In preparation for upcoming Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) talks with the Bush administration, Colombia’s vice-president, Francisco Santos, met with members of the U.S. Congress and AFL-CIO president John Sweeny. In an interview with the New York Times, Santos said he had come to Washington to make the case that the government of president Álvaro Uribe had made progress in curbing the killings of unionists.

Of 2,100 cases involving the murder of unionists since 1991, however, only 19 have been prosecuted successfully. Luis Obdulio Camacho, head of a cement workers’ local in Antioquia province, was gunned down in 1998 in front of several witnesses. His son, also a union member, was killed in 1991. “No one saw anything,” Obdulio Camacho’s widow told the New York Times. “That’s what’s so terrible—the silence.” She said she gave up long ago on the government making any arrests in the case.

AFL-CIO officials and some members of the U.S. Congress say they will press to make Bogotá’s failure to prosecute those responsible for assassinating unionists an issue at the FTAA talks. They will argue, according to press reports, that Bogotá’s failure to protect union leaders gives Colombian businesses an unfair edge in trade over their competitors.

In addition, five lawsuits have been filed in U.S. courts charging that a range of U.S. companies operating in Colombia have used the death squads to get rid of union organizers. Among the companies are Alabama coal producer Drummond and two bottlers associated with Coca-Cola.

According to a November 18 New York Times report, the Bush administration argues that the suits interfere with foreign policy and open the companies up to frivolous lawsuits.

In early November a Colombian army major escaped from a military prison where he was serving a 27-year sentence for the attempted assassination of a union leader. Evidence suggests the major was aided in the escape by other army officers in charge at the prison, four of whom have since been relieved of duty.

In September the Colombian Attorney General’s office charged three soldiers with having murdered three union activists. The Colombian military had claimed the unionists were guerrillas and had been killed in a firefight with government troops.

Labeling trade unionists as allies of opponents of the government, including guerrilla groups, is one of the arguments used by leaders of the death squads linked with the military to rationalize the killing. In an interview with the Times from a ranch in northern Colombia, Rodrigo Tovar, a leader of one of these rightist groups, was adamant about this course of action. “We have always acted against the guerillas, armed or not armed,” Tovar said. “Our war has been against the subversives, against communist guerrillas, however they are dressed.” Tovar, a wealthy landowner and businessman, said the unions had been “a disaster in Colombia for business” and that they had been “the ones who sabotage, who hurt companies.”

The U.S. government has sent $3.3 billion to Bogotá since 2000 under Plan Colombia, initiated by the Clinton White House. President George Bush expanded on Plan Colombia with the 2002 Andean Regional Initiative under the pretext of fighting the “war on terrorism” and the narcotics trade.

On October 9 Congress decided to double the cap on Washington’s military presence in Colombia to back Bogotá’s war against opponents of the country’s right-wing regime, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The number of U.S. soldiers who could be stationed in Colombia was raised from 400 to 800. In addition, the number of “private contractors” the Pentagon is allowed to hire for military operations in the country was raised from 400 to 600. The U.S. military buildup in the region is being carried out in anticipation of sharper resistance by workers and farmers to the economic catastrophe that is gripping Latin America.

Demonstrations against the Uribe government took place October 12 in major Colombian cities. About 300,000 unionists, farmers, and others rallied in Bogotá, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Cali, Cartagena, and Medellín. The labor-organized actions protested Uribe’s brutal “war on terrorism,” his efforts to change the constitution to allow him to run for reelection, and rising unemployment.  
 
 
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