Delegation travelling to Colombia to meet with Coca Cola workers

by redjade Tue Jul 12, 2005 14:07

Parliamentary questions
ORAL QUESTION H-0584/05

by Sahra Wagenknecht ( http://www.sahra-wagenknecht.de/en/ ) to the Council
http://tinyurl.com/dyeqm
Subject: Impunity law for paramilitaries in Colombia24

The Colombian government has recently passed a law through Congress, with the resounding support of Members with links to paramilitary groups, guaranteeing paramilitaries de facto impunity and thus also enabling known drug traffickers to escape justice.

This law has been strongly criticised by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' representative in Colombia and by all human rights organisations.

At Cartagena the European Union, and the United Kingdom in particular, made it clear that the continuation of aid to Colombia was conditional upon a legal framework for the demobilisation of paramilitaries.

What stance does the Council intend to adopt towards the Colombian government following its decision in support of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity and which represents a serious attack on the rights of victims to secure truth, justice and compensation?

Does the Council believes that it can continue to encourage police cooperation with a country that makes such generous concessions to known terrorists and drug traffickers?


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by Sahra Wagenknecht ( http://www.sahra-wagenknecht.de/en/ ) to the Commission
Subject: Impunity law for paramilitaries in Colombia
http://tinyurl.com/7ochg

The Colombian government has recently passed a law through Congress, with the resounding support of Members with links to paramilitary groups, guaranteeing paramilitaries de facto impunity and thus also enabling known drug traffickers to escape justice.

This law has been strongly criticised by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' representative in Colombia and by all human rights organisations.

At Cartagena the European Commission made it clear that the continuation of its aid to Colombia was conditional upon a legal framework for the demobilisation of paramilitaries.

What stance does the Commission intend to adopt following this decision by the Colombian government in support of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity and which represents a serious attack on the rights of victims to secure truth, justice and compensation?

by Matthew Stiles Sat Jun 25, 2005 14:53

I would think it very unlikely that the delegation would go to Carepa. It is an area, Uraba, which is dominated by paramilitaries. The left stopped putting up candidates in elections there over 7 years ago. Also, in Uraba is the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado which has declared itself neutral in the conflict. 8 members of the community were murdered in February. The community accused the army of the massacre. The supposedly democratically elected President Uribe then accused the Community of harbouring FARC guerrillas.
Also see
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/4/16/181218/755
http://www.colombiasupport.net/uraba/index.html
http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/Solidarity%2013/ritoalejo.html

Carepa is also the home of the Coca-cola plant where SINALTRAINAL were wiped out:
"In April 1994, Jose Eleazar Manco and Luis Enrique Gomez, members of a local at another Coca-Cola bottling plant in the town of Carepa, were murdered.

Then, in September 1996, union leaders complained to Coca-Cola and to its two main bottling companies in Colombia - Panamco and Bebidas Y Alimentos de Uraba - that plant managers were employing death squads.

According to the Miami suit, less than three months later, on Dec. 5, 1996, assailants shot dead union leader Isidro Segundo Gil at the entrance of the Carepa plant during contract negotiations, then set fire to the union hall.

Two days later, the killers returned to the factory and assembled the workers at gunpoint.

"The paramilitaries explained that the workers had the option of either resigning from the union or leaving Carepa altogether lest they be killed," the suit stated.

The workers resigned en masse."
Above from http://www.laborrights.org/press/coke_nydailynews_1103.htm

by curious Tue Jun 21, 2005 19:26

will the delegation be visiting Carepa and the Bebidas and Panamco bottling plants?