Colombia

US Military’s Child Rapes In Colombia Not US Newsworthy

March 29, 2015 Adam Johnson, www.fair.org Educate! Colombia, US military, Wars and Militarism

An 800-page independent report commissioned by the US-friendly Colombian government and the radical left rebel group FARC found that US military soldiers and contractors had sexually abused at least 54 children in Colombia between 2003 and 2007 and, in all cases, the rapists were never punished–either in Colombia or stateside–due to American military personnel being immune from prosecution under diplomatic immunity agreements between the two countries. Thus far, however, these explosive claims seem to have received zero coverage in the general US press, despite having been reported on Venezuela’s Telesur(3/23/15), the British tabloidDaily Mail (3/24/15) and Russian RT (3/25/15). But why? These aren’t fringe claims, nor can the government of American ally Colombia be dismissed as a peddler of Bolivarian propaganda.

Activists Fight Privatization Of Colombia’s Longest River

March 23, 2015 Carolina Caycedo, www.creativetimereports.org Resist! Colombia, Displacement, Environment

More than 200,000 Colombians have been displaced by dams and resource-extraction projects, according to the Ríos Vivos movement’s report at the 153rd session of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2014. Nearly 30 years after the Betania Dam’s construction, the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project, owned by Emgesa—a subsidiary of the Spanish-Italian energy giant Endesa-Enel—is on the verge of being completed. It is expected to flood 8,500 hectares of fertile land and tropical dry forest ecosystems. And in Huila many of the families displaced by the Betania Dam are now facing a second relocation, with the filling of the Quimbo reservoir scheduled to start in June 2015. The communities that will be flooded—such as Escalereta, Balseadero and San José de Belén—have been dealing with forced evictions since 2012.

Support The Injured Colombian Workers

February 18, 2015 Paige Shell Spurling, www.afgj.org Resist! Colombia, worker safety, Worker's Rights

On February 16, 2015, 20 injured workers from the Colombian petroleum industry joined the injured Colombian General Motors workers in the tent encampment in front of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota that the GM workers have occupied for the last 3 ½ years. Many of their wives accompanied them, bringing the total number in the encampment up to around 30. Disabling injuries are increasingly a problem in Colombia, where protections have become more lax and healthcare has been privatized (leading occupational healthcare insurers to deny coverage by claiming that worker’s injuries are non-occupational). Companies such as General Motors, Halliburton (oil sector), Coca Cola, Drummond Coal and others, realizing that they were not going to be required to follow labor laws have increasingly exposed workers to conditions which resulted in disabling injury and then get rid of the problem by getting rid of the worker, a practice which is illegal on the books but in wide practice in Colombia.

Action: Support Injured General Motors Workers

November 19, 2014 Allen Hines, www.pcasc.net Petitions and Online Actions Colombia, health, Worker Rights and Jobs

Today (Nov. 18th) the Colombian General Motors workers disabled while performing repetitive actions under unsafe working conditions again amplified their struggle for justice, chaining themselves to U.S. Embassy in non-violent protest action. Officials from the Embassy responded violently, kicking Manuel, who was not chained, in the face, breaking his cane, delivering hard blows to Carlos' back and leaving Jorge unable to move the fingers of his left hand. Manuel's wife, Carmenza, pictured below holding the letter which the group filed with the Embassy at the start of their action, was also hurt.

The U.S., Colombia & The Spread Of The Death Squad State

May 26, 2014 Daniel Kovalik, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Colombia, Human Rights, Wars and Militarism

Colombia continues to be ground zero for the U.S.’s crimes against Latin America, and its continued quest to subjugate the region. Several recent events, virtually uncovered in the mainstream press, underscore this reality. First, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report just this week detailing the grisly practices of paramilitary death squads in the port town of Buenaventura. [1] These practices by the paramilitaries which act with impunity and with the tacit support of the local police, include disappearances of hundreds of civilians; forced displacement; and the dismemberment of individuals, while they are still alive, in local “chop houses.” That the port town of Buenaventura was to be the model city of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement is instructive as to what the wages of free trade truly are. Jose Vivanco of HRW called Buenaventura “the scandal” of Colombia. Sadly, it is not Colombia’s only one. Thus, this past weekend, the VI Division of the Colombian Army entered the peasant town of Alto Amarradero, Ipiales in the middle of the night, and, without warrant and in cold blood, gunned down four civilians, including a 15-year old boy. Those killed were Deivi López Ortega, José Antonio Acanamejoy, Brayan Yatacue Secue and José Yiner Esterilla — all members of the FENSUAGRO agricultural union. [2] The Army then displayed the bodies of those murdered for all to see, and falsely claimed that they were the bodies of guerillas killed in combat.

The Colombia Free Trade Agreement, Dishonesty Of Obama/AFL-CIO

April 17, 2014 Avi Chomsky, www.lawcha.org Resist! Colombia, Free Trade Agreements, Labor

When Barack Obama was running for president in 2008, he told the AFL-CIO convention that he would oppose the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement promoted by then-president Bush “because the violence against unions in Colombia would make a mockery of the very labor protections that we have insisted be included in these kinds of agreements.” Labor advocates cheered. Once in office, though, Obama advocated for a Labor Action Plan to overcome what he saw as the obstacles to Congressional ratification of the Agreement. He and Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos signed the LAP on April 7, 2011, and Congress ratified the FTA a year later. Colombian opposition to the agreement was always deeper and broader than that in the United States. Violence against unionists became the main opposition slogan in the US, but it was always a slender issue to base a campaign on. The argument implied that the FTA was overall a good idea that would benefit Colombians, and was used to pressure the government to improve its labor policies so it could get the FTA as a reward.

At the UN, A Latin American Rebellion

October 12, 2013 Laura Carlsen, www.fpif.org Educate! Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela

Without a doubt, the 68th UN General Assembly will be remembered as a watershed. Nations reached an agreement on control of chemical weapons that could avoid a global war in Syria. The volatile stalemate on the Iran nuclear program came a step closer to diplomacy. What failed to make the headlines, however, could have the longest-term significance of all: the Latin American rebellion. For Latin American leaders, this year’s UN general debate became a forum for widespread dissent and anger at U.S. policies that seek to control a hemisphere that has clear aspirations for greater independence. In a region long considered the United States’ primary zone of influence, Washington’s relations with many Latin American nations have gone from bad to worse under the Bush II and Obama administrations.

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