From: Pakito Arriaran <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2001 00:01:55 -0500
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Weekly News Update on Colombia #601, 8/5/01
WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #601, AUGUST 5, 2001
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*9. COLOMBIA: CAMPESINO STRIKE, TWO KILLED
Campesinos in Colombia began shutting down highways in nine of
the country's 32 departments on July 31 as part of an open-ended
"National Agrarian Strike" to demand solutions to the country's
agricultural crisis. The campesinos are seeking debt forgiveness,
new agricultural credits at low interest rates and an end to
imports, among other demands, and are rejecting Colombia's
inclusion in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA, or ALCA
in Spanish). The strike was called by the Association for the
Salvation of Agriculture (ASA) together with the Only National
Agricultural Union Federation (FENSUAGRO), an affiliate of the
Unitary Workers Federation (CUT).
On Aug. 1, riot police began using tear gas, water cannons and
nightsticks to forcibly clear protesters from the roads.
According to press reports, one campesino was shot to death on
Aug. 2 as police tried to unblock the road at Puerto Seco,
between El Hobo and Gigante, in Huila department. Col. Miguel
Morales, operating commander of the police in Huila, claimed that
140 police agents were trying to disperse some 6,000 to 7,000
campesinos when Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
rebels began firing at police from the surrounding hills. "If the
campesino died during the protest, it was by action of the
bullets shot by the rebels," said Morales. [El Diario-La Prensa
(NY) 8/4/01 from AFP; El Tiempo (Bogota) 8/3/01; El Nuevo Herald
(Miami) 8/2/01 from AP; El Colombiano (Medellin) 7/30/01]
However, FENSUAGRO and ASA gave a different version of events,
reporting that campesinos Jose German and Victor Mauricio
Carvajal were killed by government security forces--combined
police and army troops--who brutally attacked some 10,000
peaceful protesters at Puerto Seco. In an Aug. 3 communique, the
FENSUAGRO executive committee said more than 100 campesinos were
injured in the attack; ASA reported in an Aug. 3 communique that
24 campesinos were hospitalized. According to both communiques,
the troops also destroyed vehicles and burned camp gear and
possessions that campesinos had at the site. FENSUAGRO reports
that more than 55 campesinos were seriously wounded and numerous
possessions destroyed in similar attacks by government forces at
other sites, including the Ventaquemada-Boyaca, Villeta-
Cundinamarca, Cajamarca and Lerida-Tolima roadblocks and others
in the departments of Antioquia, Narino, Risaralda and Caldas.
[FENSUAGRO & Association Communiques 8/3/01 via Vientos del Sur
Internacional (Visur) 8/4/01, http://pagina.de/visur]
The Seeds of Liberty Human Rights Collective (CODEHSEL) reports
in an Aug. 2 communique that police agents dressed in black, with
no identifying insignia, attacked campesino protesters at various
sites in Antioquia department. CODEHSEL calls on supporters to
contact the Colombian government and demand that it release all
arrested protesters, address campesinos' demands instead of
attacking them, and suspend the US-sponsored drug eradication
program that involves aerial spraying of herbicides over
farmland. Letters can be sent to President Andres Pastrana Arango
at fax #571-284-7186, 571-286-3782, 571-287-7939, 571-289-3377 or
via email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copies of letters and
solidarity messages can be sent to ASA at fax #578-265-8058 or
576-889-3103. [CODEHSEL Communique 8/2/01 via Visur 8/4/01]
Campesinos complain that cheap food imports are pushing out
Colombian products. CODEHSEL reports that an influx of some seven
million tons of imported corn, wheat, rice, onions, potatoes,
garlic and other agricultural products has virtually wiped out
local farmers. Also hurting farmers is the low price of coffee,
Colombia's second largest export. The international market price
of coffee has reached an all-time low of 60 cents per bag, well
below what farmers say it costs them to produce it. Farmers
accuse the wealthy industrial powers, headed by the US, of having
pushed prices down by stimulating the global overproduction of
coffee. [AP 8/1/01; CODEHSEL Communique 8/2/01; El Colombiano
(Medellin) 7/30/01]
Meanwhile, taxi and bus drivers in Bogota went on strike and
blockaded the city on Aug. 2 to protest a measure imposed by
Mayor Antanas Mockus which would restrict traffic by rotating
vehicles out of service two days a week. The drivers say the
measure would hurt their income and is a violation of their right
to work; Mockus claims the measure will help them by reducing
competition, allowing them to earn the same income in four days
that they now earn in six. [ED-LP 8/3/01 from AP] Negotiations
broke down on the night of Aug. 2, and Mockus sent in police to
unblock the roads by force; by midnight, the roads were clear and
88 drivers and 55 professional agitators had been arrested,
according to Bogota police commander Gen. Jorge Linares. Drivers
responded by ending the roadblocks but calling an all-out strike
which successfully shut down transport in the city on Aug. 3.
[EFE-AFP 8/3/01 via Visur 8/4/01; EC 8/4/01]
*10. COLOMBIA: DRUG CROP SPRAYING RESUMES
On July 31, a fleet of planes and helicopters took off from an
airfield in Popayan, in southwestern Colombian department of
Cauca, to resume the US-sponsored aerial eradication of drug
crops with the herbicide glyphosate. The flights were resumed
after the office of Bogota judge Gilberto Reyes clarified his
July 27 order suspending the spraying [see Update #600]. That
order came in response to a complaint filed by the Organization
of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC) and Paz
Colombia, an umbrella organization of nonprofit groups. When the
government of President Andres Pastrana asked for clarification
on the ruling, the judge amended his injunction to apply only to
areas populated by the complaining communities. Based on this
news, anti-narcotics chief Gen. Gustavo Socha said he ordered the
fumigation to continue, except in the Amazon region. DynCorp, a
US firm contracted by the US State Department to pilot the spray
planes, got the go-ahead from the Colombian government and US
officials to resume the flights on July 31, spokesperson Charlene
Wheeless said. [Miami Herald 8/1/01 from AP; Washington Post
8/1/01; Amazon Alliance Action Alert 7/31/01]
The same day, July 31, a group of Colombian legislators and
governors spoke out in Washington against the spraying, charging
that the US anti-drug policy in Colombia only helps the big
"mafioso" drug traffickers and aggravates the armed conflict.
"What the fumigation policy in Colombia and the eradication of
[drug] crops in Peru and Bolivia have done is eliminate
overproduction, and what the mafia wants is for the prices not to
go down," explained leftist legislator Gustavo Petro. "These
policies have only helped keep the price of coca up." Petro,
along with Narino governor Parminio Cuellar, Cauca governor Floro
Tunubala, and senators Rafael Orduz (independent) and Juan Manuel
Ospina (of the ruling Conservative Party) were to meet with US
legislators on Aug. 1 to press for an end to the fumigation
program. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY)8/1/01 from AFP]
The US government insists that Roundup, the glyphosate-based
herbicide made by Monsanto which is used in the spraying
campaign, is harmless and is widely used on US farms. However,
there have been no studies of its effects when applied from the
air in concentrated form in the tropics. [The Economist (UK)
8/2/01] And directions on Roundup warn users not to apply the
product in a way that will cause contact with people "either
directly or through drift." [NYT 7/30/01] US ambassador Anne
Patterson said Washington is paying for a study that will test
blood and urine samples from 1,000 people--500 living in sprayed
areas and 500 in areas far from the spraying--for any signs of
glyphosate. "We have a moral responsibility to be sure what we're
doing is right," Patterson told reporters on Aug. 1. [MH 7/30/01]
*11. COLOMBIA: FARC HANDS OVER VICTIMS' BONES
Ann Barr, a member of the Atlantis commune in Colombia's Tolima
department, announced on July 11 that the leftist Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had handed over plastic bags
containing what are believed to be the remains of two commune
members who disappeared a year ago. Colombian national Javier
Nova and Irish national Tristan James, grandson of commune
founder Jenny James, were both 18 years old when they were
kidnapped and murdered by rebels of the FARC's 25th Front on July
9, 2000, in Icononzo municipality, Tolima department.
Barr said the remains of two other people were also found in the
plastic bags; the bones were left in a hospital in Cunday,
southwestern Tolima, and are being examined by forensic experts
as part of a criminal investigation. Barr said a regional FARC
commander has pledged that the rebels who killed Nova and James
will be punished.
The Atlantis commune was set up in the late 1980s to promote
simple living. Commune members say relations with the FARC had
deteriorated and the rebels had ordered commune members to leave
the area, two months before James and Nova disappeared. [AP
7/11/01; Caracol Radio 7/12/01 via Colombia Labor Monitor]
Accompanied by Barr, the mothers of James and Nova arrived on
July 25 in Los Pozos, in the neutral demilitarized zone
controlled by the FARC in southern Colombia, to press the rebel
organization for justice in the case. Barr noted that family
members of the missing youths had successfully pressured top FARC
leaders to force the return of their remains; the mothers are now
seeking "that the militia members who murdered them be tried" by
their commanders, she explained. [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 7/26/01
from EFE] James' mother, Rebecca Garcia, has launched a campaign
seeking permission from the FARC to allow forensic experts from
Bogota into the remote area they control; she hopes the FARC
leader she met will agree to open a mass grave believed to
contain the bodies of up to 20 people. [Irish Times 7/30/01]
On July 31, troops of the Colombian Army's Sixth Brigade captured
two suspects in the murders of James and Nova in the area of
Cafrerias, in Icononzo municipality. The two suspects are
brothers, identified as Arnulfo and Mario Parra Sogamoso, and are
allegedly leaders of the FARC's 25th Front. Jaime Rodriguez
Rojas, another alleged member of the 25th Front, was also
captured but is apparently not a suspect in the case. [El Tiempo
(Bogota) 8/1/01]
=======================================================================
Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity Network of NY
339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 * 212-674-9499 fax: 212-674-9139
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Pakito Arriaran * enege brigadak
soulcialist stiliagi
http://inquilino.net/palante/enege.html
"E' un mondo difficile, � vita intensa,
felicit� a momenti e futuro incerto"
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