U.S. companies tied to Colombia labor activist murders at House hearing

[Judi Lynn]

Source: International Herald Tribune/Associated Press

U.S. companies tied to Colombia labor activist murders at House hearing
The Associated Press
Published: June 28, 2007

WASHINGTON: The United States shares the blame for Colombia's suffering, a top Democrat said Thursday at a congressional hearing focusing on allegations that U.S. companies funded illegal right-wing militias that have killed hundreds of union activists in the Andean nation.

"We are complicit in the devastation of that society," said Rep. Bill Delahunt, a Democrat. "So it is a moral imperative that requires us to help Colombia end that cycle of violence"

Delahunt, who chairs the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, spoke during a hearing in which Chiquita Brands International Inc. and the Alabama coal company Drummond Co. Inc. were singled as having close ties to Colombia's paramilitaries. Chiquita has acknowledged having paid paramilitaries $1.7 million (€1.3 million) in protection money over six years. Drummond has denied having made any payments.

Dan Burton, a Republican, pointed out during the more than two-hour hearing, however, that "I have not heard any hard evidence that these transactions took place."


Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/28/america/NA-GEN-US-Colombia-Paramilitaries.php

---

http://www.fantasycongress.com.nyud.net:8090/fc/public/img/representatives/delahunt_william_MA.jpg http://archive.salon.com.nyud.net:8090/politics/feature/2001/02/28/burton/story.jpg

William Delahunt, Clinton impeachment manager, Dan Burton

[bullimiami]

1. i think we have to accept that the u.s. government and especially its security underworld

is essentially a right wing fascist mafia.

[Tempest]

3. That was made evident

During Reagan's secret war in Central America.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Yes, "accept" in the sense that it's real. But NOT "accept" in the sense of

"get used to it," "this is now things are, forget changing them," etc.

And, no matter how bad the odds look for changing things, never forget that the greatest movements in history have often been started by a few people--sometimes just one person--with courage and determination. The environmental movement. The civil rights movement. The labor movement. The anti-slavery movement. Various independence movements in former colonies. Great heroes often start out as nobodies. And sometimes the people who really start things remain nobodies. Right now, I'm thinking of the small indigenous tribes in South America who have been blocking logging roads and harmful mining operations for years and decades. Small handfuls of apparently powerless poor people. One such effort has just resulted in a halt to mining in one region of Venezuela. But, more than this, the fight for indigenous rights, and for respect for the land, and for the use of a country's resources for the benefit of the people, and in ways that do not harm people or Mother Earth, has been the driving force behind the great, peaceful, leftist (majorityist) democracy movement that has swept Latin America--with leftist governments elected in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Nicaragua, and big leftist movements (likely to win future elections) in Paraguay, Peru and Mexico.

This huge leftist movement is challenging US/Bush/Corporate power in Latin America in many ways--especially as it has been manifested, with torture and death squads, in Colombia, but also in more long term initiatives, such as the Bank of the South (to drive the World Bank/IMF out of Latin America--the World Bank/IMF being the loan sharks for the global corporate predators who are raping the land, and oppressing and enslaving people).

We don't know the names of the people who started this movement. But we do know this about them: They refused to "accept" things as they were, and the odds against them succeeding were very great, indeed.

[Tempest]

2. Dan Burton shows just how dumb a rightwinger can be

Dan Burton, a Republican, pointed out during the more than two-hour hearing, however, that "I have not heard any hard evidence that these transactions took place."

Umm, Dan...

Chiquita has acknowledged having paid paramilitaries $1.7 million (€1.3 million) in protection money over six years.


What a wanker.

[Shallah Kali]

15. Burton should be studied. It is facinating how he can ignore a small thing like REALITY and FACTS

i wonder what the psychological term is for this sort of mental illness. seriously.

[AikidoSoul]

5. I wish all DUers would refuse to buy product brands such as Chiquita, DelMonte, Nestle, and

other corporations that exploit indigenous populations.

[ShortnFiery]

6. Delmonte supplies fruit for the Death Squads.

What would David Rovics croon today?

Here's his past work:

Coke is the Drink of the Death Squads

By David Rovics http://www.davidrovics.com/


Coca-Cola came to Colombia
Seeking lower wages
They got just what they came for
But as we turn the pages
We find the workers didn't like the sound
Of their children's hungry cries
So they said we'll join the union
And they began to organize


So Coke called up a terrorist group
Called the AUC
They said "we've got some problems
At the factory"
So these thugs went to the plant
Killed two union men
Told the rest, "you leave the union
Or we'll be back again"


Now Coke did not complain
About this dirty deed
Why give workers higher wages
When Coke is all they really need
They phoned the AUC
Said "thanks, without you we'd go broke
And to show our appreciation
Here's one hundred cases of Coke"


(Chorus)
The baby drinks it in his bottle
When the water ain't no good
The dog drinks it
But he don't know if he should
Some folks say
It's the nectar of the Gods
But Coke is the drink of the Death Squads


Well the workers wouldn't take
This situation lying down
Some went up to Georgia
Said "look what's happened to our town
You American workers got downsized
And as for us we just get shot
And those of us who survive
Our teeth begin to rot"

(Chorus)

Well now that's the situation
What are you gonna do
'Cause death squads run Colombia
And they're paid by me and you
We can let Coke run the world
And see what future that will bring
Or we can drink juice and smash the state
Now that's the real thing

(Chorus)

To hear David sing "Coke is the Drink of the Death Squads," go to: http://www.indybay.org/news/2002/10/1535915.php .

[Judi Lynn]

9. Outstanding song! Beautiful to know that many others are keeping watch. Thank you. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

7. U.S. componies most of us haven't seen connected to paramilitaries are named.

From the same article:

The president of Colombia's national mining union, Francisco Ramirez, claimed not just Chiquita and Drummond but also Coca-Cola, Occidental Petroleum, BP Amoco and Exxon Mobil were complicit in the killing of union activists in Colombia — either by paying paramilitaries or indirectly through the U.S. military aid for Colombian army units that he said committed the murders.
(snip)

Sure hope they'll keep working on this until far more of the truth is out and can't be swept back under the carpet. These companies need to be "outed" and punished severely.

[Shallah Kali]

14. Corporations and their leaders truely are sociopaths. & our tax$ are buying the bullets for 'em

.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Witness links U.S. companies, Colombia strife:A former right-wing soldier tells Congress of illegal

June 29, 2007, 1:17AM
Witness links U.S. companies, Colombia strife
A former right-wing soldier tells Congress of illegal militia ties


By JOSH MEYER and CHRIS KRAUL
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — A former paramilitary soldier told a congressional panel Thursday that several U.S. companies provided financial support to illegal militias accused of killing Colombian civilians.
(snip)

Guzman testified Thursday that Colombian army training "tells us that we have to attack the leftists in any way we can, and that unions are guerrilla groups and we have to attack them by legal and illegal means."

But he stopped short of telling the lawmakers that the military conspired with paramilitary groups to kill the union workers or other civilians. And he said he had "no evidence on how Drummond gave money to the paramilitaries."

In his prepared remarks, Guzman went further, however, saying that an AUC commander whom he identified as "Cebolla" told him that paramilitaries were responsible for the murders of Locarno and Orcasitos. He said paramilitaries and the Colombian army shared the opinion that the Drummond miners union "represented a subversive organization and consequently a legitimate military target."

"I must confess that we in the military viewed the murders of Valmore Locarno and Victor Orcasitos in early 2001 as military victories," Guzman said. "I do not have that opinion today, but I did back then as a consequence of my military training."

Guzman also said in the statement that the AUC killed many civilians on and around the Drummond property, and that he was ordered while in the military to help cover up any links between their deaths and the coal company.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/4930738.html

[gorbal]

12. Wouldn't be nice if this got more major press coverage?

The silence is deafening.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Human Rights Specialist, Colombian Mine Union Official, Former Military Officer and USW Lawyer Testi

June 28, 2007 08:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time
News From USW: Colombian Trade Unionists Assassinated by Paramilitaries Paid by American Companies, Congress Told
Human Rights Specialist, Colombian Mine Union Official, Former Military Officer and USW Lawyer Testify to Abuses

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--News From USW: Witnesses ranging from a former Colombian military officer to an American human rights expert testified before Congress today that paramilitary groups are murdering trade unionists in Colombia at a rate unparalleled in the world and on the dime of multinational corporations based in the United States.

Francisco Ramirez Cuellar, president of Sintraminercol, the Colombian mine workers union, and author of, “The Profits of Extermination, How U.S. Corporate Power is Destroying Colombia,” told the Congressmen there is proof that Drummond Ltd., the Colombian subsidiary of Alabama-based Drummond Co., Inc., paid paramilitaries to kill three union officials at Drummond. And, he said, several other American companies, including Ohio-based Chiquita Brands International, have been involved in similar practices.

Dan Kovalik, a United Steelworkers’ lawyer who has investigated paramilitaries since 2001, promised to provide the Congressmen with affidavits from witnesses testifying to the connections between Drummond Ltd. money, paramilitaries and the murder of three trade unionists employed by Drummond.

Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno, principal specialist on Colombia for Human Rights Watch, pleaded with the Congressional committee members to delay any action on the Bush Administration’s proposed free trade agreement with Colombia until the country shows real progress in abating the murder of trade unionists and in punishing more than the current rate of 2 percent of the killers.

More:
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070628006296&newsLang=en

[LibertyorDeath]

11. Thanks for this

Rec

[Judi Lynn]

13. Once you see how much has been hidden, you become committed to learning more!

Just found a hell of a Human Rights Watch Report a few minutes ago, with this exceeding intersting description of Colombian paramilitaries, and the country's official military cooperating in murdering the ordinary citizens of Colombia, then pretending they had killed "rebels." Apparently this is a widespread practise, unfortunately, done with U.S. taxpayer-donated funds.

COLOMBIA
The Ties That Bind: Colombia and Military-Paramilitary Links

~snip~
FOURTH BRIGADE (headquarters in Medellín, Antioquia)

"When we would deliver a guerrilla to the Girardot Battalion, they would give us in exchange grenades and R-15 munitions . . . And after the Army received (the corpse), they would dress it in a military uniform."

Francisco Enrique Villalba Hernández, a former paramilitary

~snip~
In sworn testimony to Attorney General investigators taken on April 30, 1998, Francisco Enrique Villalba Hernández, a former paramilitary who took part in the El Aro massacre, confirmed the testimony by survivors taken by Human Rights Watch that the operation had been carefully planned and carried out by a joint paramilitary-Army force. Villalba said he belonged to the Toledo Group within the ACCU's Metro Front. He told authorities that "Junior" and Salvatore Mancuso, known as "El Mono Mancuso" and the commander of ACCU fighters present, took him and approximately 100 other paramilitaries to Puerto Valdivia to prepare to enter El Aro.(40)

There, Villalba told authorities that he witnessed the meeting between Mancuso, an Army lieutenant, and two Army subordinates, there with troops. This region is covered by both the Girardot and Granaderos Battalions. Throughout the encounter, Villalba testified, Army soldiers and paramilitaries addressed each other as "cousin" (primo), as a sign of shared goals and purpose.(41)Villalba was also able to testify about radio exchanges he overheard between Mancuso and the colonel in charge of the battalion that was taking part in the combined operation. According to Villalba, "They were planning the entry into El Aro and how the operation would go lower down (the mountain), so that the Army would prevent people or commissions or journalists from entering."(42)

During the operation, Villalba said that the combined Army-paramilitary force was attacked by the FARC. "Right when we had contact with guerrillas, which lasted three hours, an Army helicopter arrived, and gave us medical supplies and munitions."(43)

Villalba admitted taking direct part in killings and the mutilations of victims, including a beheading. Once the paramilitaries had rounded up the cattle belonging to El Aro residents, Villalba said, paramilitaries left the area protected by the Army, which advised them to take a route that would avoid members of the Attorney General's office and Procuradura they believed had been sent to investigate reports of the massacre. While the paramilitaries traveled in several public busses commandeered on the highway, another car preceded them, according to Villalba, ensuring that the busses would pass army roadblocks unhampered.(44)

In statements to the press, Carlos Castaño took responsibility for the massacre.(45)

Villalba also testified about numerous other operations carried out jointly by paramilitaries and the Granaderos and Girardot Battalions. A common practice, he told government investigators, was "legalization" (legalización), when paramilitaries would give the corpses of suspected guerrillas or murdered civilians to the Army in exchange for weapons and munitions. Villalba testified that soldiers then clothed the corpses in military uniforms and claimed them publicly as guerrillas killed in combat. "When we would deliver a guerrilla to the Girardot Battalion, they would give us in exchange grenades and R-15 munitions... And after the Army received (the corpse), they would dress it in a military uniform."(46)
(snip/...)

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/colombia/

(Two big paramilitary names are mentioned in that report: Carlos Castaño, and Salvatore Mancuso. The body of Carlos Castaño was found buried, and it was learned he had been murdered at the order of his paramilitary overlord brother, Vicente.



Castaño, Mancuso
Mancuso has been giving testimony which has implicated a lot of powerful Colombian government officials. There has been a news shutdown on what he has testified.)

[LibertyorDeath]

16. It's very depressing to think that people who want

nothing more than a better life for their children

and families are murdered by psychopaths such as this if they try to form a Union

and with the complicity of American Corporations it's simply disgusting.

[unkachuck]

17. kick....n/t