Paramilitaries

On March 6th across Latin America, Europe and North America there will be marches and protest actions demanding an end to state terrorism by the Colombia government. The March 6th actions were called by organizations in Colombia, including trade unions, human rights groups, student organizations and more. See www.movimientodevic timas.org for more information.

The brothers of Colombia's attorney general allowed outlawed paramilitary fighters in 2005 to use the vehicles of a provincial public hospital one of them heads, a former paramilitary leader has told prosecutors. Rodolfo Enrique Guevara Cantillo, former No. 2 in the Northern Bloc of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, made the allegations against Angel Maya and Hernán Maya, both brothers of Attorney General Edgardo Maya.

Javier Correa, President of the National Union of Food Industry Workers (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria de Alimentos, SINALTRAINAL), received a death threat, and the son of regional SINALTRAINAL leader Jose Domingo Florez was abducted and beaten. There are fears that the lives of members of SINALTRAINAL are in danger.

Reprinted from Workers.org

By Minnie Bruce Pratt
Birmingham, Ala.
Published Aug 2, 2007 1:01 AM

In a blow against transnational exploitation of workers and for North-South worker solidarity, Drummond, an Alabama-based coal company, was put on trial in federal court here, charged with the murder of labor union organizers at its mines in Colombia.

In 2001 Valmore Lacarno Rodríguez and Víctor Hugo Orcasita Amaya were murdered by a group of men, some wearing military uniforms. Lacarno and Orcasita were president and vice-president of the union representing 3,000 miners, SINTRAMIENERGETICA. Shortly thereafter Gustavo Soler was murdered when he became union president.