The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.9           March 3, 1997 
 
 
800,000 Protest Austerity In Colombia  

BY HILDA CUZCO
Some 800,000 public employees in Colombia struck for eight days demanding wage increases equal to last year's inflation rate of 21.5 percent, and against privatization of state-run enterprises. Union leaders and the government ministers settled February 18 for a wage increase close to 20 percent ending the strike, the largest in 20 years. The new agreement also call for setting up a commission to analyze the government privatization program. At the same time the Colombian government is under pressure from Washington to qualify for "certification" as an ally against its so-called "war on drugs" or face sanctions for the second year in a row.

Dealing a blow to the government of Ernesto Samper, the country's main union federations backed the strike, which rejected an original 13 percent wage increase offer. In addition to the United Labor Federation (CUT), whose members were on strike, the Workers Confederation of Colombia (CTC), the General Confederation of Democratic Workers (CGTD), and the National Federation of State Workers (Fenaltrase) supported the strike and agreed to take major labor action had the negotiations failed. In addition to their wage demands, the workers were protesting government attacks on democratic union rights and the privatization of mining and electrical state companies. Negotiations between the labor unions and government representatives started January 13. An earlier wave of strikes involving 500,000 public employees took place last October when the Samper government announced its austerity package.

In January the Colombian cabinet declared a state of economic crisis, and asserted the need to slash government spending, increase taxation, and reduce wage increases in order to reduce the budget deficit by $900 million. The deficit reached $4.4 billion in 1996. At the time Samper declared that "strikes and protests will be no use as, although there is goodwill, there is simply no money." He also claimed that without his austerity program the economic growth of Colombia "would be severely limited and unemployment would rise." The official unemployment rate stands at 11.9 percent, up from 8.1 percent in late 1995. The economic growth rate for 1997 is predicted to be lower than last year's 3 percent.

Samper claims strike is 'subversive'
In an effort to paint the strike as terrorist, the press reported that Samper had received a report from surveillance agencies that the National Liberation Army (ELN) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were planning to promote armed struggle and isolate main cities of the country during the strike. Gen. Rosso José Serrano, director of the national security police, claimed that his agency had intercepted communications of the guerrilla leaders backing the strike. Military officials also reported a battle with 400 guerrilla fighters in the mountains of San Juanito, 30 miles southeast of Bogotá, the capital city.

Prior to the strike, CUT president Luis Eduardo Garzón protested the government's attempt to portray the labor action as infiltrated by guerrillas and drug traffickers, saying, "The government wants to stigmatize the social protest, characterizing it as subversive, while some leaders of the strike have received death threats and others have been jailed."

"The presence of the guerrilla and drug trafficking in the strike is a government invention," added Wilson Borja, president of Fenaltrase. In addition the propaganda campaign against strikers, the government said workers in basic public services would lose their jobs if they joined the walkout.

Minister of defense Guillermo Alberto González said the Colombian government deployed more than 300,000 troops in strategic areas around the country and ordered the army and the police to remain in state of alert during the strike. Education Minister Jaime Niño canceled all public school and university classes as a "security" measure.

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department has accused the Colombian government of "cooperating" with the drug traffickers and predicted its continued "decertification" as an ally in the "war against drugs." In a testimony before a House subcommittee, Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gelbard said, "The government of Colombia has failed to follow through on promised counternarcotics action or to confront fully the drug interests that contributed millions of dollars to President Ernesto Samper's campaign."

One year ago, the Colombian president was charged with illegal enrichment, falsifying documents, fraud, and cover- up by chief prosecutor Alfonso Valdivieso. Samper's election campaign treasurer, Santiago Medina, testified in 1996, that Samper accepted knowingly at least $6 million in drug cartel money. The accusation turned into a scandal that led to the resignation of a number of his cabinet members and diplomats, and sparked a debate in Congress and the media in Colombia about Samper's resignation, as well as demonstrations by thousands of students. The Colombian congress absolved the president of those charges last June.

Drug 'certification'
Washington uses "certification," its so-called war on drugs, as a way to pressure governments throughout Latin America and justify a greater military presence in the region. The Clinton administration first "decertified" Colombia in March 1996 and imposed economic sanctions that prevented Bogotá from getting new international loans. A U.S. law requires an annual evaluation from the president on which of the countries supposedly linked to drug trafficking are making "progress." The governments of Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru have all carried out eradication of coca plantations as part of meeting Washington's dictates, despite protests from peasants who are offered no alternative means of livelihood.

Last September, U.S. president William Clinton authorized an increase in the funding for "counternarcotics" operations in Colombia, to $40 million, three-quarters of which will go to the Colombian army and the rest for police forces. Gen. Wesley Clark, the U.S. army commander at Washington's Southern Command in Panama, said this would aid in fighting "narco-guerrilla movements that require the military to respond with a combat presence." U.S. and Colombian officials claim the ELN and FARC are involved in drug trafficking. Washington has supplied the Colombian military with more than $147 million in equipment training and supplies since last year.

At the February 14 Congressional hearing, Gelbard praised Colombia's top narcotics prosecutor and the head of the national police, but declared Samper is "a truly corrupt president who has had a clear history of cooperating with drug dealers and receiving drug money back to 1982."

The Clinton administration is threatening tighter sanctions if Bogotá is "decertified" again this year, such as cutting off landing rights for Colombian planes, searching Colombians entering the United States, and stopping tariff preferences on coffee and other Colombian products. Another move being negotiated between the United States and Colombian governments is a maritime interdiction treaty that would permit U.S. police agents to search Colombian-flagged ships in Colombian waters.  
 
 
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