From: Colombian Labor Monitor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 08:12:38 -0500 (CDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: COLOMBIA: Weekly News Update #593, 6/10/01
WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #593, JUNE 10, 2001
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
[.....]
5. Colombia: Workers Protest Budget Law
6. Colombia: Indigenous Leader Abducted
[.....]
*5. COLOMBIA: WORKERS PROTEST BUDGET LAW
On June 7, thousands of Colombian workers and students staged a
24-hour nationwide strike and protest marches to show solidarity
and support for striking teachers and health workers in
protesting a bill that would slash funds for health and
education. Since May 15, some 300,000 Colombian public school
teachers have been on strike, while 125,000 health workers have
been on a partial strike, offering only basic and emergency
services. Workers are protesting the "transfer law," which would
amend the constitution to cap federal transfers to departments
and municipalities for education, healthcare and other social
needs--in effect cutting the funding for such services by leaving
spending priorities up to departmental governments. The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) required passage of the
transfer law under the terms of a 1999 bailout agreement.
On June 6, a congressional panel approved the controversial law,
moving it ahead for a final, full floor vote in Congress,
expected as early as the week of June 11. Finance Minister Juan
Manuel Santos--described by Reuters as "a favorite of Wall
Street"--has threatened to resign if Congress fails to approve
the bill before legislators head into recess on June 20.
Observers warn the IMF could yank $2.7 billion in standby loans
if the law doesn't pass. Gloria Ines Ramirez, president of the
Colombia Teachers Federation, said that three million signatures
have been gathered to call a referendum to repeal the law. [El
Diario-La Prensa 6/8/01 from AP; Reuters 6/8/01; EFE 6/6/01]
As workers marched in Bogota during the June 7 strike, an armored
personnel carrier tried to disperse protesters with a water
cannon, and police smashed through the gates of the San Juan de
Dios hospital and used tear gas against demonstrators on rooftops
and in the front patio. Several people were injured in the city
of Bucaramanga, in the northwestern Colombian department of
Santander, when police stopped protesters from blocking a major
highway. Protesters also blocked roads in the departments of
Cauca and Valle del Cauca, in the south. [ED-LP 6/8/01 from AP;
Reuters 6/8/01]
On June 5, some 3,000 teachers in southern Narino department--who
have been camped out in Pasto, the departmental capital, since
the strike began two weeks ago--began blocking the Rumichaca
international bridge linking Colombia with Ecuador to protest the
transfer law. They were backed by Ecuadoran teachers who blocked
the other side of the bridge in solidarity. [El Pais (Cali)
6/6/01]
*6. COLOMBIA: INDIGENOUS LEADER ABDUCTED
On June 2, three armed gunmen--believed to be members of the
rightwing paramilitary Campesino Self-Defense Forces of Cordoba
and Uraba (ACCU)--abducted Embera-Katio indigenous leader Kimy
Pernia Domico outside a municipal office in the town of
Tierralta, in the northern Colombian department of Cordoba. Kimy
Pernia Domico has played a leading role in the Embera
communities' campaign against construction of the Urra dam, which
has flooded their lands along the Sinu and Verde rivers in
Cordoba department. Communities resisting the dam have suffered
threats and violence from the army-backed paramilitary forces as
well as from leftist rebels. Access to the communities has
reportedly been cut off by an ACCU checkpoint, located a short
distance from a checkpoint of the Colombian Army's 11th Brigade.
[Amnesty International Urgent Action 6/5/01; Globe and Mail
(Toronto) 6/6/01; Inter Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin
America Update 6/7/01]
Kimy Pernia Domico's abduction has sparked a worldwide response,
especially in Canada, where more than 50 members of parliament
have signed a letter to Colombian President Andres Pastrana
Arango demanding his safe return, according to the Inter-Church
Committee on Human Rights in Latin America (ICCHRLA). Kimy Pernia
Domico spoke in Quebec City in April at the People's Summit,
which was organized to protest plans for the Free Trade Area of
the Americas (FTAA). In November 1999 he travelled to Ottawa to
support Canadian activists' calls for closer scrutiny of the
Export Development Corp. (EDC), which provides financing and loan
guarantees for Canadian companies doing business abroad.
The EDC had provided $18 million in loan support for a company
that supplied construction materials to the Urra dam builders;
Kimy Pernia Domico's dramatic testimony about the impact of the
Urra project on his community brough pressure on the EDC, which
finally agreed this year to disclose information about proposals
for projects that could harm the environment or cause social
upheaval. Kimy Pernia Domico is scheduled to tour Canada this
July to speak about human rights issues and address an
international conference on water in Vancouver, July 5-8. [G&M
6/6/01]
The Embera Katio community is preparing to send its own massive
search commission, including at least 1,000 indigenous activists
and other supporters from around Colombia, to comb the farms of
Cordoba department beginning on June 13 to find Kimy Pernia
Domico. Search commission participants will meet in Tierralta on
June 12. Rights groups are calling for coordinated solidarity
actions around the world during the week of June 11 to support
the search action. ["Kimi S.O.S." via Vientos del Sur
Internacional VISUR 6/10/01]
Faxes demanding the safe return of Kimy Pernia Domico and respect
for the rights of the Embera-Katio can be sent to President
Pastrana at 571-336-2109, 284-2186 or 289-3377; with copies to
the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> and the Embera Katio High Council
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Donations for food, transport and
medical attention for the search commission can be sent to ONIC
at account name ONIC KIMY SOS, number 051120541, Banco de Bogota,
Sucursal Las Aguas, SWIFT code BBOGCOBBF. For more information
contact Andrew Miller of Amnesty International USA at 202-544-
0200 x251 or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [Canada Colombia Solidarity
Campaign Alert 6/3/01; AI Urgent Action 6/5/01; Urgent Action
Post 6/8/01 from Rainforest Action Network <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>]
[.....]
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