“Boycott Killer Coke, No Blood for Oil!”

The Colombia Action Network has called for national days of action, Nov. 1 through Nov. 6, to support Colombian trade unionists and to stop Plan Colombia. Plan Colombia is the U.S. military aid package given to Colombia’s death squad government.

Part 1 of 2

Members of the Colombia Action Network, Thistle Parker-Hartog and Meredith Aby , interviewed Colombian peasant leader Miguel Cifuente, the executive secretary of the Cimitarra River Valley Peasant Association.

Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist. On average, right-wing paramilitary death squads or the military murder three Colombian trade unionists a week. Many more are threatened each day. At the same time the U.S. has given more than $3 billion in military aid, which funds both the military and paramilitary war on Colombian trade unionists, human rights workers and campesinos (peasants).

For two weeks in July, a solidarity delegation of the Colombia Action Network (CAN) traveled in Colombia, meeting with leading trade unionists, peasant leaders and other participants in that country’s powerful movement for justice and liberation. The CAN delegation was made up of anti-war and student activists from Illinois, Minnesota and Connecticut. The delegation investigated the impact of U.S. military aid through Plan Colombia and extended solidarity to the struggle of the Colombian people against U.S. imperialism.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following essay from the Colombian trade unionist and political prisoner, Liliany Obando. The introduction was prepared by the Colombia Action Network.

Barrancabermeja, Colombia – “Nine compañeros have been assassinated, 45 have been displaced and 75 have had their lives threatened. The only thing these people have in common is that they work for Coca-Cola. Now the military and the paramilitaries are threatening our families,” said William Mendoza. Mendoza, vice-president of the beverage workers’ union SINALTRAINAL, was speaking July 2 to a delegation of the Colombia Action Network that visited July 2.

_Coca-Cola’s Denials of Human and Labor Rights Violations Exposed _

Chicago, Il – In a spectacular development, Colombian trade unionist Luis Adolfo Cardona can breathe easy again after winning political asylum in the U.S. Cardona escaped kidnapping and execution by Coca-Cola’s death squads in 1996. On Dec. 5, 1996, the day before union negotiations were to begin, a Coca-Cola death squad came to the bottling plant where Cardona worked and shot dead the lead union negotiator Isidro Gil. The same paramilitary gang kidnapped Luis Adolfo Cardona that afternoon, but he escaped using his skills as a semi-professional soccer player to tear away and dodge their attempts to shoot him down. Later that night, the paramilitaries, who work in collusion with the Colombian military, looted and burned down the union hall. A week later the paramilitaries appeared inside the Coca-Cola bottling plant while managers distributed resignation letters for all the union members to sign.

A Colombia Action Network delegation is currently touring in Colombia, hosted by the Oil Workers’ Union and REINICIAR, an important human rights organization that reports to the United Nations. The Colombia Action Network delegation departed from the U.S. in late June. They will hear firsthand about the successful strike by the Oil Workers Union against the national oil company ECOPETROL to stop privatization. The Oil Workers Union (USO) is the most important union in Colombia. Oil is one of the main reasons the Pentagon has 1200 U.S. military advisors and Special Forces fighting in Colombia, and is spending $98 million to guard Occidental Petroleum’s pipeline.

On Tax Day, April 15, activists around the country took part in the Colombia Action Network's third national day of action this year. The April 15 protest brought attention to the human rights crisis that U.S. military aid is creating in Colombia. In Colombia, an average of three trade unionists are murdered each week. The U.S. counter-insurgency program, 'Plan Colombia,' and the new 'Andean Initiative' is arming, training and directing the war in Colombia using U.S. taxpayers' money.

Madison, WI – The Colombia Action Network gathered here March 8 to develop the campaign to boycott Coca-Cola, in defense of Colombian trade unionists. Luis Adolfo Cardona, the Colombian trade unionist who escaped kidnapping, torture and murder by Coca-Cola’s death squads, gave a talk about the grave human rights situation for Colombia’s workers.

Fight Back! received the following report from the Colombia Action Network (Chicago). We urge our readers to support the international campaign to boycott Coca-Cola, and to back the effort to end U.S. support to Colombia's death squad government. An international day of protest against killer Coke will take place April 15.

On Monday, March 15, Coca-Cola union workers in Colombia began a hunger strike in front of the Coke bottling plants in Barrancabermeja, Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Cali, Cartagena, Cúcuta, Medellín and Valledupar. Juan Carlos Galvis, vice-president of the union in Barrancabermeja, has said, “If we lose the fight against Coca-Cola, we will first lose our union, next our jobs and then our lives.” William Mendoza, president of the union in Barrancabermeja, said, “This is the final battle and we're giving it all we've got. We need all supporters of human and labor rights in the U.S. to do the same!”

The campaign to boycott ‘Killer Coke’ is spreading across college campuses and communities around the country. The Coca-Cola boycott was launched July 22 by the Colombian food and beverage workers’ union, SINALTRAINAL, to shine a light on the murders of nine Coca-Cola trade unionists there by company-hired death squads.

Madison, WI – “I watched as they put a bullet into his head,” said Luis Adolfo Cardona, a former worker at a Colombian Coca-Cola bottling plant. He was speaking of Isidro Segundo Gil, a lead union negotiator at the plant. “I knew I would be next,” Cardona continued. Later that day, Dec. 5, 1996, Cardona was kidnapped and was likely headed for the same fate as his friend until he escaped.

The campaign to boycott ‘Killer Coke’ is spreading fast. The Coca-Cola boycott was launched July 22 by the Colombian food and beverage workers’ union, SINALTRAINAL, to shine a light on the murders of nine Coca-Cola trade unionists.

Nine trade unionists at Coca-Cola in Colombia are dead – murdered by paramilitaries with ties to Coca-Cola management. In response, the Colombia Action Network (CAN) is calling on student, community, religious and anti-war groups, as well as unions, to join protests against the Coca-Cola Company beginning July 22.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following letter from Liliany (Lily) Obando who is a Colombian trade union organizer with FENSUAGRO, the largest peasant and agricultural workers federation in Colombia. She writes academic papers and makes documentary films about the struggles of Colombian campesinos. On Aug. 8, Lily was arrested and imprisoned by the ‘anti-terrorism unit’ of the Colombian National Police. She has been charged with “rebellion” and “managing resources related to terrorist activities.” Her story is tragically familiar in a country where thousands of trade unionists have been threatened, arrested or killed by the U.S.-backed Colombian government. The following letter will be read from the stage and at the Fight Back! forum on Colombia at the School of the Americas demonstration in Fort Benning, Georgia Nov 21-23 by speakers for the Colombia Action Network.

Pedro Eusse is the Secretary General of the Food and Beverage Union, and the Secretary General of the United Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CUTV).

In Colombia, the people are winning. The U.S. war machine is losing plane after plane to a growing popular insurgency. On April 7, a U.S. pilot died when his plane crashed while spraying deadly chemicals on fields in rural Colombia. The U.S. State Department refused comment on assumptions that the plane was shot down by rebels.

Chicago, IL – More than one hundred people marched here, May 3, to protest the killing of Colombian trade unionists by Coca-Cola's death squads. Marching through the mostly Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen, many people on the streets chanted with the protesters or stood and applauded in solidarity with Colombian trade unionists.