If I Could Show Congress the Real Colombia

When I heard that some Bush administration dignitaries were planning to offer Congressmen junkets to Bogotá to win their votes for the proposed Colombian Free Trade Agreement, I began to daydream about the tours of my home country that I'd like to give lawmakers to explain why the pact is so wrong for both nations.

My expeditions must remain fantasies, though, because I can rarely return to Colombia safely now. I fled in 2004 when it was clear I would be murdered imminently by the paramilitaries, groups the U.S. government has officially designated as terrorists. The U.S. granted me sanctuary, and I live now in Minneapolis.

The version of Colombia that will be offered Congressmen by U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab or U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez will be the sanitized tourist one. Gutierrez said recently, for example, that he likes to take lawmakers to the streets of Medellin, infamous as a drug capitol, and show them how children may now safely walk to school. These administration-orchestrated trips for Congressmen are called CODELS, reminding me of the English word coddle. On those excursions, there would of course, fancy hotels, Embassy parties, chauffeured limos.

I would offer less pampered outings, the stuff of everyday life in Colombia. That is what I believe the Congressmen should experience.

It's fine to see children walking to school, but I would also take the Congressmen to the park at the archeological site known as Cercado de los Zipas in Facatativa, which is the town from which I fled. At that site on Dec. 28, an acquaintance and fellow unionist, Sigifredo Higuera Ramirez, was shot in the head as he exercised. The union to which this 63-year-old man belonged, SINALTRAINAL, has said it was an assassination.

That, of course, sounds like an outrageous allegation in America where trade unionists are fired, not killed for their activities. But in Colombia last year, 38 trade unionists were murdered, and that is a shockingly low number. The year before it was 72, which was more than the number of trade unionists killed in every other country in the world combined. Since 1991, more than 2,200 trade unionists were murdered in Colombia, and that includes more than 400 since Alvaro Uribe became president five years ago.

I am sure that on the official CODEL trips, Mr. Gutierrez will take lawmakers on tours of the courts that are now supposedly putting the perpetrators of those murders behind bars with the $1.5 million that he brags about President Uribe devoting to prosecuting high-profile cases. Unfortunately, precious few cases are actually taken to trial, and even fewer convictions are won, so that the impunity rate for murder of trade unionists remains at 98 percent.

Instead of a fancy courtroom, I would take the Congressmen to the site of a crime that never was prosecuted, maybe my mother's house in Facatativa. In 1999, when I was serving on the Facatativa city council and running for re-election, my opponent was a member of a paramilitary. He was losing and wanted me to drop out of the race. Members of his group went to my mother's house, smashed the windows, broke down the door and held a gun to her head.

In Colombia, the paramilitaries -- remember, these are terrorist organizations -- have been used by multinational corporations to suppress unions. At least four multinationals, Drummond, Nestle, Chiquita Brands International and Coca-Cola, have been named in lawsuits claiming they paid paramilitaries to kill or intimidate union workers in Colombia. And one, Chiquita, admitted last year that it paid $1.7 million over six years to Colombia's brutal right-wing militias, the AUC.

Although my mother was terrorized, I did not withdraw from the race. And I won. The paramilitary group targeted me because I am openly a union activist. I have been since the age of 19 when I helped organize the factory where I first worked, the firm KLEIN, in Bogota which manufactured industrial tanks. The paramilitaries began to attack me then. Over the years, I was kidnapped, tortured and beaten.

That sort of thing will be ignored on the official CODEL trips to Colombia. Those will, no doubt, take American Congressmen to see the great historic fresco in the Elliptic chamber in the National Capitol Building in Bogotá. I would take the Congressmen to see each of the 85 seats in the Colombian Congress that belong to members who have ties to or who are being investigated for having ties to paramilitary groups. That is 35 percent of the legislature. Already, 44 have been stripped of their offices because of involvement with these terrorist groups.

Mr. Gutierrez will be sure to treat the Congressmen on his CODELS to the best restaurants in Bogota. I would like to show them one in Facatativa. I held a rally there during one of my re-election campaigns for city council. Three members of the paramilitary organization came in, and one punched me in the face. Another pulled a gun, but luckily, my supporters shoved them outside before gunfire erupted. Though we called the police and the military, the gunfire continued for two hours before it was broken up. And, remember, I was already a sitting councilman, and the police station was only two blocks away.

I was forced out of the country after a friend of mine, active in the professors union, was assassinated, and three other union activist friends were murdered. I was threatened and had to flee. I received help from the Colombian Support Network in Madison, Wisconsin.

If I could show the Congressmen what is really going on in my country, I would ask them how they could vote for a Free Trade Agreement with a country that still allows 38 trade unionists to be killed in a year. It is fewer than it was in 2006, but is, nonetheless, an appalling number.

And I would ask them if the reason fewer are killed is that the multinationals and their paid assassins, the paramilitaries, have been so successful? The fact is that unions are smaller in Colombia now because of the years of terror tactics by the paramilitaries. So though there are fewer individuals murdered, each death is more meaningful as it represents a larger percentage of those left.

I would ask the American Congressmen, is it ethical for them to sign a treaty with a country whose legislature is infiltrated by partisans of the terrorist paramilitaries that, in turn, are supported by drug trafficking to the United States?

I would ask how they would even think about signing a free trade agreement with a government that has failed to control terrorist organizations -- the leftist guerrillas and the paramilitaries. That is not my assessment but that of the U.S. government itself, which says these organizations have complete dominion over vast territories in Colombia, including plantations on which they grow coca, sent to the U.S. as cocaine.

I suppose, however, that as a tour guide, my role is to answer questions, not ask them. So my answer is no to the Colombian Free Trade Agreement. Just vote no.

Comments

[jotaerre]

It is a long standing practice in Colombia to accuse government critics not on the basis of what they say but of what they are supposed to be hiding.
For those readers who do not keep up with colombian news I think it is vital that you know that the demobilization of Paramilitary organizations is far from over. There are many problems that stem from the way the paras were allowed to surrender by the Uribe administration.
To even suggest that Paras are a non entity in Colombian politics is a lie. For those of you that are interested Google things like Parapolitica. There are several dozen congressmen in jail, indicted or on the run because of their links to paramilitaries, and most of these politicians are linked to the coalition that helped elect Uribe.
If factanonverba has direct evidence of CSN links to the FARC, hand them over, if not stop throwing things like that out there.
Many years ago I saw Eduardo Umaña Mendoza confront a government official who was trying to launch the same type of accusations. The goverment official couldn´t offer any proof. Umaña was a lawyer who was accused of being a front man for the FARC. He was gunned down by paramilitary hitmen.
Colombia is in a violent conflict with many sides involved. What Gerardo Cajamarca tells us is HIS POLITICAL AND SOCIAL EXPERIENCE, and again if factanonverba has proof about union members holding kidnap victims he should tell us.
I have voted for the Polo Democratico (PDA) in the past and plan to do so in the future, but again factanonverba should clarify his comments on the PDA. Who are the democratic members, who are not so democratic? Petro is un and Gaviria is?
And US Congressmen need to see the reality that colombians face everyday. They will vote on plans that will affect the lives of tens of thousands of colombians. The armed conflict must be resolved so all colombians can live in peace, exercising their rights to demand a better future like so many have done throughout our history.
Gerardo gracias.

[Pdsatx]

Factanonverba,

Do you have any links to the allegations of kidnap victims being found in union leaders homes? And the Sinaltrainal sabotage acts?

[factanonverba]

The Colombian Support Network in Madison, Wisconsin is the front group for the FARC.

Thanks Huff Post, you are publishing commentary from those who killed my aunt, two cousins, who tried to kidnap me twice, who kidnapped my grandfather, who have killed or kidnapped more than a three score of people that I know.

It is interesting that he mentions that the paramilitary involvement in drug trading but fails to mention that 50% of the drug trade is controlled by the FARC, 40% by cartels and only 10% by paramilitary. Or that paramilitarism is largely a spent political force in Colombia because the success of Uribe has been to revitalize the Colombian state. Forty-four million Colombians beg to differ with Mr. Cajamarca.

Nor does he address the true scourge of Colombia, kidnapping. Why? Ask him why?

The answer is all too often kidnapping victims have been found in the homes of union trade leaders.

[factanonverba]

Colombia's CP is the second largest in Latin America, only Cuba's is larger. And its growth can be traced to events in the banana region of Colombia in the 1920s. As Mr. Cajamarca notes the problem is foreign nationals that operate in Colombia not Colombian companies though ECOPETROL, the Colombian Oil Company has also had long standing labor problems. Colombia has several trade union movements but only two have posed difficulties over the years. One is SINALTRAINAL, the union to which Mr. Cajamarca belongs. The difficulties are that in their zeal, this union likes to commit acts of sabotage. Over the past five years, a dozen trade unionists have blown themselves trying to build pipe bombs up in Yumbo, in Barracabermeja and in Santa Marta.

While the Colombian government is working hard to improve the safety of all Colombians and the Uribe Government has made important strides on security issues, we recognize that we still have a long way to go. For the record, Mr. Uribe enjoys 70% approval ratings, that's higher than Chavez enjoys in Venezuela or indeed higher than any President in the world.

The problem with these trade unionists is not the seek to organize labor, but rather that many of their leadership support the FARC. I do not condone paramilitary operations, most Colombians do not and neither does President Uribe but we also will not allow the FARC to do its bidding through surrogates.

The FARC is clearly desperate and on its last legs having lost half its strength over the past six years. But it remains a potent force with an ally in Chavez and apparently now in Madison Wisconsin.

[factanonverba]

First, let me tell you who Mr. Cajamarca is. He is a member of the Polo Democratico, a recently created party that unites the Colombia left. That's the kicker, the Polo is composed of various groups most of which are inherently democratic but some of which are not. Mr. Cajamarca comes from the latter. He is a Chavista and he espouses the Bolivarian project in a country where Hugo Chavez is the most despised in all of Latin America. He is also a former member of the UP, the heir to the Colombian Communist Party. Whether he supports the FARC, I do not know but I do find it interesting that it makes no mention of it and to write an article on the Colombian situation and not mention the FARC is impossible since that terrorist organization remains at crux of political life in Colombia. I will also note that there are two known cells of the FARC in the US, one in North Carolina and the other in Madison, Wisconsin. Coincidence, perhaps but unlikely.

[GZipa]

I have said the same thing myself about showing congress the real Colombia. As they drive around in bulletproof suburbans protected by military and police going only to prearranged places intended to show a one sided view they miss much. They fail to meet with workers who are too afraid to mention organizing to break free of the minimum wage of $249 a month while many staple items cost as much as in the USA. They miss the misery of the millions suffering from displacement or those who were promised under that Justice and Peace Law their land would be returned to them only to be murdered for asking. While they see those neighborhoods that have cleaned up, they miss the ones that have gotten worse as the crime just moved to another neighborhood. They get no concept of the massive corruption that benefits the rich ruling class helping them remain in power and maintain a strangle hold on the country and the workers. They miss the influence that the paramilitary still yields in terrorizing citizens and controlling the government.
With their eyes upon the campaign money from American Corporations bend on exploiting the cheap wages in Colombia they fail to protect workers in the USA.
I believe Representative Eliot Engel from New York is making his second taxpayer paid junket to Colombia now. He gets the award for stupidest comment and total lack of understand after his previous trip with Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez. He said, "Just the fact that we were able to come here and go to other places where a few years ago we couldn't go makes us understand that this country is certainly moving in the right direction."
Nothing has changed in Colombia since March 2007 when a more informed Senator Leahy stated: "This confirms the concerns that many have had for a long time, that the paramilitaries have infiltrated the economic and political establishment of Colombian society. It should give some pause as to who we are dealing with"
Just vote NO.

[freespeach]

Great article Gerardo.

I spent one month in Colombia several years ago.
While I have some very wild stories from Bogota, Cali and Barenquilla which my friends always want to hear.......the memories of the average people there are what made the biggest impression on me.

The kindness, dignity and courage from mothers with children, old people and others will always be my first and most powerful impression of Colombia.

Crime, guns, drugs and chaos are real and present (as you know) but they are only a small part of the story.

The American fixation with the violence makes people ignore what a wonderful country (with even more wonderful people) Colombia really is.

Of course our foreign policy is all about guns, soldiers, control, and ultimately the empowerment of corporations and the marginalization of people.

I'm sure you have read "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein. It has so much to say about US intervention in South America as relates to union busting killers operating with impunity. Everyone should read that book.

I sincerely hope you and your country find peace and prosperity in spite of the American influence.

Peace.