[CLM] 04-29-99 IN OTHER NEWS...

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  COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR   clm@prairienet.org   www.prairienet.org/clm
     "Behind the headlines, beneath the surface, between the lines"

           IN OTHER NEWS...        Thursday, 29 April 1999
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  (1) Uprisings in working class neighborhoods of Bogota
  (2) Strikes continue throughout the country
  (3) Disgraced generals honored by disgraceful admirers
  (4) San Pablo under the gun of death-squads and security forces
  (5) New exodus planned for southern Bolivar
  (6) Castano to move headquarters to southern demilitarized zone
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*  (1) Uprisings in working class neighborhoods of Bogota

   Hundreds of angry working class youth armed with sticks and other
makeshift weapons barricaded entire sections of poor neighborhoods since
Wednesday, in the southern part of Bogota.
   Organizers asserted that the mobilizations are a result of the
disaffection of the working class with the socioeconomic situation in
Colombia.
   At 11 am the protesters were confronted with hundreds of riot police
that fired tear gas into the crowds. The protesters responded with a rain
of rocks as they retreated to new positions.
   Overnight, inhabitants of San Juan de Usme, Fortaleza, Marichuela,
Brasilia, Barranquillita and La Aurora manned the barricades as they
prepared for renewed police assaults.
   Unemployment and socioeconomic polarization have reached new heights in
Colombia, one of the most resource-wealthy countries in the western
hemisphere. Neoliberal policies pursued by President Pastrana and his
predecessors have contributed to the drastic deterioration of the
conditions of the working class as multinational corporations and the
fetidly corrupt Colombian elites have enriched themselves.


*  (2) Strikes continue throughout the country

Minister of Labor Hernando Yepes Arcila sought to minimize the impact the
strikes that have paralyzed Bogota and that have shaken the country. "The
government does not intend to minimize that which is minimal," he crowed
in a non-statement yesterday.  For ten days, 300,000 teachers have taken
to the streets in what has become the largest labor mobilizations this
year against President Pastrana's neoliberal policies.  They have been
joined by 115,000 health care workers, as well as by petroleum and
transportation workers.


*  (3) Disgraced generals honored by disgraceful admirers

   Two of Colombia's worst human rights offenders, brigadier generals Rito
Alejo del Rio and Fernando Millan will be the guests of honor at a dinner
to be held at 8 pm this evening in the  Red Salon of the Hotel
Tequendama, in Bogota.
   The murderous duo were discharged from the armed forces this month by
order of President Pastrana because of their close relationship to
right-wing death-squads.
   The keynote speech will be delivered by none other than their dear
friend Alvaro Uribe Velez, former governor of Antioquia, the department
where Del Rio --the butcher of Uraba-- rose to prominence by murdering
hundreds of innocent civilians in a reign of terror against peasants,
workers and human rights defenders.
   It should be noted that the Uribe Velez was the author of the bright
idea of the Convivir (basically, offically sanctioned paramilitary
death-squads that are now supposedly disbanded).
   The list of guests in this gala event features a veritable reactionary
"who's who", including Mario Agudelo, president of Esperanza, Paz y
Libertad (formerly... maoist guerrillas!), Guillermo Rivera, president of
the Uraba banana-growers' cartel, and coffee magnate Gustavo Gaviria
(the real "Juan Valdez"?).
   One of the guests, the illustrious industrialist Hernan Echavarria
Olozaga, defended tonight's gala as nothing else but "a recognition of
the work of the armed forces who devote their lives to the defense of the
civilian population against the daily ferocious violations of the
guerrillas."
   The Colombian Labor Monitor has not received an invitation, but we hope
that the whole bunch of them choke on their Chicken Kiev!


*  (4) San Pablo under the gun of death-squads and security forces

   The people of San Pablo and nearby areas in southern Bolivar continue to
be  in the cross-hairs of paramilitaries and Colombian army and security
forces.
   Since 12 April 1999 the Colombian Air Force, army and their paramilitary
allies have been involved in intensive operations to track down members
of the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN), National Liberation Army,
who hijacked a passenger aircraft that day.
   These operations have reportedly involved intensive and indiscriminate
aerial bombardment of rural areas around the towns of San Pablo and
Simiti by the Colombian Air Force, forcing up to 1000 people to flee
their homes.
   Since 13 April 1999, paramilitary forces have surrounded rural
communities in both municipalities, forbidding the distribution of food
or medical supplies to the civilian population.
   Heavily armed paramilitaries in uniform have been patrolling the streets
of the municipal capital of San Pablo, reportedly with the cooperation of
the security forces.
   Between 18 and 19 April Ismael Rincon Sierra, Alfiodys Duran Rodriguez,
Ernesto Fernandez Botero and three other inhabitants of San Pablo were
tortured and killed by paramilitaries.
   Several other people are believed to have 'disappeared'.
   Residents of San Pablo have also been forced to attend meetings held by
the paramilitaries, where they have been told that those named on a
"lista negra", blacklist, reportedly believed to be "guerrilla
sympathizers", will be killed. Residents have also been told that they
will have to leave San Pablo unless they make payments to the
paramilitaries every month.
   Paramilitaries are also believed to be responsible for the killing of
Americo N , Armando Mier Urueta and another resident of San Pablo whose
bodies were all found in Simiti.


*  (5) New exodus planned for southern Bolivar

   A new wave of refugees will likely overrun Barrancabermeja in the near
future as communities in the southern part of Bolivar and in Valle de
Cimitarra are mobilizing to protest the lack of implementation of
government promises.  Community leaders argue that the new displacement
is due to the fact that the government has not provided safe conditions
for the peasants in these areas, nor has it fulfilled any of the economic
and social guarantees it extended last year.
   In the past few months,  more than 200 peasants have been killed and more
than 400 houses have been destroyed in Norosi, Moral, Barranco de Loba
and Pueblito Mejia, among other localities.
   The region has been overrun by paramilitaries who seem to work closely
with the army and security forces.
   It should be noted that in this area there are gold mines that are now
claimed by a Canadian mining company, Conquistadora, in which majority
interest is held by a cartel of U.S. investors based in California.
   Much of the displacement that has taken place over the past year or
so in this corner of Magdalena Medio was part of a campaign by the
paramilitaries to clear the land of peasants and mine workers who
belonged to a popular mining cooperative, and to secure the mines for the
foreign company.
   Last summer, thousands of people from the area fled to Puerto Wilches and
Barrancabermeja in search of safety as the paramilitaries were carrying
out their social cleansing operations as the army and security forces
stood by.


*  (6) Castano to move headquarters to southern demilitarized zone

  Carlos Castano, the odious leader of the Colombian paramilitary groups has
announced plans to move the groups' headquarters to the southern
demilitarized region of Caqueta by early May owing to "pressure from the
army and police" in the north (laugh here!). Castano said his aim was
not to undermine the peace process but the paramilitaries had to pursue
the guerrillas in the demilitarized zone because they could not accept
"the government yielding to FARC demands or guerrilla groups mocking the
whole country".
   Ever since the paramilitary death-squads were founded, in the early
1980s, with the aid of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and financing
from such multinationals as U.S.-based Texaco, they have operated with
near total impunity and have had the cooperation of military and security
circles in Colombia.

  _____________________________________________________________________
  COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR   clm@prairienet.org   www.prairienet.org/clm
     "Behind the headlines, beneath the surface, between the lines"
                               IN OTHER NEWS...
     News and information about Colombia compiled irregularly by CLM
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