They Are Still Murdering Labor Unionists in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

April 22, 2008
Memo to the Clinton Campaign
They Are Still Murdering Labor Unionists in Colombia
By DAVID MACARAY

Even though the Colombian government argues that the level of violence has, in fact, declined, there have been more than 2,500 union members murdered in Colombia since 1985. More than 400 have been killed since 2002, when conservative president Alvaro Uribe took office, and 19 union members and leaders have already been killed this year.

According to statistics compiled by the National Labor School, a research organization located in Medellin, Colombia, of those 2,500 murders, less than 5 per cent of the cases have resulted in convictions.

So who is murdering these union members and why are they doing it? Based on press reports and information supplied by human rights agencies, the murders are being committed by right-wing paramilitary groups and “private armies” who suspect labor unions of harboring left-wing activists or sympathizers, or of being infiltrated by left-wing rebels who actively oppose Uribe’s conservative government.

In Latin America there is a long history of home-grown leftist opposition to government collusion with Yankee-led business interests. Labor unions in the rough and tumble country of Colombia are even less popular with Big Business and Big Government than they are in the United States. At least, these days, in the U.S., business and government interests combine to litigate or legislate a union to death, not murder it outright.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/macaray04222008.html

[papau]

1. funny how Obama position same as Clinton - but it's "Memo to the Clinton Campaign "

[yurbud]

2. do you think the Clintons care?

[Judi Lynn]

3. Not a bit! Was horrified to make an accidental discovery about Bill Clinton's Plan Colombia tonight.

I know I have NEVER heard this anywhere, and it just leaped out from a search. It's a statement from the director of Human Rights Watch:

Clinton's Colombia Waiver "a Grave Mistake"

(08/23/00) -- President Clinton's decision to waive human rights conditions on the $1.3 billion military aid package to Colombia will encourage violent abuses, Human Rights Watch said today. On August 23, Clinton signed a waiver allowing the United States to ignore human rights conditions included in the military aid package. In granting the waiver, Clinton not only makes America complicit in ongoing abuses but risks converting a failed drug war into a disastrous human rights policy.

"This is the wrong policy and the wrong time," said Jos?Miguel Vivanco, Executive Director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. "The message is that the bad apples with the armed forces shouldn't be worried. Ultimately, the waiver defeats the purpose of any policy meant to improve human rights."

Human Rights Watch was among several leading human rights groups who took part in a two-day consultation with the State Department required by law before any certification. During those meetings, all of the human rights groups present, including Human Rights Watch, unanimously opposed Colombia's certification to receive military aid and called on President Clinton not to issue a waiver.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2000/08/23/colomb730.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~
As you may well remember, Paul Wellstone was 100% OPPOSED TO PLAN COLOMBIA, and made this well known. He made trips to Colombia, and in one situation, a bomb was found planted on the road where his car was supposed to park at a stop in Barrancabermeja, Colombia. They found it in time to get the bomb the heck outta there before he showed up.

The other incident was a "freak accident" when an airplane which sprays the country side with the purpose of killing off all coca plants "accidently" drenched Paul Wellstone and his team in super-charged Round-up chemicals when they showed up to watch the spraying.

Wellstone went directly against his own President, another Democrat, because he had moral objections to Plan Colombia. Surely wish other Senate Democrats would have stood with him on this.

Until learning better, many people would NEVER HAVE DREAMED Clinton would have ever considered waiving the human rights considerations before finalizing the Plan Colombia with President Andres Pastrana.