The date is the
second of November 2007. Luis Eduardo Garcia, Javier Garcia and Javier Correa
(President of the Sinaltrainal food industry union) walk into the central
cafeteria of the Universidad Pontificia, to find an envelope addressed to them
on a desk. This envelope contained a letter from the Black Eagles’ Front of the
AUC, the supposedly disbanded right-wing paramilitary organization. The
contents of this letter were as follows:
“AUC BLACK EAGLES’ FRONT – SONS OF BITCH GUERRILLAS – WE HAVE YOU UNDER CONTROL – THE SHIT ON PARAPOLITICA
THAT YOUR ALLY [SENATOR] GUSTAVO PETRO TALKS – IS THE SAME THAT YOU PREACH – WE
BLACK EAGLES ARE COMMITTED TO THE COUNTRY – FULFIL MILITARY OPERATIONS –
IMPROVE THE TRANQUILITY OF THE POPULATION – THIS EXTERMINATION MEASURE WAS
APPLIED TO THE CAMOUFLAGED GUERRILLAS OF USO [Oil Workers’ Union] –
COMMUNIST GUERRILLAS – LUIS GARCIA ALIAS “CHILE” – JAVIER CORREA – WE GIVE YOU
THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY – WE COMBAT GUERRILLA AND COMMUNIST
IDEOLOGY WITH DEATH – THE MILITARY TARGET IS GETTING CLOSER – WE CONFIRM THAT
IT WILL BE IN A COMMON GRAVE – OBEY TO SAVE LIFE – WE THE BLACK EAGLES
EXIST – WE HAVE ALREADY DEMONSTRATED THAT – WE WANT YOU THE TWO GUERRILLA
SPOKESMEN – PEACE IS NOT FORGOTTEN IN THE TOMB – THIS SAYING WILL BE REALISED
BLACK EAGLES’ FRONT”
This nakedly displays the dangers faced by many Colombian trade unionists,
workers, activists and left wingers all across Colombia. The Parapolitica
scandal refers to collusion between Colombian Congressmen and paramilitary
death squads. These Black Eagles on the other hand claim that the trade
unionists are spokesmen for the guerrillas, undoubtedly referring to the
FARC-EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army) or the ELN (National
Liberation Army).In fact political assassinations of labour movement activists has been going on since before the start of
the civil war in Colombia. Before the civil war began, it was the Colombian
state using the Army to crack down on socialist and communist communes, set up
around Colombia by the peasantry. Now it is these paramilitaries doing the
bidding of the Colombian bourgeoisie on the pretence of fighting the insurgency
and its “spokesmen”.
We must act immediately in solidarity with the workers of Colombia against
threats such as this, this is not the first of these threats against the
Colombian workers and peasants by the right wing, Pressure needs to be applied
against both the Coca Cola Company and the Colombian state to protect the
workers and peasants of Colombia from such threats in the future. That being
said, these right wing paramilitary groups tend to be in league with the
Colombian state forces, which both commit atrocities against the workers and
peasants of Colombia.
Nine workers from the Coca Cola Company have been murdered since 1994 due to
the Sinaltrainal Union’s resistance to the Coca Cola Company, whereas on
average many more Colombian workers are killed per year by these paramilitary
groups. It is astonishing that this is allowed to continue in any nation. Colombia
is one of the most dangerous places for workers’ activists and trade unionists,
due to the highly reactionary nature of the Colombian state. We cannot as internationalist
socialists, fail express our solidarity with the threatened workers of Colombia.
The Colombian President Alvaro Uribe continues to insist that the
paramilitaries no longer exist and that the Colombian state protects social
organisations such as trade unions, the sad reality is – in the first weeks of 2008 six trade union leaders were murdered
by paramilitary organisations.
Coca Cola and their bottling subsidiary FEMSA should provide immediate protection
to the workers and families of these threatened workers. Instead they are using
death squads as a means to fight trade unionism.
We must demand these Black Eagles be brought to justice and denounce these
threats against not just these workers but the working class movement of
Colombia, as an attack on one worker is an attack on us all! We must condemn
the Colombian state for their ‘Justice and Peace’ law which actually legalises
and legitimises the Black Eagles’ Front of the AUC and many other paramilitary
organisations.
There is an ever increasing demand that we must call upon the Colombian State
to break the impunity that’s enjoyed by groups such as the Black Eagles in
harming the Colombian labour movement, to stop its legalisation of paramilitaries
and to pursue an immediate criminal investigation into the Black Eagles in
Bucaramanga. The Colombian state is not the solution – it is the problem. What the workers need is a state that will represent their
class interests. A workers’ state would investigate the authors of such
death threats and pursue full criminal charges against those responsible. We should demand
that the British Labour government cease its policy of granting aid to a
murderous regime.
For more information on this you can check out the Colombian Solidarity
Campaign at https://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk
