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Colombia: massacres, privatisations and Free Trade Agreement
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Source:
Choike
World Social Forum
Porto Alegre, January 2005
Intervention of Héctor Mondragón (*) in the World Dignity Forum:
Some people believe that violence in Colombia began with drug-trafficking. But, have a look at the history of violence in the country: 50,000 indigenous people were exterminated. In 1916, in Barrancabermeja, the Varigias indigenous people were exterminated after an oil exploration. They were killed without firing a shot, but by just installing an oil plant. Between 1946 and 1958, two million peasants were forced to abandon their lands through violence; 200,000 were killed.
Survivors of massacres
The same process has been repeated within the last twenty years, when 3,300,000 peasants were driven off of their land; last year, 300,000 peasants were driven off of their land through violence. And from owning 32 per cent of the land in 1994, large landowners have now 71 per cent of the land. There are fifteen thousand large landowners, being one of them the current President of the Republic, Alvaro Uribe.
Both the political and social opposition have been systematically exterminated. Since 1948, with the killing of Jorge Gaitán, Colombia’s top popular leader in the 20th century, murder after murder of members of the opposition movement in Colombia have followed, as it happened in the 1970s, as it happened with the Patriotic Union of which 4,000 leaders were killed, among them Senators, representatives in the Chamber, councillors, mayors and Deputies. The same that happened to the M19 leader or as it is now happening to the Democratic Forum which is suffering the murder of its leaders in the Atlantic Department.
In the last twenty years, an average of one hundred union leaders have been murdered per year in Colombia, except in 1996 when 200 were murdered, or in 2002, when 183 were killed.
I wonder what would happen if one hundred union leaders were killed in one year in Brazil. I wonder what would happen if one hundred union leaders were killed in one year in the United States. In Colombia, they get killed every year. We have only managed to reduce somewhat the figure by exiling our people with the solidarity of unions in Europe and the US which have, at this time, hundreds of fellow union members as refugees, so that they are not killed in Colombia.
This is why I say that we are survivors. No group in Colombia has been as massacred and persecuted as that of peasants. In 2000, four hundred massacres took place in Colombia, of which three hundred were of peasants. More than one massacre a day. Those federations affiliated with Via Campesina have had 1,700 of their leaders murdered in the last twenty years.
What would happen if Brazil’s Landless Movement had 1,700 of their leaders murdered? Would it exist? Would it exist?
Indigenous people, who still have rights in Colombia, are the ones who have started now to suffer the massacres. Last year, 110 indigenous leaders were killed. This year up until today, eight of them have already been killed. In Colombia, one indigenous leader is killed every three days.
Is that democracy? As priest Javier Giraldo says, it is a genocidal democracy. That is the democracy we have in Colombia. It is what the United States calls as the oldest democracy in Latin America.
”Each privatisation, a small coup d'état”
And to top it all, a system is now created to send those who are survivors to prison, by paying witnesses. A law has been passed which allows to pay witnesses and send people to prison. This is the reason why the Peasant Federation has 270 of its members in prison at the present time. Only the Federation. Massive arrests are carried out: last year there were 2,790 political prisoners. This is aimed at depriving people of their rights, of their dignity which is what we are talking here about.
Unions have had their labour legislation completely destroyed. The labour law approved by Uribe’s Government, takes two thousand million dollars from Colombian workers’ pockets each year. How could they manage to impose that? Through blood and fire! By killing electricity workers, oil workers, health workers. So many hospital nurses have been murdered, young girls, mothers, for opposing the privatisation of the hospital in their town!
And they have privatised the hospital of Bogotá, which was the main hospital in the country. Workers maintained the hospital in operation without financing, with the support of charity resources, resources provided by tradesmen, the people, prisoners in Bogotá! Prisoners provided 10 per cent of their food to the hospital, so that it could be given to patients. And people in prison do not eat very well. But Uribe closed down the hospital by force. In order to close down the University Hospital of Cartagena they sent the army and the police into the hospital and killed the top health union leader.
Each privatisation in Colombia is like a small coup. Sometimes it is very hard. I was tortured in 1977 for fighting against the privatisation of the oil company. After that, I have seen 120 oil workers’ leaders die. And I cannot help but cry when I see that it has been privatised and turned into a corporation by means of the murder of union leaders. And that is the reason why we say that we are survivors.
The social movement resists
And there are times when we have no hopes, we feel it is not worth going on, we wonder where we are going to, that we are losing our friends, that we are losing our rights. But we feel a flame, the flame to continue. President Uribe has intended to turn our Constitution into a fascist Constitution but he has failed to do so on account of people’s struggle. Uribe tried to validate his Constitution’s project, and while the press stated he had an 80 per cent popularity rating, he did not even manage to obtain 18 per cent of votes in favour of that constitutional reform project.
This is why we say that the referendum was like the boy in the story who said “the emperor’s son is naked”. Everybody said he was dressed in a golden outfit, and the one who did not say so was accused of being a criminal or an idiot. Until a boy said “he is naked”. President Uribe is naked. He does not have an 80 per cent popularity rating, and does not even reach 18 per cent. And we all felt once again that we could fight because, with the October 2003 victory we managed to obtain, the social movement resisted strongly, and we felt that hope was reborn. On account of that, last year was an year of strikes, of oil workers’ strike, of banana workers’ strike, of general strike, of a large “Minga” organized by indigenous people who went out to fight against violence, against the free trade agreement and against the fascist constitutional reform Uribe wants to impose. Indigenous people gave an example to the country. Uribe threatened people by saying it was going to be “a terrible march”, that the guerrilla was going to become involved in it. However, the indigenous march was an example of peace, of strength; it was a victorious “Minga”.
On October 2, we carried out a large general strike. Seventy-hundred thousand workers, 700,000 survivors! They thought they had killed the trade union movement but they had not. Seventy-hundred thousand workers went on strike and 1.5 million people took to the streets on October 12 to say “no” to the Free Trade Agreement, “no” to Uribe’s re-election, “no” to the fascist constitutional reform, no more violence against workers.
On February 10, the penultimate round to sign the ignominious Free Trade Agreement with the United States is going to be held. The United States intend to use Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in order to introduce the FTAA that people in the Americas are rejecting, in order to divide South America, to impose the FTAA on Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. The US is also using Colombia as a means to attack Venezuela, as it has been noticed these days. It is a rehearsal of the intervention the US intends to carry out from Colombia against the Bolivarian process. Because Venezuela is the only country that has said “no” to the FTAA.
We, as survivors, are going to go out on the street again, to show that we are going to keep on fighting until we win. And even if we died, we will all be there together the day we achieve victory. We are worthy of your solidarity, fellows!
Thank you.
(*) Héctor Mondragón is assessor of the Coordination of Land Workers, Indigenous and Black entities of Colombia.
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The World Dignity Forum was organized by 14 entities: World Dignity Forum, National Conference of Dalit Organisations, Heinrich Böll Fundation, All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz, National Forum for Forest People and Forest Workers, ActionAid International-Asia, Nepal Dalit NGO Federation, Social Network for Justice and Human Rights, Via Campesina, Landless Rural Workers’ Movement, Social Movements Network, Criola, Sustainable and Democratic Brazil/Fase, Inter-American Platform for Human, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Return to "News and reports from Porto Alegre 2005"
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Through blood and fire |
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