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Three union leaders killed, but By Berta Joubert-Ceci
On Sept. 7 the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo printed an article titled, "The Prosecutor's office ordered the capture of three military officers for the deaths of three union leaders in Arauca." Since it's general knowledge in the international labor movement that Colombia is the most dangerous place for union leaders, this should not be a surprising article. On the contrary, it should be the logical consequence of investigations into the assassinations and human-rights abuses perpetrated against these unionists. But it's not the norm in Colombia, where almost 98 percent of rights abuses are not only unpunished, but not investigated at all. "Bogotá says army killed union chiefs," an article printed in the Sept. 8 New York Times, pointed out in the second paragraph: "The attorney general's announcement came days after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell warned the Colombian government that it must curtail rights abuses or risk losing aid"--a reminder of who the real bosses of Colombia are. What happened? According to the previous "official" version of events given by the Colombian government, Military Forces Commander Carlos Alberto Ospina said that in Saravena, Arauca, union leaders Jorge Prieto, Leonel Goyeneche and Héctor Alirio Martínez shot at army troops with a 9mm weapon and were in possession of dynamite. General Luis Fabio García, commander of the army's 2nd Division further stated that "these three people died in combat with the soldiers when they were taken by surprise while meeting with the guerrillas of the ELN (National Liberation Army)." Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe also justified the killing. But what really happened was a chilling episode repeated far too often in that beleaguered country. The following description of the events comes from the independent Truth Commission on the execution of the Araucan unionists: On the morning of Aug. 5, troops of the Reveis Pizarro group of the 18th Army Brigade in Saravena broke into the house of union leader Jorge Prieto, forcing him and his compañera out of the house barefoot, without a chance to properly dress. Eyewitnesses reported that Prieto, Leonel Goyeneche and peasant leader Héctor Alirio Martínez were taken out of their homes with hands up, forced to kneel down, and then shot execution-style. Prieto was president of the National Association of Hospital and Clinic Workers (ANTHOC) in Arauca. Goyeneche was treasurer of the CUT Workers Unitary Central in Arauca. Alirio Martínez was a former president of the Departmental Association of Peasant Consumers (ADUC). All three were very active in the community and eloquent in their denunciations of the human-rights abuses, economic policies and program of Democratic Security of President Alvaro Uribe, which have devastated the poor and working-class population of Colombia. According to Gloria Flórez, president of the Association for the Promotion of a Social Alternative (MINGA), the three were supposedly under the protection of the Colombian government by request of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights of the OAS. In the same military raid, the president of CUT-Arauca, Samuel Morales Flores, and the leader of the Teachers Association, Maria Raquel Castro, were detained and imprisoned. Truth Commission fights back The diligence and intervention of several groups, both national and international, and the mobilization of the people in Arauca were the deciding factors that brought about Powell's "threat" to the Colombian government and the reversal of the government accusations. Two days after the killings, a Truth Commission of representatives of human rights NGOs and other social organizations went to Arauca. Among them were the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners; Current Humanity; the Process of Black Communities; Justice and Peace; José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective; the Network of Communities in Resistance and Rupture-RECORRE; the European Network in Fraternity with Colombia; National Agrarian Coordination; the Human Rights Committee of the Workers Union-USO; and the International Peace Brigades. This Truth Commission forced the government to send a prosecutor and a pathologist from Bogotá, the nation's capital, to join several forensic medicine specialists in Saravena. However, true to the contempt of the government towards the people, the prosecutor's office initiated the exhumation of the bodies without the consent or notice to the deceased men's relatives and lawyers. The Truth Commission also conducted numerous interviews with witnesses. The commission members thus became witnesses themselves--to the courage and determination of the Araucan peasants and workers, who bravely gave testimonies and united during this process of mourning, with a fierce resolve to continue the struggle. Arauca, situated in the northeast of the country, is on the border of Venezuela, Colombia's second-biggest trading partner. This region is now the "war laboratory" of President Uribe, constituting the most militarized part of the nation. Last June, this writer was part of the International Caravan to Save the Lives of Colombian Workers that traveled to this region. Driving between the cities of Arauca and Pueblo Nuevo, a relatively short distance, we encountered 14 military roadblocks where drivers had to stop, everybody's name was taken, the car was searched and sometimes items were confiscated. Driving just a dozen kilometers could take hours. An agricultural and cattle-ranching region, Arauca has great biodiversity. But the discovery of oil has brought devastation for the masses. Transnational corporations' exploration and exploitation of the "Motherland's blood"--as the Indigenous U'wa people call the oil--has virtually made this part of the country an outright U.S. colony. The Caño Limón oil pipeline runs through this area, feeding oil company coffers to the detriment of the Araucan masses. The emblem sewn into the sleeves of soldiers from the Colombian Army brigade of Arauca shows an oil well. The U.S. maintains the army's 18th Brigade--the one responsible for the murders of the three Araucan leaders. Since Washington's junior partner Uribe took office, there has been a major increase in human-rights violations, including arbitrary mass detentions, seizures without due process, tortures and executions. The paramilitary death squads have been more active and aggressive, permanently patrolling the streets in some areas, like the Tame municipality in the Araucan region. Last May 20, 11 peasants from were massacred in Tame by these goons. Many of the violent actions committed against social-justice and trade union activists occur close to police or military facilities. They look the other way, showing the close relationship between these forces and the paramilitaries. Eye witnesses who come forward run the risk of becoming targets themselves. These violent conditions have displaced close to four million Indigenous people and peasants in Colombia. |
