldiers were devastated when,
after firing, they realized that those silhouettes had
been children.
But Vivanco of Human Rights Watch said: "The fact of
the matter is that six kids were killed by the armed
forces of Colombia and there was no evidence of
combat and this constitutes a gross violation."
Copyright 2000 Los Angeles Times
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES [Florida],
Saturday, 9 September 2000 One way out: cabbage, not coca
By David Adams
LOWER PATO, Colombia - German Agudelo has been
running from the cocaine trade for two decades.
But it is hard to escape in the remote jungles of southern
Colombia. Agudelo, 39, has lost many friends and family
members to the drug business that has plagued rural life,
tearing apart once quiet peasant communities.
Now, together with 60 other peasants families, he has
retreated to an isolated hillside in the southern state of
Caqueta. Here, high up in the cloud-covered rain forest,
they are making a courageous stand against cocaine.
"Coca has never been my business," said Agudelo, as
he led the way on horseback along a muddy track
through the forest.
"But I have been its witness, and I have been its victim."
Barely anyone in Colombia has heard of Agudelo, or the
coca-free community of Nueva Floresta where he is a
respected peasant leader.
That's hardly surprising. The three tiny hamlets that make
up the Nueva Floresta Corp. for Progress and the Prevention
of Illicit Crops are three hours on horseback from the
nearest road. None of the homes have electricity, telephones or
running water. What they do have - at least for the time being - is a
degree of peace and tranquility that has been lacking since the
coca leaf was introduced to these parts 25 years ago.
But cooperative leaders don't want to remain anonymous
anymore: They want the world to know what they are
doing at Nueva Floresta, and they want help.
Ever since the 1980s, Colombian officials and aid workers
have been looking for a solution to the drug problem. Most
of the focus, including the Clinton administration's latest
$ 1.3-billion aid plan for Colombia, has been on aerial
eradication of coca plants. But little effort has been paid
to the peasants who actually grow the coca and depend
upon it for their livelihood.
Producing the tons of coca paste that is refined into
cocaine provides a steady income of sorts, but many
peasants would rather be growing traditional crops.
"In the rest of Colombia people think the farmers in
Caqueta are all cocaleros (coca growers)," said Carlos
Julio Cardenas, a legal adviser to the regional
municipality of San Vicente del Caguan. "We have to
let the rest of the country know that these are people
who are contributing to peace."
Agudelo and the peasants at Nueva Floresta believe they
hold the answer to the coca problem. Instead of spending
millions of dollars to buy helicopters and train counter-
drug battalions, the money would be better spent helping
peasant farmers voluntarily abandon growing coca,
development activists say.
Agudelo left his home farther north in the Cauca Valley
when the drug cartels moved in. At first he resettled in
Putumayo, in the remote southwest of Colombia, close
to the border with Ecuador. For a while he made a living
growing corn, plantains and rice.
But then, as the Colombian police and military increased
their pressure on coca growers elsewhere, strangers
began showing up in Putumayo with new seeds.
It was coca. Soon everyone - except Agudelo - was
growing it. Then the problems began.
The man who sold the seeds was murdered. Many fell
victim to greed. They fought over land and crops. Those
who tried to fool the traffickers by diluting their coca
paste to make more money paid dearly for it.
"I saw so many die," said Agudelo. "I saw friends and
family consumed by it, and fall into ruin."
As coca took over, the market for traditional crops dried
up. To make matters worse, the government chose that
moment to embark on an economic opening, allowing
the country to be flooded by cheap food imports. Soon
there was no alternative to coca.
So, Agudelo moved again. This time he went east, to the
Lower Pato region of Caqueta state. Coca was being grown
in the region, and anti-government guerrillas from the
Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, or FARC, also
had a strong presence. But he and the other peasants
formed a pact: no coca, no trouble.
Then last year, in an effort to jump-start peace talks, the
government ceded the region entirely to the FARC.
Agudelo saw problems looming again.
With no government control in the area, one farmer started
growing coca on 25 acres. When Agudelo protested he
found himself denounced as being anti-guerrilla, a virtual
death sentence.
With nowhere left to run, Agudelo decided to make his
case directly to the FARC. He sought out a top FARC
comandante, Jorge Briceno. After he had explained the
concept of Nueva Floresta, he was pleasantly surprised
by the response.
"They promised to leave us alone. They said they
supported any effort to improve the life of the peasants."
Since then the farmers have been clearing land to grow a
mixture of corn, cassava and even carrots and cabbage.
Last week the cooperative members met in a wooden
hilltop school house in the hamlet of Honduras. Wearing
cowboy hats and spurs strapped onto rubber boots, they
discused financing for their project with Javier Munera,
director of CEUDES, a private Colombian development
agency working with poor rural communities.
They listened intently to new ideas about generating
employment and making more productive use of the
land.
"In Caqueta, violence and coca have taken land away from
legal forms of production," said Munera. "This was jungle
before. It's not great land."
But bulldozers were preparing to open a road into the area,
he added, which would mean farmers could get produce
to market. "You have to look for what the market demands,"
he advised, suggesting the farmers concentrate on
producing cheese and milk.
"The people know how to work," said Munera, "but they are
also aware that the knowledge they have is insufficient."
The cooperative also needs $ 350,000 in funding over four
years, including $ 50,000 for cows and young bulls.
Whether the farmers will get the help is uncertain. The
local municipality of San Vicente is broke. The state
capital in Florencia is controlled by right-wing
paramilitaries, enemies of the FARC-controlled zone.
Munera thinks some of the U.S. military aid destined for
aerial spraying should be redirected to helping the farmers
at Nueva Floresta. He estimates it costs $ 2,000 to spray
an acre of coca. Were the farmers growing coca on their
14,000 acres, it would cost $ 2.8-million to eradicate
the crops.
"There they are," said Munera. "Voluntarily opting not to
grow coca. We have to work with them. Instead of
declaring war on the peasants who grow coca, the
government should be making allies of those who
aren't doing it."
Nueva Floresta is not alone. Other peasant groups are
following suit, eagerly searching for funding to return to
traditional farming methods.
But so far few resources are being made available.
Meanwhile, military plans are going ahead to intensify
the spraying of the coca fields.
Munera notes that it was in the region of the Pato that the
FARC was born in 1964, founded by peasant leaders who
fled violence elsewhere in the country. Attempts to
establish better peasant living conditions were largely
ignored by the central government, which fueled support
for the guerrillas.
Now farmers are asking once again that their needs
be met. If they are not, the farmers at Nueva Floresta may be
left with no option but coca. And next time a guerrilla
patrol passes by the reception they get might be
warmer.
Copyright 2000 Times Publishing Company " JC
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